Final answer: Do the Sens make another move?

Look at Leclaire
now look at Ryan Miller,
now back at Leclaire,
now back to Miller
sadly he isnt Miller,
but if he stopped getting hurt and using little pads
he could play and look like he's Miller.

i'm a fan of leclaire and i could see how someone could compare him to miller when he's hot(like a few of those games in the playoffs). but in all honesty, i don't think we could ever hope leclaire gets that good.

the best we can hope for is Wamsley comes in here and gets leclaire back into the shape and mind set that got him that contract in that season he got the 9 shutouts.
by the way he was a very respectable .920 in the playoffs last year.

obviously i know he's no sure thing but i think he's the closest we've gotten in recent years to a guy that can be "the guy". (including elliott)

Miller didn't become the star he is until his mid-20s.

Just so you know, I wasn't comparing Miller to Leclaire, it was a joke based on a commercial

Big Ev wrote:Just so you know, I wasn't comparing Miller to Leclaire, it was a joke based on a commercial

the old spice commercial !

Big Ev wrote:Look at Leclaire
now look at Ryan Miller,
now back at Leclaire,
now back to Miller
sadly he isnt Miller,
but if he stopped getting hurt and using little pads
he could play and look like he's Miller.

Flo The Action wrote:by the way he was a very respectable .920 in the playoffs last year.

In 2 games though. Or three, I can't remember, either way we can't look at that number objectively at all. He was cussing amazing though, but it was a small(ish) sample size.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:by the way he was a very respectable .920 in the playoffs last year.

In 2 games though. Or three, I can't remember, either way we can't look at that number objectively at all. He was cussing amazing though, but it was a small(ish) sample size.

3. and yes they were pretty amazing.

i know we haven't had much to judge him on and yes i do remember him being less then stellar during the regular season with those game losing goals he let in, but the talent that guy has. with a little more focus and poise he could be our guy for years to come.
i think when it came down to it is he knew he was good, he felt he had to prove he could be our guy, he went a little too flashy and it back-fired on us. to many times he fell out of position trying to make "the big save" and with bad rebounds and deflections it went in. with our new golatending hiring i hope that he'll get help on his focus and concentrate on making the safe moves instead of flash.

all and all, i have high hopes for his season.

Big Ev wrote:Look at Leclaire
now look at Ryan Miller,
now back at Leclaire,
now back to Miller
sadly he isnt Miller,
but if he stopped getting hurt and using little pads
he could play and look like he's Miller.

ok that was just funny, good job.

Dash wrote:Who's comparing? I was just pointing out that statement can be attributed to any single person.

What I think is harsh is the constant abuse that Leclaire takes from people who are supposed to be fans of the team. Have some faith and a little confidence in the guy who has battled through injuries and bad luck, and almost single-handedly saved our team. Give credit where it is due. The 2010-11 season hasn't even gotten underway and he's already taking abuse from "fans".

just curious, single-handedly saved our team from what???

SpezDispenser wrote:What? I wrote a huge, long reason why I feel the way I do about Leclaire. I'm not gonna blindly show support for him, I need to see it happen - and no I don't hold much hope for it - but I do hope obviously. What has he done besides have a good year in Columbus and a couple of good games in the playoffs for us?

I have been down this road with "fan's" comments on Leclaire so many frickin' times, it's not even funny anymore. He stinks; when he's playing well, we can't tell if it's the real deal because there weren't enough games to say and he's made of glass ... am I forgetting anything?

SpezDispenser wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:
i see no love for leclaire...

seriously we might be whistling a different tune at the end of next season.
elliott has shown he can be good, but he hasn't proven he can take the team into the playoffs.
leclaire has still lots to prove but he's shown lots too. if only he can remain injury free this season

Until Pascal Leclaire steps up and plays consistently lights out, I will continue to have reservations about him. I know he got injured a lot - and that it mostly wasn't his fault etc. etc. etc., but he still wasn't good enough before the injuries. He had some nice runs where I thought maybe he was gonna be 'the guy', but then he let in back-breaking goals that sunk games for the Sens almost single-handedly.

