GDT - Ottawa @ Toronto

Regin looked good last night and he seems to have come to camp prepared this year. If they can get 60 goals or more from the 2nd line (no matter who it is) that might be good enough. Regin is capable of getting 20 but we'll see if he actually does.

wprager wrote:I don't mind if my dazzling dangler player shies away from contact a bit. He'll stay healthy longer. All I care is that I don't have a team full of players like that (in fact, not even a line that's like that -- which is why I'm not entirely comfortable with Butler/Filatov on Spezza's wings), and that he skates hard to back check and at least get his stick in the way. He'll dig when the digging's good and that's enough -- from that kind of player. Let me add, again, that as long as we don't have a team or line full of players like that, it's OK to have a couple that are pure skill.

He will also have the puck a lot less.

It's not about going in there and hammering someone, its about not bailing on a play because a hit is coming. There is a huge difference. Expecting players to take a hit in the corner is critical to gaining possesion of the puck, so that's not a good thing.

No one is asking Filatov to be Iginla out there but avoiding a hit to make a play is a good way to lose games.

wprager wrote:my dazzling dangler

Pardon?

I don't think we can call Bowen racist for saying Zibanejad should change his name to Smith. It was comical...not racist. We're just overreacting because we're Sens fans. If it was Dean Brown, it would be a non-issue.

Game in six:

I also wanted to mention that I don't think there's room on this team for Foligno anymore. I know he's young but I think his window of opportunity to crack the top-six has closed. As I've eluded to earlier, I much prefer to add prospects to the bottom six.

With Neil, Konopka, Smith, Greening, Condra, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Winchester, etc all fighting for bottom six spots, I think Foligno had become the odd man out. I expect for him to be traded this year; hopefully packaged so we get some value out of him.

tim1_2 wrote:I don't think we can call Bowen racist for saying Zibanejad should change his name to Smith. It was comical...not racist. We're just overreacting because we're Sens fans. If it was Dean Brown, it would be a non-issue.

I, for one, think Brown is a windbag. Joe "Triple -K" Bowen is a racist.

tim1_2 wrote:I don't think we can call Bowen racist for saying Zibanejad should change his name to Smith. It was comical...not racist. We're just overreacting because we're Sens fans. If it was Dean Brown, it would be a non-issue.

Yeah it's not racist lol. Just lazy.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I also wanted to mention that I don't think there's room on this team for Foligno anymore. I know he's young but I think his window of opportunity to crack the top-six has closed. As I've eluded to earlier, I much prefer to add prospects to the bottom six.

With Neil, Konopka, Smith, Greening, Condra, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Winchester, etc all fighting for bottom six spots, I think Foligno had become the odd man out. I expect for him to be traded this year; hopefully packaged so we get some value out of him.

Bottom 6 players actually need more time to develop than top 6 a lot of the time. The need to play the game smart and not make big mistakes. A lot needs to be learned. Foligno is probably not a top 6 guy but he is a perfect 3rd line winger. Does a lot of things well.

Some quick thoughts after watching that:

1. Phaneuf did get his elbow up. Would have been a clean hit otherwise, but the way the player (btw, could not tell who that was) dropped back that was not a hit to the chest. Good on Cowen for standing up and he looked like he got a few licks in.

2. That first goal Karlsson had his hands full of Kadri. Kuba was late covering Armstrong. Not sure if Karlsson should have been on the other side of Kadri, though, then he would have been in position to stop Armstrong. Should he have been playing behind Kadri?

3. Lehner *could have* been better on the last two goals.

4. Rundblad was awful on that last goal. From what I hear he was not good the rest of the game, either. That's OK, we'll make room for him in Bingo for a little while.

NEELY wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I also wanted to mention that I don't think there's room on this team for Foligno anymore. I know he's young but I think his window of opportunity to crack the top-six has closed. As I've eluded to earlier, I much prefer to add prospects to the bottom six.

With Neil, Konopka, Smith, Greening, Condra, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Winchester, etc all fighting for bottom six spots, I think Foligno had become the odd man out. I expect for him to be traded this year; hopefully packaged so we get some value out of him.

Bottom 6 players actually need more time to develop than top 6 a lot of the time. The need to play the game smart and not make big mistakes. A lot needs to be learned. Foligno is probably not a top 6 guy but he is a perfect 3rd line winger. Does a lot of things well.

