POLL: Are you happy with Gonchar?

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:I think re: Gonchar vs. ZM that ZM would have been the safer signing but the potential upside of the Gonchar signing is higher.

I also doubt that anyone especially important will get squeezed out even if Gonchar declines in, say, year 3 to the point where he's over-paid, because Kovalev, Kuba and Leclaire are all potentially coming off the books in the coming years.

I like the signing, but I also think Pittsburgh did extremely well to land both Michalek and Martin.

Where's the offense in Pittsburgh though? You can shut teams down so much before you need to pot some goals. Gonchar was a major part of them scoring so much with his plays on the backend.

The forwards in Pittsburgh probably had a lot to do with how successful Gonchar was too. Career years for Michalek and Martin maybe? We shall see.

Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.

Spezza, Alfredsson, Michalek, Kovalev, Fisher, Regin, Folgino, Butler? I like that as much as I like Pittsburgh's - actually I like it a lot more. The only issues (and it's obviously big) is that we don't have Crosby, Malkin, Staal, but our wingers KILL the Pens wingers.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.

Or maybe a little too much cream?

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.

Spezza, Alfredsson, Michalek, Kovalev, Fisher, Regin, Folgino, Butler? I like that as much as I like Pittsburgh's - actually I like it a lot more. The only issues (and it's obviously big) is that we don't have Crosby, Malkin, Staal, but our wingers KILL the Pens wingers.

HA HA! SpezzD... you are so funny...

SpezDispenser wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Oh, I don't know about that too much. Gonchar is the cream of the offensive D-men crop.

Not much cream among our forwards, though.

Spezza, Alfredsson, Michalek, Kovalev, Fisher, Regin, Folgino, Butler? I like that as much as I like Pittsburgh's - actually I like it a lot more. The only issues (and it's obviously big) is that we don't have Crosby, Malkin, Staal, but our wingers KILL the Pens wingers.

Like I said, we'll see.

shabbs wrote:HA HA! SpezzD... you are so funny...

Oh oh. You don't agree that we have better wingers?

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:HA HA! SpezzD... you are so funny...

Oh oh. You don't agree that we have better wingers?

Heh. I was laughing at the "take away Crosby, Malkin and Staal... and we kill them!" type of statement it was. Our wingers may be better... but the game is played with centers too.

shabbs wrote:
Heh. I was laughing at the "take away Crosby, Malkin and Staal... and we kill them!" type of statement it was. Our wingers may be better... but the game is played with centers too.

Oh yeah, for sure. Still getting more and more comparable by the minute. In fact, the Sens are getting more and more comparable to the Pens in every regard except the LEVEL of talent down the middle. Sens still have talent though, just not as good.

SpezDispenser wrote:

asq2 wrote:I think re: Gonchar vs. ZM that ZM would have been the safer signing but the potential upside of the Gonchar signing is higher.

I also doubt that anyone especially important will get squeezed out even if Gonchar declines in, say, year 3 to the point where he's over-paid, because Kovalev, Kuba and Leclaire are all potentially coming off the books in the coming years.

I like the signing, but I also think Pittsburgh did extremely well to land both Michalek and Martin.

Where's the offense in Pittsburgh though? You can shut teams down so much before you need to pot some goals. Gonchar was a major part of them scoring so much with his plays on the backend.

As Murray said, I would rather have other teams blocking shots.

This is the formula that we have had here for the past 2-3 seasons, all shutdown very little offense. With us getting Gonchar, we've gone back to the killer offense we had. Pittsburgh became more like we were on the back end. Mind you, with arguably more talented shut down guys.

Not sure how they're going to score.

