Jonathan Cheechoo Depreciation Thread

Let's leave it at this for now:

I'm finally happy with Cheechoo's game, he appears to be skating a *little* better and getting himself firmly planted in front of the net.

Point is, is that he is earning his ice time, he is starting to look like a guy who can contribute, and is a guy who has been improving consistantly all year.

Im not saying he is a top 6 forward, but on The Sens, he is no further down the depth chart then 7 of the bottom 6 guys on the team.

It's a bit puzzling why Cheechoo seems to playing better, maybe he needs more games to get into shape after all those injuries.

He seems to be more confident and assertive out there as well.

Hoags wrote:It's a bit puzzling why Cheechoo seems to playing better, maybe he needs more games to get into shape after all those injuries.

He seems to be more confident and assertive out there as well.

New city, new coach, new team, coming off of injuries, lost some (a lot) of confidence. I dont think it's a mystery at all. Now Im not making excuses for him but his hard work and determination to improve and help the team gives him a ton of leaway. IF The Sens make the playoffs (which I dont think they do, but I do hope) you can almost bet we will be glad to have that guy.

People might say he was on a team that chokes more than any team in the league, well, that might be true, but he was the guy showing up every night and actually has pretty good numbers in the playoffs.

Hoags wrote:It's a bit puzzling why Cheechoo seems to playing better, maybe he needs more games to get into shape after all those injuries.

He seems to be more confident and assertive out there as well.

That injury and subsequent surgery was major league, you might be right, yeah.

N4L wrote:

Hoags wrote:It's a bit puzzling why Cheechoo seems to playing better, maybe he needs more games to get into shape after all those injuries.

He seems to be more confident and assertive out there as well.

New city, new coach, new team, coming off of injuries, lost some (a lot) of confidence. I dont think it's a mystery at all. Now Im not making excuses for him but his hard work and determination to improve and help the team gives him a ton of leaway. IF The Sens make the playoffs (which I dont think they do, but I do hope) you can almost bet we will be glad to have that guy.

People might say he was on a team that chokes more than any team in the league, well, that might be true, but he was the guy showing up every night and actually has pretty good numbers in the playoffs.

Yes but whatever happened to his slow skating and that he's supposedly a washed-up player and that Thornton made him look good one year ?

Michalek adjusted pretty quickly to live in Ottawa.

I'm still trying to decide whether we've seen all there is to see from Cheechoo or whether he's still getting his game back.

Part of me wonders that if the Sens get rid of him some other team will take a risk on him and he'll be the next Peverley or Afinogenov and we'll be kicking ourselves that we didn't have just a little bit more patience with him

Like I said, you will get a better feel about him after a year or two. Im not gonna say he's going to return to 30 gola form, I doubt he will, but after this year if he has 15ish goals, 30 some points, that's ok. It's not 3 million dollars worth of production, but I dare say we are getting less bang for the buck around that team.

Come the end of his contract, if he is playing effective hockey, why not resign a character guy for a year or two at a salary of something like 1mil, somewhere around there.

Put it this way, who would you rather have? Comrie or Cheechoo? Those two are basically in the exact same positions, making very similar salaries when they got here. Not even close to me. People were talking about resigning Comrie to a deal worth 1.5 mil then Wing Dang Doodle about a guy like Cheechoo.

N4L wrote:Like I said, you will get a better feel about him after a year or two. Im not gonna say he's going to return to 30 gola form, I doubt he will, but after this year if he has 15ish goals, 30 some points, that's ok. It's not 3 million dollars worth of production, but I dare say we are getting less bang for the buck around that team.

Come the end of his contract, if he is playing effective hockey, why not resign a character guy for a year or two at a salary of something like 1mil, somewhere around there.

Put it this way, who would you rather have? Comrie or Cheechoo? Those two are basically in the exact same positions, making very similar salaries when they got here. Not even close to me. People were talking about resigning Comrie to a deal worth 1.5 mil then Wing Dang Doodle about a guy like Cheechoo.

Good points, hopefully he'll have that much time to prove himself here.

Unlike some of our forwards, his play is improving which is definitely a plus.

Exactly, as long as there is hard work and progress, what else can you ask of the guy that is actually reasonable.

