Latest Sens/Hawks Rumour: solid or smokescreen?

Yeah, a nice problem to have this year. And I fully expect them to challenge for the Cup this year.

After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

You mean the game that Dany Heatley was a -4 in?

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

shabbs wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

So the rumour is solid then? Or is it a smokescreen... Hmmm.

It's a solid smokescreen.



That's DTR-speak for you.

shabbs wrote:

MurderOnIce wrote:After thrashing San Jose last night, that is probably a safe bet. Seems that their only potential weakness is in goal.

Well, as we've seen, a goalie only has to play good enough to help their team keep going (ie: Emery) and they can go deep. They have all the pieces... this may be their best chance... in a while.

I agree to an extent. A badly timed goal can kill you too... but in our case Emery was just good enough and we had a lot of things go our way.

I'd think the Hawks would want to sign them sooner rather later. If they go deep, or win the Cup the 3 players value will go up even more.

TheAvatar wrote:Karlsson is not coming back to Ottawa this year. No way. No how.

Does anybody have some black crow I could eat?

TheAvatar wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:Karlsson is not coming back to Ottawa this year. No way. No how.

Does anybody have some black crow I could eat?

Not realy dude, I love him and I didnt think he should have been sent down period, but I thought that too. I think most people did.

Yep, Karlsson coming back was certainly less logical than him staying there.

Thats only true if you used faulty logic to justify his demotion in the first place. As per usual, most fans tried to read too much into it and figured it was all about the contract. It was more about growing a player than it was cheating the system. As much as Karlsson is talented, he also has some substantial holes in his game. More importantly, his play was deteriorating quickly during his final 3 games. He wasn't moving the puck much better than anyone else and his confidence was visibly diminished. Combine that with his defensive shortcomings and two-way contract, and the writing was on the wall---although I have to admit to being taken aback by it, simply because I agreed with asq that there wasn't much for him to learn in the AHL. I think what we overlooked was how much good playing there could do for his waining confidence...

Like I said when it first happened (and before it happened) it's best to try to stagger the contracts of Karlsson, Cowen, and Wiercioch. Imagine if both the other two were ready for next year (unlikely but a possibility still) then we would face having to re-sign all three (along with possibly Regin, Foligno, Smith, Lee, and several others) in the same off-season. That would be a massive cap-management blunder.

Gohan wrote:Thats only true if you used faulty logic to justify his demotion in the first place. As per usual, most fans tried to read too much into it and figured it was all about the contract. It was more about growing a player than it was cheating the system. As much as Karlsson is talented, he also has some substantial holes in his game. More importantly, his play was deteriorating quickly during his final 3 games. He wasn't moving the puck much better than anyone else and his confidence was visibly diminished. Combine that with his defensive shortcomings and two-way contract, and the writing was on the wall---although I have to admit to being taken aback by it, simply because I agreed with asq that there wasn't much for him to learn in the AHL. I think what we overlooked was how much good playing there could do for his waining confidence...

Like I said when it first happened (and before it happened) it's best to try to stagger the contracts of Karlsson, Cowen, and Wiercioch. Imagine if both the other two were ready for next year (unlikely but a possibility still) then we would face having to re-sign all three (along with possibly Regin, Foligno, Smith, Lee, and several others) in the same off-season. That would be a massive cap-management blunder.

I think a guy like Karlsson just needs some patience. We need to go the route of a team that isn't quite there yet and play these young guys and give them a chance to make mistakes and learn from them. No body ever learned anything by watching video or talking about it, you only learn by getting out there and doing whatever it is you need to do.

I'm pretty happy that Karlsson is back up and could end up with a decent defensive partner. However, I am quite unhappy with Lee's demotion. I feel it was unjustified and ridiculous, to be honest. He wasn't setting the world on fire up here, but as a point of comparison, he wasn't worse than Campoli.
Although I suppose the contract situation certainly played a role in this. Lee's NHL contract is twice the value of Campoli's, so I guess you can't justify sitting Campoli and paying him his salary while you also pay Lee's big salary too.

The whole thing is weird. Point is though, we need our 4,5 guys to be MUCH better, especially offensively.

well Picard and Kuba have been good offensively, Carkner and Phillips have been outstanding given the expectations of their offensive game, and Lee and Campoli have been underwhelming at best.

What we really need is one more player who can pass and put up points. Campoli has improved substantially since the early season, but is still nowhere near what we need. If Karlsson outplays him tonight and in any remaining games before Volchenkov returns, then we may have seen the last of Campoli. That's my expectation, although injuries will likely play a role that can't be forecast.

I agree that Karlsson needs time to make his mistakes and learn from, but it has to be balanced with some kind of output that justifies his presence in the lineup---If he were to continue down the path he was on in his final games here before the demotion, that wouldn't have been the case.

He now has something to prove and has hopefully gotten his confidence back. If he can be a little more dynamic with the puck, then I'm sure we can all live with his mistakes...

Does anyone know how well he played in Bingo?

His puck-movement was very good. He was also almost at a PPG, but he could have 17-18 points if the forwards were capable of finishing his plays in the earlier games. He'll have to make adjustments to the NHL level of speed, though.

The bigger problem is that his defence is still adventurous. If Clouston pairs him up with Campoli again, that duo is going to have problems.

Phillips seems to me the type that could give Campoli a chance to prosper. Although the Phillips-Kuba duo has been nice in the past two games, it hasn't been good enough Imo to justify pairing Campoli and Karlsson

I never did understand why Clouston would do that. Putting him in with Phillips, Kuba or Carkner would make more sense to me but hey; i'm sitting in my basement watching the games and not standing behind the player's bench ...