GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ Washington Capitals - 7:00pm ET - Thu. Jan. 7th, 2010

cloverleaf wrote:And there is nothing coming either. Lehner has promise, but so did a lot of prospects. That is why they are prospects. Continue to think our goalies are fine and you will continue to lay awake at night.

Even Henrik Lundqvist was a prospect once...

Since MTL wont trade with us directly, Murray should put on his magic hat and swing a three way to get us a Halak.

Leclaire missed almost a full year, then while he was getting adjusted to a new team, new (and not very good) defense and a new set of coaches (to say nothing of a reconstructed ankle) he had his jaw broken. Maybe he's still getting back to his form.

Kuba missed a ton of games at the start, maybe he's not quite up to speed yet. Let's give him a chance.

Michalek is missing his centerman, one of the best passers in the game.

Fisher got engaged. You know what Mick (from "Rocky") said -- "Women weaken legs!"

Through all this we're still in a playoff spot.

Twitter it up!

http://twitter.com/GMHockey/status/7461476441

GO SENS GO!!!

Sens4thecup wrote:Since MTL wont trade with us directly, Murray should put on his magic hat and swing a three way to get us a Halak.

Aren't you sick of guys who are good, but not good enough to lead us to the promised land?

wprager wrote:Leclaire missed almost a full year, then while he was getting adjusted to a new team, new (and not very good) defense and a new set of coaches (to say nothing of a reconstructed ankle) he had his jaw broken. Maybe he's still getting back to his form.

Kuba missed a ton of games at the start, maybe he's not quite up to speed yet. Let's give him a chance.

Michalek is missing his centerman, one of the best passers in the game.

Fisher got engaged. You know what Mick (from "Rocky") said -- "Women weaken legs!"

Through all this we're still in a playoff spot.

I just wrote a blog about this for Crash the Crease. It's amazing that we're still in a spot.

Yep. So was Pogge, Glass, raycroft, thibeault, kidd, hirsch, gamble, fichauld and salo. That is off the top of my head. I even think calgary traded up to draft kidd ahead of brodeur.
Ottawas goaltending is their achilles heal and you know it SpezD.

cloverleaf wrote:Yep. So was Pogge, Glass, raycroft, thibeault, kidd, hirsch, gamble, fichauld and salo. That is off the top of my head. I even think calgary traded up to draft kidd ahead of brodeur.
Ottawas goaltending is their achilles heal and you know it SpezD.

It is. I hope Lehner's the answer - he certainly appears to be, so all I can do is hope. Or if Murray wants to trade Leclaire and our 1st for a bonafide, top 10 in the league goalie, I would support that big time.

No gm wants leclaire. Just like no gm wanted cheechoo. The offer would have to be way better than that for an actual goalie spezD.

SpezDispenser wrote:

cloverleaf wrote:Looks like tsn published my thoughts. Let me know when everybody is sick of watching the goaltending gongshow in ottawa. This is the worst situation the sens have had in years.

God, hardly.

No, he's right. Having Leclaire and Elliott as a tandem is way worse than last season's dynamite duo of baldness, and than the Emery/Gerber fiasco.

cloverleaf wrote:No gm wants leclaire. Just like no gm wanted cheechoo. The offer would have to be way better than that for an actual goalie spezD.

You tell'im.

I think it's moot anyway, I don't think there are any goalies of consequence available - nor do I think they will be. I wouldn't touch Turco or Nabokov with a 10 foot pole, so who does that leave who may be available - and I want someone elite.

No one. Farm your own goalie is the new mantra in the NHL.

oh god all I can say is there are too many bandwagon jumpers here. Leclaire will be alright. He needs to work through some issues but hey look how long he has been out for. Yes there are times he let something bad in but he has also kept this team in games even in a loosing cause.

He will be alright.

asq2 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

cloverleaf wrote:Looks like tsn published my thoughts. Let me know when everybody is sick of watching the goaltending gongshow in ottawa. This is the worst situation the sens have had in years.

God, hardly.

No, he's right. Having Leclaire and Elliott as a tandem is way worse than last season's dynamite duo of baldness, and than the Emery/Gerber fiasco.

Your sarcasm is misplaced. If you are going to do that you should probably do some research first.
06-07 goalie stats - 2.57 gaa and a .914 sv%
07-08 goalie stats - 2.84 gaa and a .904 sv%
08-09 goalie state - 2.64 gaa and a .906 sv%
Wait for it.........
09-10 goalie stats - 2.81 gaa and a .897 sv%

So yeah you're right. Leclaire and elliott as a tandem is way worse. Too bad you were being sarcastic.

Definitely. It's hard to find two statistics that tell the story more fully.

I mean, it's pretty irrelevant that last season's system was 97% about defence. Or that our blue-line has been on a continuous decline since '05-'06 (although it's balanced out this past season and a half, I guess).

Factor in the tumultuous, locker-room disrupting relationship between the two and the fact that both are past their prime and it's an absolute nightmare scenario. Not to mention that Lehner kid definitely looks like a bust.

Phoenix30 wrote:oh god all I can say is there are too many bandwagon jumpers here. Leclaire will be alright. He needs to work through some issues but hey look how long he has been out for. Yes there are times he let something bad in but he has also kept this team in games even in a loosing cause.

He will be alright.

When does the bandwagon take off though? I mean...I keep waiting to see this heralded guy that everyone's always talked so highly of - and all I'm saying right now is that I haven't really seen that guy. At lease not for any length of time at all. When does he start being consistent so we can put 5 or 6 game winning streaks together and get really hot?

i for one, still believe in leclaire. sure there's been a few bad games and a few bad goals but seriously we've had some serious issues with our D-squad.

i've seen pascal make the kind of saves that i haven't seen since... it's that long i can't remember.
seriously, he's the kind of goaltender that needs to get on a role and frankly, he hasn't had the chance.

Be fair, please. We've been decimated by injuries.

Last year Kuba was our best overall defenseman. Let's put aside, for the moment, the fact that this, in itself, is rather sad. So our best defenseman got hurt in our first game (I think?). Yet, we did better to start than Montreal.

Then we lost our best defensive defenseman and shot blocking machine for an extended time, as well.

We lost the stick that stirred our fourth line. We lost Neil. We lost Foligno. We lost Shannon earlier. And now we are without our first line center and our Captain and best overall player. To say nothing of the fact that Michalek is trying to prove that -274 Celsius does exist, Kovalev has had 3 or 4 good games in the first half of the season, and Cheechoo is worse than advertised.

Oh, and let's not forget that we have a lifetime AHLer and a 19 year old, pint-sized rookie playing on D, and they are not the worst of the bunch.

How on Earth are we not battling Carolina and Edmonton for last?

I'm beginning to think the answer is Clouston and he should (he won't, but he should) be a serious candidate for the Jack Adams. If this team could get rid of whoever is running their powerplay, as well as their goalie coach, I think they'd be even better. And if Spezza comes back rested and we can get back into a playoff position (I don't think we are going to hang on to that for another 4-5 weeks, but I'd love to be proven wrong), we could make some serious hay as an underdog in the playoffs.