Game Day - Minnesota @ Ottawa, 7:30PM, Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Exactly. Other players have been better. It's that simple.

I'd say Foligno has been quite ineffective.

NEELY wrote:Exactly. Other players have been better. It's that simple.

Indeed. Zibanejad, Da Costa, Regin, Greening, Filatov, etc…. These guys will all be given ample opportunity this year to show that they belong. Filatov may play a little on the 4th line, but he'll get his chance.

Back-to-back games on the road, with a start in Detroit, is a very tough way to open the season. Let's forget those two, and focus on tonight. The Sens have had a couple days off to regroup, and will hopefully be able to carry some of that third period against Toronto into tonight, and pot some goals early. A quick start is key to getting their confidence up.

Anderson will be fine in goal.

So reading the reports there it seems that this team has not been working/practicing enough the last few years...

Can you tell me that Lee deserves to sit for Rundblad?

Mind you, the whole team has sucked, so there's not much to see here...

SensGirl11 wrote:Can you tell me that Lee deserves to sit for Rundblad?

Who else do you sit to get Rundblad in? Lee has been o.k, nothing bad, nothing great, but he's the 6th D man and a RH D man at that, so that's why Rundblad comes in. Like it or not, Lee is pretty replacable in the lineup.

SensGirl11 wrote:Mind you, the whole team has sucked, so there's not much to see here...

Let's not poop on the team just yet. We knew that this season would be filled with ups and downs, and with back-to-back away games to start…well…odds were we weren't going to win either.

As for guys sitting, we also knew that there would be a bit of a rotation with both forwards and d-men….Everybody will get a chance, and the kids will have to earn their playing time.

La Femme wrote:So reading the reports there it seems that this team has not been working/practicing enough the last few years...

Probably not... I would blame that on Clouston though, there is only so many times you can belittle players and rip on vets before they tune you out. The habits have come full swing though and have clearly been instilled in the organization. Good on MacLean for holding players accountable, especially during practice. That's the coaches time, that's it.

tim1_2 wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:Mind you, the whole team has sucked, so there's not much to see here...

Let's not poop on the team just yet. We knew that this season would be filled with ups and downs, and with back-to-back away games to start…well…odds were we weren't going to win either.

As for guys sitting, we also knew that there would be a bit of a rotation with both forwards and d-men….Everybody will get a chance, and the kids will have to earn their playing time.

Exactly and that starts in practice. You don't learn the system in a game, that's where you impliment it.

Think of it like school, if you don't study and work hard to learn what is needed, you will fail the test. The game is the test. If the coach doesn't think they are ready to be put into the lineup because of work habits and practice habits, they shoudn't be playing.

Filatov is 21, he has a ton to learn.

Haha I remember Clouston was praised for holding guys accountable too. Same old same old.

Big Ev wrote:Haha I remember Clouston was praised for holding guys accountable too. Same old same old.

Pretty much but Clouston didn't know how to handle the vets. Everyone was on an even playing field with him and that's not the case.

Either way, it's amazing to me some people are quesitoning the coach after 2 games where he had his players playing fairly well for 75% of both games.

SensGirl11 wrote:Can you tell me that Lee deserves to sit for Rundblad?

Lee is a victim of the numbers game. They're not going to sit EK and Gonchar right now. Not all scratches/roster decisions are "fair".

Sounds like MacLean is running a tight ship, Murray mentioned that last year's camp was pretty lax and indirectly blamed Clouston for not pushing the team hard enough in practice.

Even MacLean made a little comment that it'll take some time to get rid of bad habits (they've only been at it for 2 weeks).

I thought the "country club" atmosphere on the team from years ago was gone but perhaps not.

That's all fair, it's very frustrating though. I am one who preaches the 'it's only game 2 it will take time for things to come together' but it's hard to watch when they're getting trampled on and not able to play any defence whatsoever. It is true though that they have definitely played some good hockey in those 2 games too. The 1st period of the Detroit game was amazing, I hope we get to see much more of that this season - i'm sure we will. Our guys are young bucks and have the energy to do it. I do find it frustrating that we have so many forwards and not enough actual defencemen - having all puck movers is not going to get the job done. Plus Phillips and Gonchar look lost already.

Takes times. Players will be coming in and out of the lineup all year long, hell if Da Costa keeps playing the way he is it's going to be even more complicated when Winchester comes back. If Rundblad has a good showing what do you do with Carkner and how does Lee go back in?

Fact of the matter is, like everyone has said, it's going to take a lot of time to sort things out and for players to truly earn their spots.

Who's Carkner?

Y'know who should be our 6th/7th d-man? Phillips. Problem is, we lack shut-down guys as it is (if he still qualifies). When Carkner gets back, this situation becomes more muddled...maybe we will have been able to trade Kuba or Lee or someone by then.

NEELY wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:Can you tell me that Lee deserves to sit for Rundblad?

Who else do you sit to get Rundblad in? Lee has been o.k, nothing bad, nothing great, but he's the 6th D man and a RH D man at that, so that's why Rundblad comes in. Like it or not, Lee is pretty replacable in the lineup.

He's the only one on D registering hits. He's just 1 hit off the league leading total. Karlsson is making an art out of avoiding getting hit -- looks like a friggin' figure skater out there, at times. Kuba never was a hitter so I'm fine with that. Phillips may have lost a step. Cowen is big but looks a bit lost -- he'll start hitting when his confidence is back. So we have no-one hitting except for our 3rd pairing D-man -- no wonder we're getting scored on so much; forwards have nothing stopping them from going to the crease.

Somehow I don't think Rundblad will be a hitting machine, either.