Now that it's over, what is (realistically) our Ottawa starting lineup in October?

A team like Pitts comes to mind for a guy like Wolski. There will always be room in Pitts for a offensive winger with big question marks.

I think he might shrivel up and die on the spot with Blysma as his coach.

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:
So, bottom line, we will be better than last year. Will we be as good as the year before? Maybe. I'm not writing this season off in June, that's for sure.

I agree mostly. I still don't want to see this team idle on July 1. There was a time when I would have 100% agreed with not getting anyone on the market, but at this point, I don't see the offense. It might be better than last year (which honestly, wouldn't be hard), but it's not enough to even place this team top 10, let alone a playoff spot. I've said all along that even when we add a proper forward - one of Laich, Leino, Tanguay, Fleichmann, Gagne - whatever, we're still bottom of the league in offense with an old Alfie, a broken Michalek, a rarely healthy Spezza, numb nuts Gochar and Kuba.

Whatever...we're not gonna score a lot no matter what happens. Hopefully we can scrape by an win some games because of Anderson and compete for 8th in the final weeks of the season. I don't see it getting any better than that personally - and as you know, I'm a pretty optimistic fan for the most part.

Last year's offense with Anderson in goal may be enough. Remember, as bad as they were, until Spezza went down they were within a medium-length win streak of being in a playoff position. The rest of the East is very spotty. With Winlanta now traveling more they will be even worse than last year. I can easily see Montreal drop way off -- they showed a lot of signs of that in the second half. Can Price continue to be superhuman? Will PK succumb to a sophomore slump? Philly looks to improve in goal but they'll lose depth up front and will be at risk if injuries happen. Boston, well, Thomas is not getting younger and their concussion issues have now only gotten worse. Rangers are a joke if not for Lundqvist. Buffalo is interesting, as they have a new owner -- maybe he's willing to spend to the cap. Florida and Islanders are getting worse. Lighting overachieved this year -- will this continue or will they take a bit of a breather and plateau this year?

Bottom line, I just don't see things changing a lot from last season, except we now have a legit #1 in goal.

Wolski is good on a one-year deal. He'll play for his next contract that way. He reminds me of Petr Nedved.

wprager wrote:
Last year's offense with Anderson in goal may be enough. Remember, as bad as they were, until Spezza went down they were within a medium-length win streak of being in a playoff position. The rest of the East is very spotty. With Winlanta now traveling more they will be even worse than last year. I can easily see Montreal drop way off -- they showed a lot of signs of that in the second half. Can Price continue to be superhuman? Will PK succumb to a sophomore slump? Philly looks to improve in goal but they'll lose depth up front and will be at risk if injuries happen. Boston, well, Thomas is not getting younger and their concussion issues have now only gotten worse. Rangers are a joke if not for Lundqvist. Buffalo is interesting, as they have a new owner -- maybe he's willing to spend to the cap. Florida and Islanders are getting worse. Lighting overachieved this year -- will this continue or will they take a bit of a breather and plateau this year?

Bottom line, I just don't see things changing a lot from last season, except we now have a legit #1 in goal.

That's what makes this thread difficult, we don't know what other teams are doing. I will say that you're highly underrating the Rangers, they have a very nice, young team with a solid D headlined by Staal and Girardi, an exciting forward core with Anisimov, Callahan, Dubinsky, Kreider etc. coming on. They're the team to look at as a darkhorse to do some damage next year IMO.

Well, I think Ty Conklin's out the window. I can't find the bloody quote now, but Murray said that if Anderson gets hurt, he wants the backup to remain the backup and he wants to call up Lehner 'to get some time'. Dumb says SD, it's Conklin time. Someone tell me I'm wrong - tell me Conklin isn't 100% perfect for the Sens.

The backup will be Alex Auld.

Big Ev wrote:The backup will be Alex Auld.

Perhaps someone like that, yeah.

SpezDispenser wrote:Well, I think Ty Conklin's out the window. I can't find the bloody quote now, but Murray said that if Anderson gets hurt, he wants the backup to remain the backup and he wants to call up Lehner 'to get some time'. Dumb says SD, it's Conklin time. Someone tell me I'm wrong - tell me Conklin isn't 100% perfect for the Sens.

