GAME DAY:Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators- 7:30pm ET -Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Friggin' Sportsnet can't resist dampening the Sens win... check the title:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/10/30/sens_leafs_gamestory/

"Sens' soft goal enough to beat Leafs"

No respect!

shabbs wrote:Friggin' Sportsnet can't resist dampening the Sens win... check the title:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/10/30/sens_leafs_gamestory/

"Sens' soft goal enough to beat Leafs"

No respect!

Embrace it. This is the way it should be. Let everyone look the other way and let Ottawa and the Sens shove it right down everyones throats.

shabbs wrote:Friggin' Sportsnet can't resist dampening the Sens win... check the title:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2011/10/30/sens_leafs_gamestory/

"Sens' soft goal enough to beat Leafs"

No respect!

Well, that's pretty much what happened. Although we certainly deserved to win that game, it was a very soft goal that did it.

Pretty damn exciting...Greening, Michalek, Spezza, Karlsson, Rundblad, Gonchar, Kuba, Z.Smith, Condra, Winchester, Phillips.

Those are the guys who are humming right now - are their average age is nice and young.

Yeah, I thought Condra had a really solid game last night (as usual, for him). Nothing exciting, but he was quite aggressive, and looked great on the PK, again.

Things were turning around last year as well when Condra and Greening were called up (and Andy was playing awesome).

Very impressed with the sens game. I thought, despite no points, spezza played well and Michalek is awesome. They got some major chemistry going these two. And Greening is just icing on the cake....what a steal he's turning out to be. Wicked shot, big body, so hard to contain. But that pass from rundblad....

Last night was a real glimpse into the future with Lehner, BladeRunner, Karlsson, Cowen on the backend for years to come. And another victory without Alfie....this team used to be hopeless without their leader.

On a sour note, I really want to see Filatov do well but I don't know what to make of his play. He looked ok, just not enough ice time I guess. Butler looked good.

The next question is:

Will these kids come back down to earth, or is this the effort level we can expect all year?

Also, I'm sure it's not lost on anyone here, but Anderson still hasn't been his usual stellar self, so that'll come where he'll go on a tear. He's still 3rd in the league with 6 wins, so it's not like he's losing either, look out if he gets on a tear.

Gonchar and Kuba deserve a standing O from people next home game. You boo them when they were bad, you MUST cheer them now.

Colin Greening and Milan Michalek are so big and so aggressive...it's a JOY to watch them play.

Erik Karlsson and David Rundblad have so much wonderful skill, it brings a tear to my eye.

Michallica wrote:Things were turning around last year as well when Condra and Greening were called up (and Andy was playing awesome).

Very impressed with the sens game. I thought, despite no points, spezza played well and Michalek is awesome. They got some major chemistry going these two. And Greening is just icing on the cake....what a steal he's turning out to be. Wicked shot, big body, so hard to contain. But that pass from rundblad....

Last night was a real glimpse into the future with Lehner, BladeRunner, Karlsson, Cowen on the backend for years to come. And another victory without Alfie....this team used to be hopeless without their leader.

On a sour note, I really want to see Filatov do well but I don't know what to make of his play. He looked ok, just not enough ice time I guess. Butler looked good.

We really haven't had a team that works this hard - and plays for each other since the Cup run - and even then, who was the Colin Greening of the team. Who was the Erik Karlsson? Milan Michalek. I realize we don't have the Alfie of that time, and Heatley's gone, but it's a culture change here. We work hard - all friggin game. I love this team.

I also have a weird question...

If this is the real Kuba - and we won't know until Feb or March...does he get re-signed? Who the hell would have asked that....two weeks ago?

Michallica wrote:
On a sour note, I really want to see Filatov do well but I don't know what to make of his play. He looked ok, just not enough ice time I guess. Butler looked good.

With the team rolling and so many guys deserving of ice time, it's hard to slide Filatov in a give him a spot on the top two lines...you don't want to mess with success.

SpezDispenser wrote:The next question is:

Will these kids come back down to earth, or is this the effort level we can expect all year?

