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

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.

Bad giveaway by Spezza, but if not for him, we lose in regulation anyway. Elliott couldn't stop a beachball last night - the one time he stops a partial breakaway it looked like it was by quasi-accident.

I would have pulled Elliott after the 2nd goal as a statement, but we don't even have a healthy backup - however this year it hasn't been about the goaltending.

*sigh* If it's not one thing it's another. At least they battled really hard and got themselves a point, the importance of that is huge.

Regin needs to change his number back to 43. The 13 has had an adverse effect on him.

SpezDispenser wrote:
*sigh* If it's not one thing it's another. At least they battled really hard and got themselves a point, the importance of that is huge.

That's how I see it, the goaltending, defence and forwards have to be on their A-game to win. We can't afford sloppy goaltending, sloppy defence or forwards who can't score more than 1 goal in the game. If any one of these happens we're finished.

It's either we score some goals but sloppy defence or goaltending costs us the game

or

We play well defensively, goalie stands on his head but the forwards can't score more than 1 goal (or get shut out).

No wonder they play like crap, everyone is terrified of screwing up knowing one mistake will probably cause a goal.

I think they'll play like crap the next game, at least Spezza, he'll be too scared to do anything other than dump and shoot. The moment they start to relax and play to their strengths and talents, someone diddles up and the game is over.

Hoags wrote:
I think they'll play like crap the next game, at least Spezza, he'll be too scared to do anything other than dump and shoot. The moment they start to relax and play to their strengths and talents, someone diddles up and the game is over.

The more he matures, the more he looks and sounds like a real leader - and this team has unquestionable leadership issues, so that's a really good thing. I think he'll realize that it was just mixed signals on the OT goal and that the team had picked itself off the floor of elimination to at least stay in the hunt - and it had a TON to do with Spezza himself.

He should strike the back pass from his repertoire completely though, he has the abilities (which he showed yesterday) to cross the blueline and virtually stop, allowing his teammates to set up before calmly making plays. Back passes can't do much except perhaps open up a shooting or passing lane,it's simply not worth the tremendous risk in the pass being picked off.

Not elliott's strongest game obviously but I'm going to cut the guy slack. He's been there for the senators and by all accounts is also battling an injury that forced him out in the first place. And yeah if he doesn't make that breakaway save, we're not talking about OT. Same with spezza's penalty shot (which btw was a puck batted forward by Michalek that bogosian couldn't handle).

But honestly, what a brutal way to end the game....on just that, a brain fart by two players (more spezza though). Kuba was too far back, but Kuba should have also realized that it would be impossible to keep the puck in the zone unless you dive (which he didn't) and away goes Bryan Little.

That's calling it like it is. Otherwise good game for Spezza, and Phillips and Karlsson are rounding into form.

Back passes are fine as long as there's a tremendous amount of chemistry among the players on the ice and there is an incredible awareness of what's happening on the whole ice surface. That's why Crosby is able to make passes like that quite frequently and have them pay off. He does make some that get picked off though and ones that are made at bad points of the ice as well.

Here's the point at which Spezza turned around and dished it to a Thrasher:



Not sure why our D was so far behind on the left side... but he was surrounded by Thrashers and made a bad decision. Dumping it in would have been a "safer" choice.

Definitely would have been the safer choice and I'm not trying to defend that particular play just his overall play for the entire game. It would be nice if he dumped it in once in a while under circumstances like that for sure. I see positive strides with his game though and haven't written off his career as a one dimensional player that makes too many blind back passes at the wrong place at the wrong time.

What a fiasco!!! Time to blow this Dung up!

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Back passes are fine as long as there's a tremendous amount of chemistry among the players on the ice and there is an incredible awareness of what's happening on the whole ice surface. That's why Crosby is able to make passes like that quite frequently and have them pay off. He does make some that get picked off though and ones that are made at bad points of the ice as well.

Hmmm, rarely will Crosby ever make a back pass unless he's at the hash marks. If you make a tight back pass and give it up, at least you have a minimum of 2 guys at the blueline to attempt to get in the way. If you do it like Spezza did yesterday, there's really no one around if it's a speedy forward. That's the final lesson for Spezza from what I can tell, control the puck right into the heart of the opposing teams zone, or curl and wait at the blueline. Back passing like that is a recipe for disaster.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Definitely would have been the safer choice and I'm not trying to defend that particular play just his overall play for the entire game. It would be nice if he dumped it in once in a while under circumstances like that for sure. I see positive strides with his game though and haven't written off his career as a one dimensional player that makes too many blind back passes at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Written off his career? Why do you say that, he's just starting to mature into an all-round player IMO.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Definitely would have been the safer choice and I'm not trying to defend that particular play just his overall play for the entire game. It would be nice if he dumped it in once in a while under circumstances like that for sure. I see positive strides with his game though and haven't written off his career as a one dimensional player that makes too many blind back passes at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Written off his career? Why do you say that, he's just starting to mature into an all-round player IMO.

I said I haven't written off his career. There are some who have.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Back passes are fine as long as there's a tremendous amount of chemistry among the players on the ice and there is an incredible awareness of what's happening on the whole ice surface.

Pretty hard for us to have any sort of chemistry when Clouston changes the lineups all the time.

Ont he plus side, the sens have scored 3 goals in 3 consecutive games, receiving production from a variety of players. Small victories!

I wonder if having a full-lineup in practice has been the result of increased chemistry on lines?

Cap'n Clutch wrote:I said I haven't written off his career. There are some who have.

No need to listen to anything they have to say anymore then, because they don't know what they're talking about.