Is it worth paying a third-line player $2 million (pending RFA) when you have Puempel, Stone, Noesen, Grant, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Petterson, Silfverberg, Caporusso and whoever else we draft next year all fighting for that same spot? I think we'll see a lot of guys traded this year and we'll really see a lot of younger players cracking the roster next year.

asq2 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Karlsson - had some bad plays in his own zone, but exhibited some skillz.

What are you thinking of in particular? I remember he got walked once and on the first goal he could have boxed out his man more but otherwise I thought he was really effective in the defensive zone. Also one give-away that I can remember. The only other criticism I have was that later in the game he started venturing further and further into the offensive zone, but I think that's because the Sens needed a goal and Karlsson was aware of how much better he was than everyone else on the ice.

I'm really ecstatic with the game he played. Offensively he was Patrick Kane-esque.

Nothing earth-shattering, but he may try to be too fancy in his own zone. It lead to at least one giveaway that I can think of where he didn't make the easy play - which, I know we all dislike to a degree, but was the old chip off the boards and clear the zone. Instead he tried to weave and bob a bit and was picked off.

Again, nothing too worrisome, but those are the little things that will catapult him from a good defender in his own zone, to an even better one.

I may have been missing one or two instances, but the giveaways from our D were coming so fast and so furiously that I might be mistaken.

Otherwise, I haven't seen a D-man as electric as that in...well, since Karlsson last year . And even then...he didn't have this speed last year, this was another gear he showed - especially when he drove the net. Really, really exciting player to watch - and we have 2 of them (in time).

wprager wrote:Some quick thoughts after watching that:

3. Lehner *could have* been better on the last two goals.

It should also be mentioned that Lehner made a couple great saves…specifically, one that he had to stick his left pad out for, and then somehow swept the puck underneath himself with his leg.

This is what we're going to get from Lehner for a while…great saves and some adventures. See: every young goalie, ever.

Love this Don Cherry Parody tweet:

YKNOW SOMEONE BETTER ASK THIS MICHAEL ZIBABABOOEY IF HE WEARS 93 FOR
DOUGIE GILMOUR OR FOR PETER NEDVED, SO I KNOW IF I SHOULD LIKE HIM

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

NEELY wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I also wanted to mention that I don't think there's room on this team for Foligno anymore. I know he's young but I think his window of opportunity to crack the top-six has closed. As I've eluded to earlier, I much prefer to add prospects to the bottom six.

With Neil, Konopka, Smith, Greening, Condra, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Winchester, etc all fighting for bottom six spots, I think Foligno had become the odd man out. I expect for him to be traded this year; hopefully packaged so we get some value out of him.

Bottom 6 players actually need more time to develop than top 6 a lot of the time. The need to play the game smart and not make big mistakes. A lot needs to be learned. Foligno is probably not a top 6 guy but he is a perfect 3rd line winger. Does a lot of things well.

Is it worth paying a third-line player $2 million (pending RFA) when you have Puempel, Stone, Noesen, Grant, Da Costa, Zibanejad, Petterson, Silfverberg, Caporusso and whoever else we draft next year all fighting for that same spot? I think we'll see a lot of guys traded this year and we'll really see a lot of younger players cracking the roster next year.

Until someone proves they deserve that spot more than Foligno, absolutely. You don't hand players a spot.

NEELY wrote:Regin looked good last night and he seems to have come to camp prepared this year. If they can get 60 goals or more from the 2nd line (no matter who it is) that might be good enough. Regin is capable of getting 20 but we'll see if he actually does.

Yeah, I posted the same last night before hitting the hay. If I was to name the two best forwards, they would have been Filatov and Regin. Regin looked really confident with the puck and made a few really smart, sharp passes.

Same with Filatov. The pass to Cowen from behind the net isn't really something you can teach, that's a great instinctive pass.

And no one should read much into this one game regarding Zibanejad or Rundblad. Karlsson took some time to get comfortable with NHL speed, Rundblad will be the same. While, Zibanejad looked real tentative at times, he's 18 and he get better and better as the game went on.

I bet both Rundblad and Zibanejad get better by a lot as the pre-season goes on.

Also, to add to what Tim - and others - were saying.

How hard is it to study the names of the players before you do a broadcast. Whoever the old sounding nerd was (Bowen?), learn the names bunghole. Wow.

RundBLAD, not Rundbald you fool. And no, Zibanejad is not hard to say. What were you doing all summer?