I'm not even sure Leclaire has the talent to bring his level up to one that's upper echelon. I want to be wrong so badly, but I find his positioning very questionable in terms of rebounds and in terms of him flopping around and getting himself out of position.

What Wamsley was saying is pretty accurate. Leclaire needs to focus on making the routine saves and try to pick his spots to go gumby in there and get himself out of position.

Anything less than a 2.40 and a .915 and I'm disappointed in Leclaire for the amount of money he got and what he cost (Vermette had value for sure). This is it - and I'm scared crapless for him and for the team.

I want badly to be surprised though, maybe I will be.

I swear I was writing the same kind of tirade about Spezza

TheAvatar wrote:
I have been down this road with "fan's" comments on Leclaire so many frickin' times, it's not even funny anymore. He stinks; when he's playing well, we can't tell if it's the real deal because there weren't enough games to say and he's made of glass ... am I forgetting anything?

Not really, no. You've been following along.

Like as if I'm sitting here hoping to goodness that he'll fail. Come on Leclaire, just suck so we can go after Larsson or Nugent. Yay!

It's obviously not like that at all. I hope he'll do it, I like Elliott more, if he fails at least he's off the books, if he's awesome maybe we pay him the same to stay, which one is it gonna be? Don't tell me you know, because that simply isn't true.

111519 wrote:

Dash wrote:Who's comparing? I was just pointing out that statement can be attributed to any single person.

What I think is harsh is the constant abuse that Leclaire takes from people who are supposed to be fans of the team. Have some faith and a little confidence in the guy who has battled through injuries and bad luck, and almost single-handedly saved our team. Give credit where it is due. The 2010-11 season hasn't even gotten underway and he's already taking abuse from "fans".

just curious, single-handedly saved our team from what???

An even worse fate? lol, he was our best player, I guess there wasn't much to save at that point, but he gave us the goaltending required to win.

SpezDispenser wrote:I'll go on record as saying that I *think* with the right circumstances, Leclaire can be a guy who can have a nice season - but it's hardly a slam dunk for us. That's it, that's all.

This is what I think of the Leclaire situation;

He was brought in to take the number 1 job from Elliott because Elliott wasn't quite ready to be the number 1 guy yet. He comes in, plays some games for us and gets hurt for a long time, Elliott takes over and does a great job. Then Leclaire comes back, doesn't get his job back, doesn't play too much and then gets hurt again. Brodeur comes up and steals the show while Elliott struggles and we then go on a mad winning streak. Elliott gets his chance during that winning streak to get his mojo back and does. Leclaire comes back and is delegated to backup duties for good. Never really gets a chance to show what he's made of. We got into the playoffs, Elliott is okay but nowhere near what we need to win. Leclaire comes in to take over cleanup duties and does a freaking phenomenal job. He was unbelievable. 2 games we saw of him in the playoffs, 2 games where he played unbelievably well, the 2nd game we didn't win obviously but he showed us what he can do in pressure situations. It wasn't enough for us to win the series, but maybe if he was in from the beginnign it woudl have been a different story, and I'm not saying this to take anything away from Elliott at all, I just think that Leclaire showed some of what he can do when it matters most.

I have no idea what kind of goalie Leclaire is at all, he's stalled in his development because of the injuries he has sustained. The problem for him this year is that it's his last year on a contract. There are a million goalies out there that are as good as him (from what we've seen of him) and young goalies coming up through the ranks. If Leclaire doesn't play balls to the wall awesome this year, he could very well find himself out of the NHL before he hits 30. He HAS to be good, really good, there's no choice in the matter for him at all. This is it for him, this is his year, if he blows it, I don't know if he'll ever find a job anywhere, if he does it'll be for league minimum as a backup. That's quite the fall from grace for him if that happens. Having said that, I truly believe he's going to have a great season, but he HAS to stay healthy, he has no choice, if he lets up for 1 minute Elliott will take over and that'll be that for Leclaire. If Leclaire plays to the best of his abilities, he could be the difference between us getting deep in the playoffs or flaming out. I think we're going to have the most fun season we've had since our run to the Final.

