Sens Lineup Card for 11/12

Basically, what The Sens are hanging their season on right now is a prospect in Filatov that hasn't proven a thing in The NHL, a often injured 25 goal guy guy in Michalek, a 39 year old Alfi, and a very streaky Spezza. Saying Penner doesn't fit in the Ottawa mold or isn't a player they need, well I don't think there is a player available that Ottawa could use more than Penner.

Fact of the matter is he's a legit top 6 guy, he's in a contract year, Spezza needs help, and the scoring depth in Ottawa is lacking in a huge way. Beggers can't be choosers.

NEELY wrote:Basically, what The Sens are hanging their season on right now is a prospect in Filatov that hasn't proven a thing in The NHL, a often injured 25 goal guy guy in Michalek, a 39 year old Alfi, and a very streaky Spezza. Saying Penner doesn't fit in the Ottawa mold or isn't a player they need, well I don't think there is a player available that Ottawa could use more than Penner.

Fact of the matter is he's a legit top 6 guy, he's in a contract year, Spezza needs help, and the scoring depth in Ottawa is lacking in a huge way. Beggers can't be choosers.

I somewhat agree. I agree that the Sens are in TOUGH this year to score. If Filatov doesn't do it and Michalek gets injured all the time again, Alfie isn't healthy, we're dead. Add to that, a lot of people (myself included) are banking on a sophomore (Butler) coming in and making music on Spezza's wing. We don't even know who the 2C is. Regin seems perfect for 3C with Greening and Foligno (if one of them can play the right side) in my eyes. The more I think about it, the more I would have Z.Smith/Neil/Konopka as the 4th line - all of whom can sub in for line 3 if there are injuries.

All of that still doesn't help us score goals. I said jokingly that we'd be lucky to score 82 goals this year, but in all seriousness, we could score as many as last year where we were offensively challenged and be left to last in the league again.

Penner would help, but I hate the character on that guy. A loafer who (IMO) wouldn't fit in at ALL with a MacLean, up-tempo, puck-possession system. He can score 20 goals, but he's much worse than Fisher in that he's streaky as hell, but when he's not scoring, he's not doing anything at all.

If we could get him in a 'soft trade' with LA, I'd think about it. But when I say soft, I mean like Gagne last year. Some piece of Dung prospect or player + 5th rounder. Say, the rights to Roman Wick + 5th rounder. Soft trade only, so when Penner fails, it hasn't cost you anything, just 4.2 million.

Every team in The NHL needs a big body who can smash in rebounds and create a ton of traffic in front. Detroit has Holmstrom, Chicago had Byfuglin, Boston has Lucic, so on. Doesn’t matter what MacLean’s “style” or “system” is going to be, a Penner can play in any system because of his specific assets.

Ottawa has no one that will stand in front on the PP, Ottawa has no one that can be considered a power forward (Michalek maybe, more of a north south player), and Ottawa has no one on their team that can put the puck in the net with the consistency Penner does (always good for 25-30 goals).

Michalek seems to excel at deflections. He's looked pretty good when healthy in front of the net on the powerplay.

Unfortunately, it means putting a guy who is made of glass in the high traffic area in front of the net and then shooting pucks at him to boot. He'll likely never be a Holmstrom type in that he can't take the beating required to really cause chaos for the goaltender.

I wonder if Greening can be that guy.

Interestingly - Greening does not appear on the roster, or prospect list, on the Sens website. I'm pretty sure he was there before.

NEELY wrote:Every team in The NHL needs a big body who can smash in rebounds and create a ton of traffic in front. Detroit has Holmstrom, Chicago had Byfuglin, Boston has Lucic, so on. Doesn’t matter what MacLean’s “style” or “system” is going to be, a Penner can play in any system because of his specific assets.

Ottawa has no one that will stand in front on the PP, Ottawa has no one that can be considered a power forward (Michalek maybe, more of a north south player), and Ottawa has no one on their team that can put the puck in the net with the consistency Penner does (always good for 25-30 goals).

Certainly I know what you're saying - and you rarely bring up something that doesn't make sense.

You can understand where I don't want Penner though I'm sure. His work ethic is horrible, his conditioning is questionable - a lot of the things that we tried to rid ourselves of - and hopefully have.

If you were to put Colin Greening in Penner's spot and left him there for a long duration, would there be a palpable difference? Where Penner has more talent and experience, does Greening make up for it with youthful exuberance? These are probably the issues the Murrays are trying to figure out.

Add to that that I truly think Vinny Prospal or Brendan Morrison would be guys to target to fill in for the 2C position and I'm still really not interested in Penner - although I wouldn't be upset if we acquired him - as long as it's a soft trade!

MacLean seems to think of Foligno (and Regin) as important pieces of the team. I don't know if its just talk but he mentioned them specifically. Murray seems to be leaning on MacLean a lot so it's possible neither of them leaves anytime soon.

Michalek and Neil are our best "net crashers", maybe Foligno and Greening as well.

As for Penner I been thinking about it but I got the impression LA is going to give him another chance since that trade looks awful for them right now. I'm sure Terry has told Bryan about how bad/lazy Penner is discouraging any talk of a trade. It might take more than Foligno to get him as well, LA will want to recover from this.

