PLAYOFF GAME DAY: Game 5: Ottawa Senators (1) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (3) - 7:00pm ET - Thu. Apr. 22nd, 2010

SpezDispenser wrote:Oops, I'm not done ranting, I thought I was.

Why are we starting some dude who's done nothing for us all year? What message does that send to Elliott? Thanks a lot for going 19-6-1 with a 2.19 and a .921 down the stretch, now take a seat for some dude!

Why? Elliott's mental make-up is awesome thank goodness, but this could easily hurt his development if he starts to doubt himself. What kind of a Diddling idiot move is this?

Was this really Clouston behind this? He loves Elliott and knows the importance of going with the guy who's gotten you to where you are, is Murray behind this?

Furthermore, if we're gonna put some random goalie in, why not Brodeur? Afraid to lose?

Not pleased.

Clouston saw how we played down 4-0. Starting the game with Leclaire is tantamount to being down 4-0. WIN!

I'm not sure why LeClaire is in, but he must have a reason. If LeClaire is confident and relaxed, he will play well. The thing is he has the skill, but when he sucks he REALLY sucks!

So I say, 2 goals in, pull LeClaire immediately.

They have also put in Donovan on the fourth line, and looks like in practice Alfie and Foligno are swapped. Making practice lines:

Regin-Spezza-Foligno
Cullen-Fisher-Alfredsson
Ruutu-Kelly-Neil
Winchester-Smith-Donovan

Odds are Elliott will be put into the game at some point anyway

It doesn't matter what goalie is in nets because our defence has been hanging them out to dry all series. Miller, Rask you name it would be pulled the way we're playing.

I don't think Elliott lets stuff like this get to him, he'll come back better next year and the #1 job will probably be his to lose at the start. Either way, both goalies will have a shot at it.

Brodeur, from what I hear has sucked in Bingo all year and seemed to have gotten really lucky in his brief time with the Sens. I have yet to hear anyone call him a good goalie.

So much like Cheechoo, Leclaire gets a shot at redemption, I'm sure Elliott knows where he stands in the organization.

The team played much better when Leclaire got put in but that's probably the goalie change itself not who the goalie was.

In any case, I don't see why Leclaire would suddenly start playing well when he's stunk most of the year.

Leclaire has one in in 2010.

He can double his wins tonight.

Booo-yeah!

shabbs wrote:

PKC wrote:I have a weird feeling that Ottawa wins tonight. Seems quite improbable given the last four games, but something just tells me we win tonight. No idea why.

I've got the same feeling...

Me 2. Win tonight, lose at home

Murray may have a hand in this. I'm not surprised. Elliott has not played very well in this series, but not many players have.

To me, Leclaire has more natural ability than Elliott. What he also has is much flakier confidence. What we've seen out of Elliott is steady goaltending through the year, generally playing as well as the team in front of him. The thinking is that Leclaire may be more likely to stand on his head and outright steal a game when the team is down. If I were the coach, would I start Leclaire? No, but I'm not surprised. It looks like the decision to start Leclaire was made when they pulled Elliott in Game 4 and were allowing Leclaire the rest of that game to see some pucks.

Let's face it, the Sens won't win the series. But if Leclaire can play well enough for someone to take a chance on him in the off-season, that would be 4.8 million reasons to start Leclaire.

That's what i said the other day and I got a - for it!

4-1 Pittsburgh tonight to win the series 4-1.

SensGal wrote:I'm not sure why LeClaire is in, but he must have a reason. If LeClaire is confident and relaxed, he will play well. The thing is he has the skill, but when he sucks he REALLY sucks!

So I say, 2 goals in, pull LeClaire immediately.

They have also put in Donovan on the fourth line, and looks like in practice Alfie and Foligno are swapped. Making practice lines:

Regin-Spezza-Foligno
Cullen-Fisher-Alfredsson
Ruutu-Kelly-Neil
Winchester-Smith-Donovan

Alfie wasn't at practice... and Foligno was filing in on the top line. Alfie was just resting, like he did before Game 4. But it looks like he'll stay there.

Forwards:
Regin - Spezza - Foligno
Cullen - Fisher - Alfredsson
Ruutu - Kelly - Neil
Winchester - Z. Smith - Donovan

Defencemen:
Phillips - Volchenkov
Sutton - Karlsson
Campoli - Carkner

Goaltenders:
Leclaire
Elliott

dennycrane wrote:4-1 Pittsburgh tonight to win the series 4-1.

My new theory is:

Put LeClaire in, tell team LeClaire is playing, Defensive players say "OOOOH CRAP, I guess we should play well". Defence plays well, and we take down Sid and Malkin!

shabbs wrote:We've also got to stop giving them a free run to Elliott..

Check. That role will be played by Leclaire.

SensGal wrote:My new theory is:

Put LeClaire in, tell team LeClaire is playing, Defensive players say "OOOOH CRAP, I guess we should play well". Defence plays well, and we take down Sid and Malkin!

I like it.

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:
The Pens are taking away our shooting lanes, our passing lanes, everything. Why? Because of the thing you're always talking about. We need to get into the zone and drive right at Fleury, ending up right at the edge of the blue paint, then we need desperately to stay there and make his life hell. That'll take at least 1 D-man with the player driving and cause some confusion and break down their comfy little triangle of defense.

If we don't bother doing that tonight, then Clouston has a summer to go over the tapes and learn it hopefully.

See stuff like this has me thinking that Bylsma studied our game tapes so well and has the Pens set up to contain us in their zone and Clouston is either unable or unwilling to go to "Plan B" and throw a monkeywrench in their game plan.

They really tightened up after Game 1.

Do Leclaire and Donovan count?

shabbs wrote:This boggles the mind...

Maybe he called Jacque Martin for advice on picking a goalie?

I think Leclaire is being put in to throw a fresh look at the Penguins. Leclaire is a skilled goaltender. I don't know why people Dung all over the guy all the time. Much like every goaltender that plays in this city. We had a playoff performer for years in Lalime and yet all people can remember is the two game 7s the TEAM lost, not the ridiculous 1.77 gaa, .926 sv% in 41 games.

I have faith in Leclaire. He's atheltic and fast enough to fluster the Penguins. He bobbled that puck on the Jordan Staal goal, but I think that was a little more nerves than anything else. You guys might be pleasantly surprised with Leclaire tonight.
If the rest of the team can play with some fire and get a stop when they need it, we could win tonight for sure.

As an aside, how does the NHL not keep track of time of possession stats? What kind of an amateur third-world league is this?

For the love of all things holy... let's push this to 6 games... and last longer than the Habs.

PLEASE!!!

WOW, Im shocked here... guess Clouston is desperate enough to try anything at this point. I wouldnt be shocked if this game was done after the 1st 10 mins. We'll see if Leclaire is actually a big game goaltender.