Wow...that was long. I hope I made sense there.

SensGirl11 wrote:
This is what I think of the Leclaire situation;

He was brought in to take the number 1 job from Elliott because Elliott wasn't quite ready to be the number 1 guy yet. He comes in, plays some games for us and gets hurt for a long time, Elliott takes over and does a great job. Then Leclaire comes back, doesn't get his job back, doesn't play too much and then gets hurt again. Brodeur comes up and steals the show while Elliott struggles and we then go on a mad winning streak. Elliott gets his chance during that winning streak to get his mojo back and does. Leclaire comes back and is delegated to backup duties for good. Never really gets a chance to show what he's made of. We got into the playoffs, Elliott is okay but nowhere near what we need to win. Leclaire comes in to take over cleanup duties and does a freaking phenomenal job. He was unbelievable. 2 games we saw of him in the playoffs, 2 games where he played unbelievably well, the 2nd game we didn't win obviously but he showed us what he can do in pressure situations. It wasn't enough for us to win the series, but maybe if he was in from the beginnign it woudl have been a different story, and I'm not saying this to take anything away from Elliott at all, I just think that Leclaire showed some of what he can do when it matters most.

I have no idea what kind of goalie Leclaire is at all, he's stalled in his development because of the injuries he has sustained. The problem for him this year is that it's his last year on a contract. There are a million goalies out there that are as good as him (from what we've seen of him) and young goalies coming up through the ranks. If Leclaire doesn't play balls to the wall awesome this year, he could very well find himself out of the NHL before he hits 30. He HAS to be good, really good, there's no choice in the matter for him at all. This is it for him, this is his year, if he blows it, I don't know if he'll ever find a job anywhere, if he does it'll be for league minimum as a backup. That's quite the fall from grace for him if that happens. Having said that, I truly believe he's going to have a great season, but he HAS to stay healthy, he has no choice, if he lets up for 1 minute Elliott will take over and that'll be that for Leclaire. If Leclaire plays to the best of his abilities, he could be the difference between us getting deep in the playoffs or flaming out. I think we're going to have the most fun season we've had since our run to the Final.

Wow...that was long. I hope I made sense there.

Makes perfect sense, this post echoes the majority of people's opinions.

SpezDispenser wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:
This is what I think of the Leclaire situation;

He was brought in to take the number 1 job from Elliott because Elliott wasn't quite ready to be the number 1 guy yet. He comes in, plays some games for us and gets hurt for a long time, Elliott takes over and does a great job. Then Leclaire comes back, doesn't get his job back, doesn't play too much and then gets hurt again. Brodeur comes up and steals the show while Elliott struggles and we then go on a mad winning streak. Elliott gets his chance during that winning streak to get his mojo back and does. Leclaire comes back and is delegated to backup duties for good. Never really gets a chance to show what he's made of. We got into the playoffs, Elliott is okay but nowhere near what we need to win. Leclaire comes in to take over cleanup duties and does a freaking phenomenal job. He was unbelievable. 2 games we saw of him in the playoffs, 2 games where he played unbelievably well, the 2nd game we didn't win obviously but he showed us what he can do in pressure situations. It wasn't enough for us to win the series, but maybe if he was in from the beginnign it woudl have been a different story, and I'm not saying this to take anything away from Elliott at all, I just think that Leclaire showed some of what he can do when it matters most.

