GAME DAY:Carolina Hurricanes @ Ottawa Senators - 7:30pm ET - WED. Dec. 29, 2010

CockRoche wrote:

Michallica wrote:Oh man...this is defi not the sens' night. They haven't been beaten this bad since the game in Montreal earlier this month

I don't know if this IS the Sens though? With Spezza gone, they have no game breakers. Alfie is getting old and I'm not going to run down the gauntlet of players and pick them apart, but I think the Sens are in for a rough stretch of games for the next...say 6 weeks.

This is going to be a loooong six weeks.

CockRoche wrote:

Michallica wrote:Oh man...this is defi not the sens' night. They haven't been beaten this bad since the game in Montreal earlier this month

I don't know if this IS the Sens though? With Spezza gone, they have no game breakers. Alfie is getting old and I'm not going to run down the gauntlet of players and pick them apart, but I think the Sens are in for a rough stretch of games for the next...say 6 weeks.

It's the reality we have to face for the next 6 weeks or longer.

Sorry if this sounds like major over-reaction, but I seriously want Regin out of the lineup. He's had opportunities heaped upon him and has produced 1 goal. I know he really should be given a chance to gel with the new line (and new position) but nearly half way into the season he has 1 freakin' goal having played most of these games in the top-six! And don't give me this crap about him trying. If you're not scoring, you've got to do other things -- Fisher is leading the league in blocked shots because for quite a few games he couldn't initiate contact. He's found a way to contribute. Regin has size and speed, but his forecheck is not where it could be, he doesn't hit and he doesn't block. Face it, he is one of those soft Euros Don Cherry talks about. You can't be soft unless you can score; when you don't score you've got to get dirty and Regin does not.

hemlock wrote:

CockRoche wrote:

Michallica wrote:Oh man...this is defi not the sens' night. They haven't been beaten this bad since the game in Montreal earlier this month

I don't know if this IS the Sens though? With Spezza gone, they have no game breakers. Alfie is getting old and I'm not going to run down the gauntlet of players and pick them apart, but I think the Sens are in for a rough stretch of games for the next...say 6 weeks.

This is going to be a loooong six weeks.

Not if you look at the upside of a high draft pick :D Just flip the standings upside down and watch the Sens....climb?

Hard to imagine things going more wrong, or rather show just how many things had to go right for this to be a good year

- Leclaire is still injury prone, last year was not a fluke, Elliott still inconsistent, we still don't have a designated #1 goalie
- Alfie's age catching up to him now not in his last contract year
- Foligno and Regin suck even worse than last year (on the score sheet)
- Spezza injured (again)
- Michalek not 100% after knee surgery
- Kovalev is still Kovalev
- Gonchar, a somewhat risky signing looking like a disaster right now
- Kuba injured at training camp, comes back even worse

I'd love to know how Murray thought this was a contending team, or maybe how he thought that the points above would turn out in our favor not against. Most of those seem pretty assumptions.

Oh well hopefully we can get Landeskog or RNH. Unlikely with NJ, Oilers and NYI in the mix. Kind of getting tired of seeing the remnants of the 2007 SCF team on life support getting beaten all the time, so similar to Calgary, hopefully Murray is gone before he acquires Jokinen.

Ugh that was brutal. That play by Gonchar when he was going back to get the puck, or rather, walking back to get the puck, and then gets stripped and it ends up in the back of our net... holy crap. Unbelievable.

Anyone else worried that this 6-week Spezza-less span will cause Melnyk/Murray to make a panic trade?

shabbs wrote:Anyone else worried that this 6-week Spezza-less span will cause Melnyk/Murray to make a panic trade?

Not really. I expect that they'll make the mistake of holding course, not becoming sellers at the deadline and picking up some more aging UFAs to pretend we're contenders next season as well.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:

shabbs wrote:Anyone else worried that this 6-week Spezza-less span will cause Melnyk/Murray to make a panic trade?

Not really. I expect that they'll make the mistake of holding course, not becoming sellers at the deadline and picking up some more aging UFAs to pretend we're contenders next season as well.

They have no cap space to make moves. If they somehow manage to make room it will be at the expense of shedding some contract(s) I wouldn't mind shedding. We cannot take on any more contracts so I think we're safe from making bad ones -- it's not like we can do the reverse of the Islanders trade (i.e. give up picks to get a big contract); we could give up Kovalev for a pick, or Kuba for a pick, or someone else for a pick. Those are all good trades, so I'm sure we won't make one.

And by the trade deadline we're going to be sitting closer to a lottery pick than a playoff spot.

How can this team go from the game they played against the Pens to this game?