__________ Crosby - Kunitz
Ponikarovski(?) - Malkin - Fedotenko (UFA)
Cooke - Staal - Dupuis
Talbot - Kennedy - Adams
Rupp

Martin - Michalek
Letang - Goligoski ? - I believe an RFA or UFA
Orpik - Engellland or Lovejoy

Sorry...that looks quite Dung to me. The d is okay now, but the rest is balls.

compared to our Ottawa Senators

Kovalev - Spezza - Alfie
Michalek - Fisher - Regin
Ruutu - Kelly - Neil
Z. Smith - Winchester - ________ Shannon or Butler or Wick

Phillips - Karlsson
Gonchar - Kuba
Campoli(RFA) or Carkner - Cowen, Gryba or Wiercioch < one of them will make it for sure.

Assuming Lee is traded of course. Even then, he'll probably be fine as a 3rd pairing guy as long as someone not named Campoli is his partner.

SensGirl11 wrote:Sorry...that looks quite Dung to me. The d is okay now, but the rest is balls.

Tee hee.

shabbs wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:Sorry...that looks quite Dung to me. The d is okay now, but the rest is balls.

Tee hee.

Pittsburgh's wingers were garbage last year, their biggest problem was letting in goals. Fleury should have a much better year and witht hat D they should be amongst the leaders in GA.

Tangradi will probably play with Malkin and they will probably sign a cheap winger like Kariya or O'Sullivan to play with Crosby.

Big Ev wrote:Pittsburgh's wingers were garbage last year, their biggest problem was letting in goals. Fleury should have a much better year and witht hat D they should be amongst the leaders in GA.

Tangradi will probably play with Malkin and they will probably sign a cheap winger like Kariya or O'Sullivan to play with Crosby.

I still don't understand why they didn't sign Ray Whitney, that guy is a winner and is still very good at his age. He would've been perfect on Crosby's wing. I would've been scared to play them with him there.

Crosby, Malkin and Staal are the Dung obviously, but they don't have anyone to put the puck in the net beyond that. Ponikarovski is good, but not for a top liner, IMO. Him and Malkin should do pretty good together. I don't really know who Staal's wingers are...Cooke and Dupuis or something? It's a tough 3rd line, but Staal has more skill and should have more skilled wingers with him. Their D lost points but not mobility, I don't think anyway. It'll be interesting to see how they fare.

SensGirl11 wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Pittsburgh's wingers were garbage last year, their biggest problem was letting in goals. Fleury should have a much better year and witht hat D they should be amongst the leaders in GA.

Tangradi will probably play with Malkin and they will probably sign a cheap winger like Kariya or O'Sullivan to play with Crosby.

I still don't understand why they didn't sign Ray Whitney, that guy is a winner and is still very good at his age. He would've been perfect on Crosby's wing. I would've been scared to play them with him there.

Crosby, Malkin and Staal are the Dung obviously, but they don't have anyone to put the puck in the net beyond that. Ponikarovski is good, but not for a top liner, IMO. Him and Malkin should do pretty good together. I don't really know who Staal's wingers are...Cooke and Dupuis or something? It's a tough 3rd line, but Staal has more skill and should have more skilled wingers with him. Their D lost points but not mobility, I don't think anyway. It'll be interesting to see how they fare.

Ponikarovsky is a UFA and most likely won't be back unless he takes a discount.

Staal plays with Kennedy and Cooke and they are arguably one of the best third lines in the league. Staal's never gonna have skill guys to play with in Pittsburgh, he will have to get traded to play with more skill and get more ES and PP minutes.

Eric Tangradi is a very promising prospect, it should be very interesting to see how he plays next year. Another guy who has shot up their prospect chart is Dustin Jeffrey, who should also have a good chance of making the team out of camp depending on what else they do this off-season.

“Playing in Canada is something special,” Gonchar said Thursday afternoon in a conference call from his home in Florida. “Every time I play in Canada, I play better. I enjoy playing over there, and that’s another reason why I wanted to play there.

“Another thing, Ottawa was one of the first teams to call when free agency started, and that showed they were really serious and right into it at the first.”



Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Sens+sign+defence+star+Gonchar/3224016/story.html#ixzz0sYOL8sy8

Those wingers don't scare me at all.