Game Day - Colorado @ Ottawa, 7:30PM, Thursday, October 13, 2011

Never expected that, but interesting for sure.

shabbs wrote:TSN Wally: Butler and Lee are in. Condra and Konopka are out for #Sens tonight. Sens will rotate 7 D. Anderson starting.

TONIGHT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Butler in for Condra gives more offence, but Condra's been a PKer, so we lose not only him, but Konopka as well. So down the middle we have Spezza, Zibanejad, Regin and Smith.

Lee should see lots of PK time.

If the afternoon baseball game runs late (and they all do), the start of the Sens game will be available on Sportsnet Sens. The new 30 minute televised pregame show will be on at 7 on Sportsnet Sens.

Michallica wrote:I hope maclean knows what he's doing....Condra would whip out his 2D machine gun and go Dung if he gets benched

Man, I loved that game when I was 12 or 13!

SpezDispenser wrote:Konopka out. Lee in. 7 D-men being played apparently.

Ha! What did I say week sago? "We have to ice 7 D and 11 forwards to give Rundblad the shot he needs." And here we go.

Probably the right call, to be honest. I didn't see Konopka doing a whole lot yesterday to justify his spot in the line up. He certainly wasn't winning a lot of defensive faceoffs for a guy who supposed to excel at just that.

Sitting Condra for Butler or Filatov would make sense, too. Bring in some more offense, and create an impromptu 4th line with one of those two, Smith, and a rotating winger -- anyone who's excelling (Michalek, Neil, Greening, Alife).

Interesting experiment.

Really surprised they're benching Konopka, but hey, you have to do what you have to do.

SpezDispenser wrote:Really surprised they're benching Konopka, but hey, you have to do what you have to do.

What do we really need him for?

Big Ev wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Really surprised they're benching Konopka, but hey, you have to do what you have to do.

What do we really need him for?

PKing, faceoffs, taking care of any fighting, hard forechecking.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Really surprised they're benching Konopka, but hey, you have to do what you have to do.

What do we really need him for?

PKing, faceoffs, taking care of any fighting, hard forechecking.

You don't need fighting against Colorado, we have plenty of forecheckers, and he has been crap on the faceoff dot.

His impact in a lineup is extremely minimal.

Has he been crap in the circle? Because he's one of the best. Who has beaten him and what are their stats?

SpezDispenser wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:Butler may be in for Condra, according to Brent Wallace.

I saw a quote somewhere this morning where MacLean said Butler had been busting his hump in practice. I guess this is a reward. Condra shouldn't feel bad - I don't think it was his play that got him benched, I think it goes hand in hand to being designated to Line 4.

He said that in an interview on Team1200 yesterday.

Dash wrote:Butler in for Condra gives more offence, but Condra's been a PKer, so we lose not only him, but Konopka as well. So down the middle we have Spezza, Zibanejad, Regin and Smith.

Lee should see lots of PK time.

God, I hope not.

SpezDispenser wrote:Has he been crap in the circle? Because he's one of the best. Who has beaten him and what are their stats?

He went 4-3 against Minny, and 6-4 against Toronto.

SpezDispenser wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:Really surprised they're benching Konopka, but hey, you have to do what you have to do.

What do we really need him for?

PKing, faceoffs, taking care of any fighting, hard forechecking.

He didn't really fight -- not sure if anyone landed a punch -- but he sure took the instigator. Had one of his gloves off before he even reached the guy.

SpezDispenser wrote:Has he been crap in the circle? Because he's one of the best. Who has beaten him and what are their stats?

Ok he hasn't been crap (thought I saw worse stats the other day), but he has taken 17 faceoffs in 2 games, and won 10 of them.

It's not hard to replace a guy who takes 8 faceoffs a game.

I guess they'll only be using Rundblad on the PP...?...odd that we'd be playing 7 d-men.

wprager wrote:

Dash wrote:Butler in for Condra gives more offence, but Condra's been a PKer, so we lose not only him, but Konopka as well. So down the middle we have Spezza, Zibanejad, Regin and Smith.

Lee should see lots of PK time.

God, I hope not.

Lee is already the team leader in average shorthanded time on ice so you might want to hope harder.