If he's physically and mentally in the right place I hope Filatov gets legit top-6 time to get his NHL game going. He's got too much potential for them to stick him in a checking role and wait til he's "defensively responsible" enough.

So far Murray's comments indicate they're set for next season barring depth signings for Bingo. Filatov is the top-6 forward they were going to trade for or acquire via FA. Thankfully they didn't go the FA route seeing the ridiculous contracts handed out.

At worst we'll land Yakupov or Grigorenko next June

Enough with the Russians. And that's coming from a Russian.

OK, so Yakupov is a "Tatar Russian". I guess we can make an exception.

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:Basically, what The Sens are hanging their season on right now is a prospect in Filatov that hasn't proven a thing in The NHL, a often injured 25 goal guy guy in Michalek, a 39 year old Alfi, and a very streaky Spezza. Saying Penner doesn't fit in the Ottawa mold or isn't a player they need, well I don't think there is a player available that Ottawa could use more than Penner.

Fact of the matter is he's a legit top 6 guy, he's in a contract year, Spezza needs help, and the scoring depth in Ottawa is lacking in a huge way. Beggers can't be choosers.

I somewhat agree. I agree that the Sens are in TOUGH this year to score. If Filatov doesn't do it and Michalek gets injured all the time again, Alfie isn't healthy, we're dead. Add to that, a lot of people (myself included) are banking on a sophomore (Butler) coming in and making music on Spezza's wing. We don't even know who the 2C is. Regin seems perfect for 3C with Greening and Foligno (if one of them can play the right side) in my eyes. The more I think about it, the more I would have Z.Smith/Neil/Konopka as the 4th line - all of whom can sub in for line 3 if there are injuries.

All of that still doesn't help us score goals. I said jokingly that we'd be lucky to score 82 goals this year, but in all seriousness, we could score as many as last year where we were offensively challenged and be left to last in the league again.

Penner would help, but I hate the character on that guy. A loafer who (IMO) wouldn't fit in at ALL with a MacLean, up-tempo, puck-possession system. He can score 20 goals, but he's much worse than Fisher in that he's streaky as hell, but when he's not scoring, he's not doing anything at all.

If we could get him in a 'soft trade' with LA, I'd think about it. But when I say soft, I mean like Gagne last year. Some piece of Dung prospect or player + 5th rounder. Say, the rights to Roman Wick + 5th rounder. Soft trade only, so when Penner fails, it hasn't cost you anything, just 4.2 million.

If we score the same number of goals as last year and get better goaltending, we would be fighting for a playoff position in February/March, at which time we could look around for some help. That $4.2M would only cost $1.4 in March.

The rights to Roman Wick are worth what, exactly, right now?

Big Ev wrote:Any word on Crosby's connclussion?

The results are not connclussive.

Hoags wrote:Filatov also says he adjusts his game to who he is playing with, I think he's versatile enough to potentially play with anyone.

I wonder how he'd do with Spezza, both of them are right-handed shots.

As long as they don't try to pass it back and forth on the rush we're fine. So you'd need a left-hand shot with speed to carry the puck up with Spezza (tic-tac-tic-tac if necessary) and then Filatov is the trailer who completes the tic-tac-toe. Once they have puck possession in the zone it's less important that they are both righties since they don't have to be facing the same direction (i.e. Filatov below the circle, Spezza above).

Ideally, Kuba for Penner would work for Ottawa. Not so much for LA who has no room on the blueline, and similarly to Ottawa has a lot of prospects in the waiting. Both also on the last year of contracts.

wprager wrote:
The rights to Roman Wick are worth what, exactly, right now?

Nothing substantial - so Penner?

No Penner. Let this young group grow together without potential bad influences. Penner won't make them a playoff team.

Okay, I'm ready to pencil in Zibanejad into the 2C spot and let him grow with this group. Signing's done, now let's get him on the squad. Dave Cameron, Mark Reeds and Paul MacLean can be the teachers as well as any SEL team's coaches.

SpezDispenser wrote:Okay, I'm ready to pencil in Zibanejad into the 2C spot and let him grow with this group. Signing's done, now let's get him on the squad. Dave Cameron, Mark Reeds and Paul MacLean can be the teachers as well as any SEL team's coaches.

What are the odds that he'll be able to handle it ? How many 18 year olds are ready to step into a top-6 NHL role ?

I think it will be Regin vs. Da Costa vs. Zibanejad. May the best one win.

Hoags wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Okay, I'm ready to pencil in Zibanejad into the 2C spot and let him grow with this group. Signing's done, now let's get him on the squad. Dave Cameron, Mark Reeds and Paul MacLean can be the teachers as well as any SEL team's coaches.

What are the odds that he'll be able to handle it ? How many 18 year olds are ready to step into a top-6 NHL role ?

I think it will be Regin vs. Da Costa vs. Zibanejad. May the best one win.

We're rebuilding and years and years away from making the playoffs, etc.

SeawaySensFan wrote:
We're rebuilding and years and years away from making the playoffs, etc.

Yes but do we want to rush a player into the league ? Historically the Sens have been very cautious in bringing prospects into the NHL.