GAME DAY: Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators - 7:00pm ET - SAT. Nov. 27, 2010

Big Ev wrote:As for Kovalev, I'm not expecting 80-100 points lol. I expect somebody who makes that much to at least try hard every night (and we know he wouldn't so that's why the signing was a dumb one in the first place, IMO).

Kinda similar to Spezza but on a lesser scale.

You're a bundle of contradictions on this one. I say he contributes more than just points, and you say points and the PPG pace matter the most for a '1-dimensional' player like Kovalev. He puts up 49 points, and you say he's not earning even half of his salary, implying that he ought to put up many more points (presumably, twice as many, by the logic of the previous assertion). I point out that you're expecting too much if you think he's going to put up 100 points, and that we expected at best 60+ points, and so 49 isn't all that far off the mark. Then you move away from your initial assertion, saying it's not the points but the effort.

I'm sorry, but you don't know your own mind on this one. Either your expectations are too high, because you expect Kovalev to put up 80+ points, or you're measuring Kovalev's play by two different standards (pure point production on the one hand, effort level on the other), each as best serves your contradictory position best at the moment.

I repeat, Kovalev is of course overpaid (we had to overpay to get any FA player with 60+ point potential), but he has produced offense as expected (if not quite as much as required), his 'laziness' is suuuuuuper over-emphasized (for 4 months last year, and all but two games this year, he has been interested, active, and engaged; the problem is, people want him to be Mike Fisher or Mike Cammalleri, and that's never, ever been his game -- another instance of expecting the guy to suddenly become someone he's never been just because we paid him a lot of money), and he brings a lot of other things to the table (experience and knowledge for the younger players; space on the ice for others) that aren't captured by the points stats.

Flo The Action wrote:i missed the game, we won. no surpise....

Keep it up Flo. We appreciate the effort.

Flo The Action wrote:i missed the game, we won. no surpise....

You are not allowed to watch another game this year; sorry man. What's your track record when you listen to them on the radio? Perhaps you can at least do that ...

spader wrote:Personally, I've been more than pleased with Spezza's evolution over the last season and a quarter. He's really improving away from the puck and his giveaway to takeaway ratio has improved dramatically (10GvA:16TkA).

He's becoming a complete player. He'll always look to create something out of nothing and be criticized for it. His effort level lately though is, in my opinion, beyond reproach. He's been killing penalties, protecting leads, and hustling to join the backcheck.

He's putting the work in and we're seeing results. I am at least.

Yeah, he's a lot tougher on pucks, harder to knock off and he seems to want to backcheck and get the puck back - which will eventually make him a points monster and a damn fine player. He has to keep it up though and he probably could use a winger that can finish consistently - although I continue to love Regin as a player and support him on the top line, there's no denying we could use a pure finisher.

SpezDispenser wrote:

spader wrote:Personally, I've been more than pleased with Spezza's evolution over the last season and a quarter. He's really improving away from the puck and his giveaway to takeaway ratio has improved dramatically (10GvA:16TkA).

He's becoming a complete player. He'll always look to create something out of nothing and be criticized for it. His effort level lately though is, in my opinion, beyond reproach. He's been killing penalties, protecting leads, and hustling to join the backcheck.

He's putting the work in and we're seeing results. I am at least.

Yeah, he's a lot tougher on pucks, harder to knock off and he seems to want to backcheck and get the puck back - which will eventually make him a points monster and a damn fine player. He has to keep it up though and he probably could use a winger that can finish consistently - although I continue to love Regin as a player and support him on the top line, there's no denying we could use a pure finisher.

Regin may well become one. Right now he (that is, Regin) seems to be playing with the mentality that he needs to be the grinder on the line. He's the one in the corners working the puck out and he has a distinct "pass-first" mentality. I think if there was a more Fisher type on that line, and Regin worked on it, he could translate some of the silky-smooth skill that we saw at the end of the year and in the playoffs to become more of a finisher. Right now, he certainly complements Spezza's game by being defensively sound and grinding for the puck, but I agree that Spezza could use a Heatley-esque finisher. I personally love Regin's game, but wonder if he doesn't have some latent Heatley finishing superpower buried in there.

TheAvatar wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:i missed the game, we won. no surpise....

You are not allowed to watch another game this year; sorry man. What's your track record when you listen to them on the radio? Perhaps you can at least do that ...

i'm leaving for asia on the 11th of january and won't be back till july... i doubt i'll see many games at 7 AM. so maybe we are going on a cup run??? i'd rather not miss that
my track record so far is i think we've won 4/5 games i haven't watched. and i think the pitsburg one was one of them.

spader wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

spader wrote:Personally, I've been more than pleased with Spezza's evolution over the last season and a quarter. He's really improving away from the puck and his giveaway to takeaway ratio has improved dramatically (10GvA:16TkA).

He's becoming a complete player. He'll always look to create something out of nothing and be criticized for it. His effort level lately though is, in my opinion, beyond reproach. He's been killing penalties, protecting leads, and hustling to join the backcheck.

He's putting the work in and we're seeing results. I am at least.

Yeah, he's a lot tougher on pucks, harder to knock off and he seems to want to backcheck and get the puck back - which will eventually make him a points monster and a damn fine player. He has to keep it up though and he probably could use a winger that can finish consistently - although I continue to love Regin as a player and support him on the top line, there's no denying we could use a pure finisher.

Regin may well become one. Right now he (that is, Regin) seems to be playing with the mentality that he needs to be the grinder on the line. He's the one in the corners working the puck out and he has a distinct "pass-first" mentality. I think if there was a more Fisher type on that line, and Regin worked on it, he could translate some of the silky-smooth skill that we saw at the end of the year and in the playoffs to become more of a finisher. Right now, he certainly complements Spezza's game by being defensively sound and grinding for the puck, but I agree that Spezza could use a Heatley-esque finisher. I personally love Regin's game, but wonder if he doesn't have some latent Heatley finishing superpower buried in there.

IMO a sniper is our #1 need. if we could score a couple of goals more a game we could affoard to have phillips not play as well or our other d-men to not be as sound defencively. those couple of goals more per game could make a very big difference in our win% and would also change the way other teams face us every night, forcing them to be more defencive.

Flo The Action wrote:i missed the game, we won. no surpise....

You know your assignment, then.

I just watched the game thanks to cbcsports.ca and I've gotta say if Fisher plays like that all year he's Mike Richards.
The 2nd Ottawa goal was Sedins-like.

marakh wrote:I just watched the game thanks to cbcsports.ca and I've gotta say if Fisher plays like that all year he's Mike Richards.
The 2nd Ottawa goal was Sedins-like.

That's a big if though.

Even an impossible if I would say.