No consistency and not enough of a 5 man unit mentality coupled with some absolute abysmal play by a handful of players and some below average play by some of our "leaders".

I know re-building doesn't sell tickets but is it really better to have a team like this that gets an average attendance level more than 1000 below last season?

It's time to get younger and faster. No more Kovalevs, Gonchars, Stillmans and so on. No more attempts at trading for a star goalie. Barrasso, Hasek, Gerber, Leclaire all did not work. Hasek was working but like we've seen with Leclaire it does us no good if he's injured.

Just ride it out with Elliott and one of the many many UFA goalies of the Leighton, Boucher, Conklin ilk. That tandem should come quite cheap and will allow Lehner to develop slowly and properly. It's time to try to move out some of the dead weight. If there truly is interest, from Pittsburgh, in Kovalev then try to get a young speedy forward with top six potential in the deal.

Let's just get this Cussing season over with.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:It's time to get younger and faster. No more Kovalevs, Gonchars, Stillmans and so on. No more attempts at trading for a star goalie. Barrasso, Hasek, Gerber, Leclaire all did not work. Hasek was working but like we've seen with Leclaire it does us no good if he's injured.

Just ride it out with Elliott and one of the many many UFA goalies of the Leighton, Boucher, Conklin ilk. That tandem should come quite cheap and will allow Lehner to develop slowly and properly. It's time to try to move out some of the dead weight. If there truly is interest, from Pittsburgh, in Kovalev then try to get a young speedy forward with top six potential in the deal.

Amen brother. Last night was indicative to me that this season is over.

SpezDispenser wrote:Let's just get this Cussing season over with.

BTW the Isles are "surging" going 5-1-1 in their last 7 so there's still hope we can fall further and get an even better draft position. Throw in some draft picks acquired at the deadline after moving out some players and presto the re-build can quietly happen behind all the "We're contenders" talk spouted off by management.

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

SeawaySensFan wrote:What a fiasco. Time to blow this Dung up!!!

Yep.

shabbs wrote:Anyone else worried that this 6-week Spezza-less span will cause Melnyk/Murray to make a panic trade?

If Spezza goes on LTIR, look out.

Otherwise we have no cap room.

I think BM would sell at the deadline if it came down to it. Remember he almost did until Clouston turned the team around in the remainder of the season and made him reconsider.

Hoags wrote:

shabbs wrote:Anyone else worried that this 6-week Spezza-less span will cause Melnyk/Murray to make a panic trade?

If Spezza goes on LTIR, look out.

Otherwise we have no cap room.

I think BM would sell at the deadline if it came down to it. Remember he almost did until Clouston turned the team around in the remainder of the season and made him reconsider.

I'm not worried because a "panic" move should have been made a long time ago and it wasn't then so it won't now.

SeawaySensFan wrote:What a fiasco. Time to blow this Dung up!!!

I'm sure 90% of people agree with you. Here's the problem:

1.Mike Fisher - NTC - becomes limited this summer
2.Alex Kovalev - NMC - I'm sure he'll accept a trade, but it's within his rights not to
3.Chris Phillips - NTC - I can see a scenario where he doesn't lift his NTC and Ottawa management tries to come to terms with him
4.Jason Spezza - NTC - this is probably a good thing, I'd like to keep him going forward
5.Filip Kuba - I believe his NTC has expired, but the way he's playing + the money he's getting = NMC. Unless Jersey wants to flip Langenbrunner for him - which I could see + Langenbrunner is an expiring contract and a potential trade bait for the deadline, but he too has a Cussing NTC
6.Sergei Gonchar - has a NMC + his salary makes it impossible - which is probably good because I'd like to keep him going forward - even though he's been GOD awfl
7.Chris Kelly - do we trade him, or do we keep him as Fisher's replacement?
8.Chris Neil - part of the core for the rebuild
9.Daniel Alfredsson - full NMC

So what does this leave to blow this fiasco up?

1.Jarkko Ruutu
2.Milan Michalek - although, do you trade a young forward with potential for much less than he's worth because of his struggles + injury issues?
3.Nick Foligno - again, do you trade a young player with scoring potential?
4.Peter Regin - Cuss off, he's the future
5.Jesse Winchester - why bother? He's cheap, effective and you'd spend the same money or more replacing him
6.Z.Smith - part of the 4th line for years to come
7.Ryan Shannon - you could I guess, but I would suggest looking into re-signing him
8.Erik Karlsson - hahahah, yeah right
9.Matt Carkner - who would even want him? Plus, he's cheap and he's tough
10.Chris Campoli - depends on the offers.

So much for blowing this up, huh?