N4L wrote:Exactly, as long as there is hard work and progress, what else can you ask of the guy that is actually reasonable.

I think the next step is putting up some points more consistently.

A player who works hard should get rewarded on the score sheet sooner or later, and he's certainly long overdue.

N4L wrote:Like I said, you will get a better feel about him after a year or two. Im not gonna say he's going to return to 30 gola form, I doubt he will, but after this year if he has 15ish goals, 30 some points, that's ok. It's not 3 million dollars worth of production, but I dare say we are getting less bang for the buck around that team.

Come the end of his contract, if he is playing effective hockey, why not resign a character guy for a year or two at a salary of something like 1mil, somewhere around there.

Put it this way, who would you rather have? Comrie or Cheechoo? Those two are basically in the exact same positions, making very similar salaries when they got here. Not even close to me. People were talking about resigning Comrie to a deal worth 1.5 mil then Wing Dang Doodle about a guy like Cheechoo.

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but yes, as of right now, I would love to re-sign him for 1 million a year. I wouldn't be saying anything if he was making 1.5 right now, but sadly, he's not.

http://www.ottawasun.com/sports/hockey/2009/12/07/12072881-sun.html

But, a lot has changed since the Senators last skated at home on Nov.
26 against Columbus. One of the most significant differences may be up
front where struggling centre Jason Spezza is now skating on a line
with Alexei Kovalev on the right and Nick Foligno.

Foligno goes from benched to top line. Cheech is lucky he's on the 3rd line and he'll go down to 4th once Neil returns.

Amazing he works so hard in this situation, it's no different than him getting bumped out of the lineup in SJ by Setoguchi.

Setoguchi was a 21 year old who scored 31 goals and had 65 points last season. I think he deserved to play more than Cheechoo did.

Hoags wrote:Foligno goes from benched to top line. Cheech is lucky he's on the 3rd line and he'll go down to 4th once Neil returns.

Amazing he works so hard in this situation, it's no different than him getting bumped out of the lineup in SJ by Setoguchi.

Yeah, that's a little surprising to be honest....huh, don't see why Foligno needs to be up there. It might be that Clouston likes the Winchester, Regin/Shannon (can't remember), Cheechoo line. It was a nice line actually, that might be it.

asq2 wrote:Setoguchi was a 21 year old who scored 31 goals and had 65 points last season. I think he deserved to play more than Cheechoo did.

Oh I know he did, just saying that the "fresh start" Cheech got coming here isn't much different than what he had in SJ.

Hoags wrote:

N4L wrote:Exactly, as long as there is hard work and progress, what else can you ask of the guy that is actually reasonable.

I think the next step is putting up some points more consistently.

A player who works hard should get rewarded on the score sheet sooner or later, and he's certainly long overdue.

Just wait until this guy starts getting pucks to go his way rather than hitting a crossbar/post every game or getting robbed by goaltenders. You just can't teach the kind of nose for the net and scoring touch that this guy has.

PKC wrote:
Just wait until this guy starts getting pucks to go his way rather than hitting a crossbar/post every game or getting robbed by goaltenders. You just can't teach the kind of nose for the net and scoring touch that this guy has.

Oh yeah that's why I'm really interested to see more of Cheechoo, just to see if that puck will start going in.

However he doesn't have much of a chance here. He had almost 14min of ice time against the Kings where he scored.

The next game he was back down to 10min, he has score a hattrick every game to get serious top 6 time.

Then again the line of Ruuto, Kelly and Cheech has been pretty good, so maybe it's best not to break it up.

Hoags wrote:

PKC wrote:
Just wait until this guy starts getting pucks to go his way rather than hitting a crossbar/post every game or getting robbed by goaltenders. You just can't teach the kind of nose for the net and scoring touch that this guy has.

Oh yeah that's why I'm really interested to see more of Cheechoo, just to see if that puck will start going in.

However he doesn't have much of a chance here. He had almost 14min of ice time against the Kings where he scored.

The next game he was back down to 10min, he has score a hattrick every game to get serious top 6 time.

Then again the line of Ruuto, Kelly and Cheech has been pretty good, so maybe it's best not to break it up.

Im of that opinion. 3 of the 4 lines are playing fairly well.