I have no idea what kind of goalie Leclaire is at all, he's stalled in his development because of the injuries he has sustained. The problem for him this year is that it's his last year on a contract. There are a million goalies out there that are as good as him (from what we've seen of him) and young goalies coming up through the ranks. If Leclaire doesn't play balls to the wall awesome this year, he could very well find himself out of the NHL before he hits 30. He HAS to be good, really good, there's no choice in the matter for him at all. This is it for him, this is his year, if he blows it, I don't know if he'll ever find a job anywhere, if he does it'll be for league minimum as a backup. That's quite the fall from grace for him if that happens. Having said that, I truly believe he's going to have a great season, but he HAS to stay healthy, he has no choice, if he lets up for 1 minute Elliott will take over and that'll be that for Leclaire. If Leclaire plays to the best of his abilities, he could be the difference between us getting deep in the playoffs or flaming out. I think we're going to have the most fun season we've had since our run to the Final.

Wow...that was long. I hope I made sense there.

Makes perfect sense, this post echoes the majority of people's opinions.

That was an excellent post SG11!

But I would like to add just one thing. Elliott didn't play very well during the first injury to Leclaire. He played adequately, and well enough. It was only when Eli Wilson was fired that Elliott started playing amazingly well going (if my counting is correct) 19-7-1. Needless to say, he was playing his best when Wilson was let go.

Leclaire never really got that same opportunity to play without the coaching of Eli Wilson. He did play spot duty playing about 6 games here and there, but never really a consistent opportunity.

This doesn't guarantee anything, nor does it change anything you said. I just wanted to remind everyone and add it to the discussion.

SensGirl11 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I'll go on record as saying that I *think* with the right circumstances, Leclaire can be a guy who can have a nice season - but it's hardly a slam dunk for us. That's it, that's all.

This is what I think of the Leclaire situation;

He was brought in to take the number 1 job from Elliott because Elliott wasn't quite ready to be the number 1 guy yet. He comes in, plays some games for us and gets hurt for a long time, Elliott takes over and does a great job. Then Leclaire comes back, doesn't get his job back, doesn't play too much and then gets hurt again. Brodeur comes up and steals the show while Elliott struggles and we then go on a mad winning streak. Elliott gets his chance during that winning streak to get his mojo back and does. Leclaire comes back and is delegated to backup duties for good. Never really gets a chance to show what he's made of. We got into the playoffs, Elliott is okay but nowhere near what we need to win. Leclaire comes in to take over cleanup duties and does a freaking phenomenal job. He was unbelievable. 2 games we saw of him in the playoffs, 2 games where he played unbelievably well, the 2nd game we didn't win obviously but he showed us what he can do in pressure situations. It wasn't enough for us to win the series, but maybe if he was in from the beginnign it woudl have been a different story, and I'm not saying this to take anything away from Elliott at all, I just think that Leclaire showed some of what he can do when it matters most.

I have no idea what kind of goalie Leclaire is at all, he's stalled in his development because of the injuries he has sustained. The problem for him this year is that it's his last year on a contract. There are a million goalies out there that are as good as him (from what we've seen of him) and young goalies coming up through the ranks. If Leclaire doesn't play balls to the wall awesome this year, he could very well find himself out of the NHL before he hits 30. He HAS to be good, really good, there's no choice in the matter for him at all. This is it for him, this is his year, if he blows it, I don't know if he'll ever find a job anywhere, if he does it'll be for league minimum as a backup. That's quite the fall from grace for him if that happens. Having said that, I truly believe he's going to have a great season, but he HAS to stay healthy, he has no choice, if he lets up for 1 minute Elliott will take over and that'll be that for Leclaire. If Leclaire plays to the best of his abilities, he could be the difference between us getting deep in the playoffs or flaming out. I think we're going to have the most fun season we've had since our run to the Final.

Wow...that was long. I hope I made sense there.

Nice post, so I kind of feel bad for only bolding one small part of it, but my time is short today.

I think that is exactly what you will see in Leclaire's case. As I posted earlier, the average retirement age of NHLers is 28 years old, Leclaire will be slightly older, say 29 or 30 in my opinion.