If we had a second goaltender and our first guy (Anderson) happened to go down, our second goaltender would still be the second goaltender. And Robin could come up and play games.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/06/08/senators_lehner/

Big Ev wrote:The backup will be Alex Auld.

That would be pretty sweet. He's as solid a backup as they come. The mistake we made with him here was expecting him to be a #1, which he'll never be.

spader wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Well, I think Ty Conklin's out the window. I can't find the bloody quote now, but Murray said that if Anderson gets hurt, he wants the backup to remain the backup and he wants to call up Lehner 'to get some time'. Dumb says SD, it's Conklin time. Someone tell me I'm wrong - tell me Conklin isn't 100% perfect for the Sens.

If we had a second goaltender and our first guy (Anderson) happened to go down, our second goaltender would still be the second goaltender. And Robin could come up and play games.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/06/08/senators_lehner/

There it is, thanks.

Dumb though, the backup needs to push Anderson and take some of the heat off him. We need a tandem, not one guy and a scrub. If that's the case, here's 575K Mcelleny, done and done, but we DON'T want that, we want a real backup a la Conklin.

No, Anderson is the guy. He will play the majority of the games, barring the worst case scenario. Lehner is the #2. They need a guy that will not take away minutes from Anderson and Lehner, who will be content sitting on the bench.

Dash wrote:No, Anderson is the guy. He will play the majority of the games, barring the worst case scenario. Lehner is the #2. They need a guy that will not take away minutes from Anderson and Lehner, who will be content sitting on the bench.

Why is Lehner number 2? I thought we were all content on him getting a full year in the AHL to properly take the workload of 65 games + practices and really get himself prepared for a long NHL career. In fact, I still think he needs two years - I know it's frustrating to him and some of us, but he'll be better for it. Managing pressured situations, managing his temper, emotions, getting down the technical aspects without being destroyed at the NHL level, there's a million reasons. He's still a teen...no way he needs to be in the NHL - although I think he could hack it.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Dash wrote:No, Anderson is the guy. He will play the majority of the games, barring the worst case scenario. Lehner is the #2. They need a guy that will not take away minutes from Anderson and Lehner, who will be content sitting on the bench.

Why is Lehner number 2? I thought we were all content on him getting a full year in the AHL to properly take the workload of 65 games + practices and really get himself prepared for a long NHL career. In fact, I still think he needs two years - I know it's frustrating to him and some of us, but he'll be better for it. Managing pressured situations, managing his temper, emotions, getting down the technical aspects without being destroyed at the NHL level, there's a million reasons. He's still a teen...no way he needs to be in the NHL - although I think he could hack it.

He'll be number 2 because BM wants a backup to be a backup. There's nothing wrong with having an Auld (or even a Conklin) to play 20 games and be after Lehner on the depth chart. I think that that's a perfect scenario. Remember what happened the last time we wanted our backup to be more than he was ready for? We have a growing history of treating backups like #1 goalies. I'd love it if we finally get a backup and insist that that's his only job.

You're not proposing that Lehner be the backup in Ottawa next year I hope. I veto that. I agree with SD that Lehner can be #1 in Bingo next year ...

TheAvatar wrote:You're not proposing that Lehner be the backup in Ottawa next year I hope. I veto that. I agree with SD that Lehner can be #1 in Bingo next year ...

I'm proposing that Lehner be the starter in Bingo and the callup if Anderson gets hurt. I'm proposing that our backup be someone like Auld and that he (Auld) be third on the depth chart.

That's not what I said. I said Lehner is #2, because as Murray said, he is. He will be #1 in Binghamton, and #2 in the NHL if Anderson doesn't play. The back-up as already stated, will only play a handful of games, or in relief of Andy.

spader wrote:

TheAvatar wrote:You're not proposing that Lehner be the backup in Ottawa next year I hope. I veto that. I agree with SD that Lehner can be #1 in Bingo next year ...

I'm proposing that Lehner be the starter in Bingo and the callup if Anderson gets hurt. I'm proposing that our backup be someone like Auld and that he (Auld) be third on the depth chart.

I'm not going to veto that; I think it's a fine idea ..