GAME DAY: Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - Sat. Jan. 9th, 2010

He might start the game on one line and finish on another.

wprager wrote:Donovan really isn't a "banger". He skates really fast (or used to) and backchecks/forechecks. He may hit a little more than Chris Kelly, but he's not a Chris Neil by any stretch.

Either Donovan or Winchester is fine with me, but why is St. Pierre -- a tiny forward with skill -- on the 4th line? Put players in a position where they can succeed. Why not just bring up the top line from Bingo and install them as our third line? Sit Donovan, Winchester and Cheechoo.

Those line combos were just me guessing. We'll see what they look like at practice today. If he's gonna play center, do you want to bump Kelly down to the 4th? Or put him at wing on the 3rd with Kelly and Cheechoo and re-unite the Ruutu/Winch/Neil line?

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:Donovan really isn't a "banger". He skates really fast (or used to) and backchecks/forechecks. He may hit a little more than Chris Kelly, but he's not a Chris Neil by any stretch.

Either Donovan or Winchester is fine with me, but why is St. Pierre -- a tiny forward with skill -- on the 4th line? Put players in a position where they can succeed. Why not just bring up the top line from Bingo and install them as our third line? Sit Donovan, Winchester and Cheechoo.

Those line combos were just me guessing. We'll see what they look like at practice today.

Ah, didn't know that.

Still, what about my idea? I always wanted a third line where we could bring up potential scoring prospects and put them in scoring situations. Now that we have an entire top line out, why not bring up the top line from Bingo. They'd already have chemistry, they wouldn't be put in a position where there is too much expected from them (3rd line), and they might actually help the team.

It would only be for a couple of games (I don't think our cap could take any more than that unless we apply for some relief).

Speaking of which, can a team apply for cap relief from the accumulation of man-games lost? We have:

Leclaire - 4 weeks
Alfredsson - 5 weeks
Spezza - 7 weeks
Volchenkov - 4 weeks
Donovan - 5 weeks
Neil - 3 weeks
Kuba - 3 weeks
(OK, I'm really guesstimating on a couple of those)

Plus all the smaller injuries.

We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

shabbs wrote:We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

Placing someone on the LTIR is simple. Just fill out the form and send it in to the head office. The date can (and almost always is) retroactive.

As for being at risk of going over the cap, I think we're already there if we decided to exercise the bonus cushion this year.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

Placing someone on the LTIR is simple. Just fill out the form and send it in to the head office. The date can (and almost always is) retroactive.

As for being at risk of going over the cap, I think we're already there if we decided to exercise the bonus cushion this year.

Yet we haven't put anyone on LTIR this season yet... for some odd reason...

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

Placing someone on the LTIR is simple. Just fill out the form and send it in to the head office. The date can (and almost always is) retroactive.

As for being at risk of going over the cap, I think we're already there if we decided to exercise the bonus cushion this year.

Oh, it's a lot more complicated than that, for sure. I still don't fully understand the different criteria one has to satisfy for LTIR, or how it's determined whether one goes on IR or LTIR.

Trust me, if GMs could save their owners money by using LTIR, we'd see it used all the time.

rooneypoo wrote:

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

Placing someone on the LTIR is simple. Just fill out the form and send it in to the head office. The date can (and almost always is) retroactive.

As for being at risk of going over the cap, I think we're already there if we decided to exercise the bonus cushion this year.

Oh, it's a lot more complicated than that, for sure. I still don't fully understand the different criteria one has to satisfy for LTIR, or how it's determined whether one goes on IR or LTIR.

Trust me, if GMs could save their owners money by using LTIR, we'd see it used all the time.

Money or cap hit?

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:We only qualify for cap relief when players are on LTIR and if we're at risk of going over the cap with the players that are called up.

Placing someone on the LTIR is simple. Just fill out the form and send it in to the head office. The date can (and almost always is) retroactive.

As for being at risk of going over the cap, I think we're already there if we decided to exercise the bonus cushion this year.

Yet we haven't put anyone on LTIR this season yet... for some odd reason...

I can't even remember the last time we did.

Did we even do it with Smith?

wprager wrote:Did we even do it with Smith?

For as long as I've been paying attention to these minute details (about 4 years?), I don't think we've never put anyone on IR. Could be wrong, tho'.

No, not you. Never!

Clouston: Elliott
starts in goal. St. Pierre and Smith come in the lineup replacing
Donovan and Michalek. Campoli replaces Picard.

Looks like I was right.

Sens lines at practice: Shannon-Fisher-Kovalev, Foligno-Regin-Neil, Ruutu-Kelly-Cheechoo, Smith/Donovan-St.Pierre-Winchester.

I'm off for a night on the town boys! GO SENS GO!!!

Ugh. Poor St. Pierre. Forget about scoring.

St.Pierre on line 4? Elliott? But...why?

Ottawa's goaltending has not been great for.. ever? And it doesn't help that the team has not been very great in front of them. Defence has been porous, offence has been coming uo empty, so the goaltending has to be MVP calibre to even stand a chance at times.

If Lehner is going to be our future let's hope the team in front of him is a little more supportive.