GAME DAY: Atlanta Thrashers @ Ottawa Senators: -7:30 PM - Monday December 13, 2010

I see this game as a regulation win if not for the sub par play by Elliott personally. I don't hang this loss on Spezza.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I see this game as a regulation win if not for the sub par play by Elliott personally. I don't hang this loss on Spezza.

Our D was not too hot either...

shabbs wrote:Oh man. Spezza goes from hero to goat in an instant. Bah. Nice to see the boys come back and push it to overtime. Would have bee nice to get the win and build off that.

Meh.

I'm more than disappointed that they let this one get to 0-3, but very pleasantly surprised that they came back and tied it up. In recent past their downfall has been a severely fragile confidence. Grabbing a point after being down 0-3 should at least give their confidence a boost.

On that play in OT, I forgot who it was, saying that that was not a no-look drop pass, that he (Spezza) knew exactly where he was. Was that sarcasm? Because of he *knew* he should not have passed. Mind you, I don't know why the defenseman was so far back on a rush in OT. Did he just come onto the ice? And why wasn't Karlsson on the ice? Like I said earlier, when the top line is on put Philsson out there and sit back and enjoy the fireworks.

I stopped watching after it was 2 zip. i refuse to waste my time watching a team that doesn't even try.

Nice to see that they tied it up. Elliott was brutal.

I've been pretty impressed, for the most part, with the play of the team as a whole since the Rangers game actually. I have been disappointed, of late, with the goaltending of Brian Elliott in the two losses but, if they build off the way they've been playing and they get solid goaltending then I could see a winning streak coming. They'll need a good long one if they hope to salvage this season and they'll need it soon.

Also, I'm really liking the Phillips - Karlsson and Carkner Campoli pairings. It's too bad it puts our two weakest links, Kuba and Gonchar, on the ice together and in the top 4.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Also, I'm really liking the Phillips - Karlsson and Carkner Campoli pairings. It's too bad it puts our two weakest links, Kuba and Gonchar, on the ice together and in the top 4.

It's even worse than top-4. Gonchar had 25:18 of even-strength ice time. That's nearly 2 minutes more than Phillips' total ice time. Kuba only had 20:08 which makes you wonder if he was double-shifting Gonchar. Karlsson was second with 24:48. It just doesn't make sense, much. Without looking at the shift charts you'd think that Karlsson was paired with Gonchar.

Just checked the shift charts. It was Gonchar/Kuba on to start (and end) OT. Clouston was clearly trying to play Gonchar every chance he got. I know we've been struggling to score but, at this point, I'd rather see Phillips/Karlsson out there both for offensive and defensive situations/reasons.

Flo The Action wrote:i'm sorry but elliott should of had that. and no that wasn't a no look back pass, he knew where he was passing it.

hope leclaire isn't injured long.

Big Ev wrote:LOL @ Sportsnet giving Speza the 1st star.

SDH89 wrote:Got to admire their comeback, at least they showed they have some sort of pride. Yet again, Elliott Dung the bed.

Yep, brutal giveaway that leads to a breakaway... and it's the goalie's fault. Bang on!

Michallica wrote:Also, dare I say....Kovalev was pretty good tonight. Not score sheet worthy but he definitely looked like he wanted this more today. Now for god's sake clouston, keept he same lines rolling. Kelly line is coming around finally, alfie just scored, michalek has more jump and so does kovalev + Spezza. Keep this Dung going!

I agree, he was very noticeable. Kovalev has been more effective all season long than most people give him credit for, tho', to be fair.

rooneypoo wrote:

SDH89 wrote:Got to admire their comeback, at least they showed they have some sort of pride. Yet again, Elliott Dung the bed.

Yep, brutal giveaway that leads to a breakaway... and it's the goalie's fault. Bang on!

Yeah because the other three goals Elliott let in were completely and totally unstoppable.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

SDH89 wrote:Got to admire their comeback, at least they showed they have some sort of pride. Yet again, Elliott Dung the bed.

Yep, brutal giveaway that leads to a breakaway... and it's the goalie's fault. Bang on!

Yeah because the other three goals Elliott let in were completely and totally unstoppable.

That game started over or anew when Alfie scored late in the second. They became a different team almost instantly. And Elliott was solid after that, including that stop on a near-breakaway late in the game when the score was 3-2 and the Sens were pressing.

Elliott didn't have a good first 30 minutes or so, but he was categorically not the reason we lost that game. We lost that game because of a huge brain fart in OT. For Cuss's sake, call it like it is.

rooneypoo wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

SDH89 wrote:Got to admire their comeback, at least they showed they have some sort of pride. Yet again, Elliott Dung the bed.

Yep, brutal giveaway that leads to a breakaway... and it's the goalie's fault. Bang on!

Yeah because the other three goals Elliott let in were completely and totally unstoppable.

That game started over or anew when Alfie scored late in the second. They became a different team almost instantly. And Elliott was solid after that, including that stop on a near-breakaway late in the game when the score was 3-2 and the Sens were pressing.

Elliott didn't have a good first 30 minutes or so, but he was categorically not the reason we lost that game. We lost that game because of a huge brain fart in OT. For Cuss's sake, call it like it is.

So lets just ignore the first 30 minutes of crappy play by Elliott? No free pass for Elliott from me.

That game changed IN SPITE of Elliotts poor play. I am calling it like it is. IF not for Spezza's Penalty shot goal we wouldn't even be talking about OT.

EDIT: The first 8 to 10 minutes and first 9 shots were ALL Ottawa then Elliott sucks the life out of the team by allowing a goal on the first shot.

rooneypoo wrote:

SDH89 wrote:Got to admire their comeback, at least they showed they have some sort of pride. Yet again, Elliott Dung the bed.

Yep, brutal giveaway that leads to a breakaway... and it's the goalie's fault. Bang on!

I could be wrong as I didn't see the first two periods, but he may have meant some of the first 3 goals. From what I'd read here Elliott was not good enough on those.

As for the winning goal itself, Little was pressured by Gonchar to go wide. There wasn't a trailer on the play so Elliott could have played the percentages and come way out. This wasn't Guy Lafleur scoring on a slapper to the far-side top corner. I certainly won't blame Elliott for the loss based on that evidence alone, but he was not in a great position given the play. Perhaps there are confidence issues.

The team just sucks, if someone on this team makes a bad mistake it's usually enough to cost us a goal. The defence is rarely good enough to cover up, the goalie is rarely good enough to bail the team out.

They have no safety net, they have to play a near flawless game in order to win.

Spezza was at fault on that one but just about everyone on the team has made a bad giveaway this year even Alfie.

It's not so long ago that Gonchar fell on his Donkey and cost us a game, so let's not act like it's only Spezza costing us games.

The goal-tending has been quite good for most of the season actually and it seems like it's their turn to suck while the forwards pick up their game. We'll probably see the D pick up it's game while the forwards slump again. LOL.

Seriously though I can only think of a hand full of games where I was very disappointed in the goal-tending. I mean Elliott has two shut outs already this season and one of them was a freakin' loss. I think a bright spot for sure has been goal-tending as a whole. I'm just not very happy with Elliott's last two starts and a couple of Leclaire's. Not bad considering we're 32 games in.