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

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.

wprager wrote:

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.

Ok, he's hitting guys and the team is getting down by 5 goals at a time. Not Lee's fault but it's not like things would have been worse with him in the press box. It's a team game and if they feel this is the right move for the team, that's what should be done.

tim1_2 wrote: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.

We need one of our D to switch from right to left, then we can talk about this.

I still say, how bad could Gonchar be playing on the left? Put him on the right for the PP but let him suit up as a left-side D even-strength. That would let us give Phillips or Cowen a well-needed night off to watch from above.

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

I told you, you're not sitting an NHL All-Star and possible Hall of Famer 2 games into your new regime as head coach, not gonna happen. After 20+ games if Gonchar is doing it, then yeah, he'll probably sit, but the system takes time, you're not gonna sit Gonchar yet.

And then you're not gonna sit Erik Karlsson either, so that leaves only one choice: Brian Lee. Is it fair? Probably not, but as we talked about I think MacLean would tell him, it's not your play, it's a numbers game, continue working hard for me and I'll get you back in.

This is the best way to learn this as well:

Right handers usually play the right side, while left handers play the left side.

LEFT SIDE:
Phillips
Kuba
Cowen

RIGHT SIDE:
Karlsson
Gonchar (an anomaly that he likes the right side being left handed)
Lee
Carkner
Rundblad

So, if you want one of Carkner or Rundblad in, it's one of Karlsson, Gonchar or Lee. And as mentioned, it ain't gonna be Gonchar or Karlsson right now.

NEELY wrote:
Ok, he's hitting guys and the team is getting down by 5 goals at a time. Not Lee's fault but it's not like things would have been worse with him in the press box. It's a team game and if they feel this is the right move for the team, that's what should be done.

Exactly. Can we just postpone the talk of who should be playing or sitting until around the 10 game mark, and we have a larger sample size? Moustachio has to have a look at everyone.

Pretty much. It's trial and error right now and they need to find what works.

One thing that does work, Da Costa in the 2nd line center role.

wprager wrote:

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.

Exactement it's a gong show without actual defencemen out there. Wrong guy to sit, but everyone seems to think it's okay.

SpezDispenser wrote:

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

I told you, you're not sitting an NHL All-Star and possible Hall of Famer 2 games into your new regime as head coach, not gonna happen. After 20+ games if Gonchar is doing it, then yeah, he'll probably sit, but the system takes time, you're not gonna sit Gonchar yet.

And then you're not gonna sit Erik Karlsson either, so that leaves only one choice: Brian Lee. Is it fair? Probably not, but as we talked about I think MacLean would tell him, it's not your play, it's a numbers game, continue working hard for me and I'll get you back in.

This is the best way to learn this as well:

Right handers usually play the right side, while left handers play the left side.

LEFT SIDE:
Phillips
Kuba
Cowen

RIGHT SIDE:
Karlsson
Gonchar (an anomaly that he likes the right side being left handed)
Lee
Carkner
Rundblad

So, if you want one of Carkner or Rundblad in, it's one of Karlsson, Gonchar or Lee. And as mentioned, it ain't gonna be Gonchar or Karlsson right now.

I didn't know Kuba was an all star

It would have been soooo much better if we could've had 5 more pre-season games against NHL teams. This is just killing us having to 'try things out' we shouldn't have to try anything out, things should be pretty much set in stone by now. It's not going to help with chemistry by playing the Clouston game already.

can't fault the decision this time around. Lee is the only candidate to sit but he's certainly not the one who deserves it. Regardless, the team needs soem jump and despite scoring 8 goals in the 3rd period, they also have zero in the 1st and 2nd. They need to start earlier and avoid getting down 4 or 5-zip. It makes sense to get rundblad in now. Home crowd will also get a rise out of the sens. Don't know if they'll win but they'll make it a close game.

Oh and MKZ will score his first tonight. BOOK IT!

SensGirl11 wrote:It would have been soooo much better if we could've had 5 more pre-season games against NHL teams. This is just killing us having to 'try things out' we shouldn't have to try anything out, things should be pretty much set in stone by now. It's not going to help with chemistry by playing the Clouston game already.

12 pre-season games??? That is insanity. Our team is supposed to struggle and it's still fairly new (as in players) so it's expected that they'll take time to gel, not just preseason. I get the frustration though, I feel that way too, but its reality unfortunately.

SpezDispenser wrote:

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

LEFT SIDE:
Phillips
Kuba
Cowen

RIGHT SIDE:
Karlsson
Gonchar (an anomaly that he likes the right side being left handed)
Lee
Carkner
Rundblad

Clearly Murray needs to get another guy that plays left in there then. Rundblad isn't ready and Phillips and Kuba have been Dung so far. And Cowen is young and learning. Unless Carkner or Lee can play their off-side...something needs to give. Do you want to watch a full season of the d we've seen so far?

Michallica wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:It would have been soooo much better if we could've had 5 more pre-season games against NHL teams. This is just killing us having to 'try things out' we shouldn't have to try anything out, things should be pretty much set in stone by now. It's not going to help with chemistry by playing the Clouston game already.

12 pre-season games??? That is insanity. Our team is supposed to struggle and it's still fairly new (as in players) so it's expected that they'll take time to gel, not just preseason. I get the frustration though, I feel that way too, but its reality unfortunately.

Maybe not extra games, but they could've spread it out much better than they did - there was still 1 week of pre-season hockey going on when we were done. Frustrating.

I agree, I think another game would have been quite beneficial over the weekend. But let's see what Maclean's game plan really is, it seems like he wants the most emphasis on practice so it might actually be good to have more practice. I guess we'll find out tonight how much the hard practice helped the sens.

SensGirl11 wrote:
I didn't know Kuba was an all star

No, no. That pertained to the right handed guys (Gonchar in particular) - one of whom has to come out if Rundblad plays. Kuba's a left hander, so he literally isn't in the discussion at this point.

Michallica wrote:

SensGirl11 wrote:It would have been soooo much better if we could've had 5 more pre-season games against NHL teams. This is just killing us having to 'try things out' we shouldn't have to try anything out, things should be pretty much set in stone by now. It's not going to help with chemistry by playing the Clouston game already.

12 pre-season games??? That is insanity. Our team is supposed to struggle and it's still fairly new (as in players) so it's expected that they'll take time to gel, not just preseason. I get the frustration though, I feel that way too, but its reality unfortunately.

I agree, another 5 pre-season games would have been a godsend. We look like a pre-season team right now that didn't have their games spaced out enough.