Also, I'm sure it's not lost on anyone here, but Anderson still hasn't been his usual stellar self, so that'll come where he'll go on a tear. He's still 3rd in the league with 6 wins, so it's not like he's losing either, look out if he gets on a tear.

Gonchar and Kuba deserve a standing O from people next home game. You boo them when they were bad, you MUST cheer them now.

Colin Greening and Milan Michalek are so big and so aggressive...it's a JOY to watch them play.

Erik Karlsson and David Rundblad have so much wonderful skill, it brings a tear to my eye.

Depends which kids you're talking about. Anyone who was buying all this "rebuild" bull$hit I guess might be surprised but not me. Greening is basically doing what he did for 24 games, a substantial amount, last season. Karlsson took a natural step forward. Gonchar is closer to realistic expectations. Anderson is Anderson. People don't like Winchester but he stabilizes the bottom 6 and does a good job on the PK... I could go on but whatever.

I like Winchester. I had forgotten how effective he is until recently, but I realize now I've always liked him.

Greening and Condra did it last year, but there were for sure observations that they were doing it when the team was out and playing loose. Now Mac has them playing loose all the time.

tim1_2 wrote:

Michallica wrote:
On a sour note, I really want to see Filatov do well but I don't know what to make of his play. He looked ok, just not enough ice time I guess. Butler looked good.

With the team rolling and so many guys deserving of ice time, it's hard to slide Filatov in a give him a spot on the top two lines...you don't want to mess with success.

What was bugging me was when there was gonna be a call-up, they asked KK who he expected and he said "hopefully they call up the right player."

Did he mean that they should not call up Filatov because he wasn't ready yet?

SpezDispenser wrote:I also have a weird question...

If this is the real Kuba - and we won't know until Feb or March...does he get re-signed? Who the hell would have asked that....two weeks ago?

If they make the playoffs he absolutely should be resigned for a year or two. The left side is weak in Ottawa and they would be going out and getting a UFA anyways so it might as well be Kuba. You make guys steal a job, you don't hand it to them. I like Borowiecki as much as the next fan but he has to earn that postion and fact of the matter is he is very limited in what he can do as opposed to Kuba who literally does it all back there.

SpezDispenser wrote:I also have a weird question...

If this is the real Kuba - and we won't know until Feb or March...does he get re-signed? Who the hell would have asked that....two weeks ago?

I think re-signing is still out of the question. You gotta make some space for upcoming Dmen IMO, if you want to get younger. You'll still have gonchar and phillips on the back end for the next two years

SpezDispenser wrote:I like Winchester. I had forgotten how effective he is until recently, but I realize now I've always liked him.

Greening and Condra did it last year, but there were for sure observations that they were doing it when the team was out and playing loose. Now Mac has them playing loose all the time.

No doubt. But there's people that thought the Konopka signing made him expendable. Should I remind people about the demand to trade Michalek for a draft pick?

NEELY wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I also have a weird question...

If this is the real Kuba - and we won't know until Feb or March...does he get re-signed? Who the hell would have asked that....two weeks ago?

If they make the playoffs he absolutely should be resigned for a year or two. The left side is weak in Ottawa and they would be going out and getting a UFA anyways so it might as well be Kuba. You make guys steal a job, you don't hand it to them. I like Borowiecki as much as the next fan but he has to earn that postion and fact of the matter is he is very limited in what he can do as opposed to Kuba who literally does it all back there.

Maybe...I'd have to see how he does for the rest of the year, but he seems to have settled back into the solid NHLer he was before his injuries. The beauty thing about Boro and Gryba is that there's time for them to learn in the AHL, there's no rush there. They'll make it, it's a matter or time IMO, but there's no rush.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I like Winchester. I had forgotten how effective he is until recently, but I realize now I've always liked him.

Greening and Condra did it last year, but there were for sure observations that they were doing it when the team was out and playing loose. Now Mac has them playing loose all the time.

No doubt. But there's people that thought the Konopka signing made him expendable. Should I remind people about the demand to trade Michalek for a draft pick?

I may have been guilty of that with Winchester. With Michalek, I think people were really, really frustrated. How many times was he gonna have surgery on his knees. People were frustrated and probably scared. I was.