GAME DAY: Ottawa @ Washington, 7:00PM, Saturday, December 3, 2011

Any thoughts on Maclean throwing his 4th line out there with 50 seconds left in the 3rd? They played a fine game and I like the trust he showed in them, but it was hardly a noteworthy shift. One of them missed a pass from Karlsson that led to an icing (who knows if a more skilled player would have picked it up) that killed off 20 seconds, then the puck went back up ice with very little being created.

To be fair, the Alfie-Michalek line was out right before that and Spezza was having yet another off night (injuries or no injuries, this inconsistency is ridiculous).

cash wrote:Any thoughts on Maclean throwing his 4th line out there with 50 seconds left in the 3rd? They played a fine game and I like the trust he showed in them, but it was hardly a noteworthy shift. One of them missed a pass from Karlsson that led to an icing (who knows if a more skilled player would have picked it up) that killed off 20 seconds, then the puck went back up ice with very little being created.

To be fair, the Alfie-Michalek line was out right before that and Spezza was having yet another off night (injuries or no injuries, this inconsistency is ridiculous).

They were playing well, he wanted the point, Mission accomplished. Simple as that IMO.

Jared Cowen led the team in ice time by the way. I didn't expect it to be this fast.
Butler needs a few games in the stands. Because he sucks, and because I'm pretty sure he's not keeping the pace physically as indicated by Murray a few days ago
EDIT: Doesn't help that the centre is completely pooping the bed

NEELY wrote:

cash wrote:Any thoughts on Maclean throwing his 4th line out there with 50 seconds left in the 3rd? They played a fine game and I like the trust he showed in them, but it was hardly a noteworthy shift. One of them missed a pass from Karlsson that led to an icing (who knows if a more skilled player would have picked it up) that killed off 20 seconds, then the puck went back up ice with very little being created.

To be fair, the Alfie-Michalek line was out right before that and Spezza was having yet another off night (injuries or no injuries, this inconsistency is ridiculous).

They were playing well, he wanted the point, Mission accomplished. Simple as that IMO.

So was the Smith line. Which line gives you a better chance to win in regulation? Which line is more likely to let in a goal at the end of regulation? Confusing choice, Imo.

LeKid wrote:Jared Cowen led the team in ice time by the way. I didn't expect it to be this fast.
Butler needs a few games in the stands. Because he sucks, and because I'm pretty sure he's not keeping the pace physically as indicated by Murray a few days ago

They really need a right winger for that 1st line. Filatov is Dung. Butler is Dung. The 2nd line without Michalek is ineffective. There's no one else in the org right now that can come in and play that wing (AP, sure, but lets be realitic).

cash wrote:

LeKid wrote:Jared Cowen led the team in ice time by the way. I didn't expect it to be this fast.
Butler needs a few games in the stands. Because he sucks, and because I'm pretty sure he's not keeping the pace physically as indicated by Murray a few days ago

They really need a right winger for that 1st line. Filatov is Dung. Butler is Dung. The 2nd line without Michalek is ineffective. There's no one else in the org right now that can come in and play that wing (AP, sure, but lets be realitic).

I like Regin with Spezza. When he plays that is

cash wrote:

LeKid wrote:Jared Cowen led the team in ice time by the way. I didn't expect it to be this fast.
Butler needs a few games in the stands. Because he sucks, and because I'm pretty sure he's not keeping the pace physically as indicated by Murray a few days ago

They really need a right winger for that 1st line. Filatov is Dung. Butler is Dung. The 2nd line without Michalek is ineffective. There's no one else in the org right now that can come in and play that wing (AP, sure, but lets be realitic).

Really noticeable these days. Not that Spezza's playing well, but he could use a winger on that right side.

The Top 6 needs a ton of work. When you have a guy in Greening on the 1st line, you know your depth sucks at the moment. Greening is not a Top 6 player. Bobby Butler is a guy who should be in Binghamton. Even Aflredsson has looked like bottom 6 player the last little while. There is just no forward on the team who is gonna instill fear in the opposition at the moment. Michalek has 16 goals but he is up and down lately IMO.

It was expected that this team would not have a lot of firepower up front, but they need to address the Top 6 if they want to make the playoffs, which is their goal even though a lot of fans think they want to tank.

There is no doubt in my mind that they make a trade, and soon, to get a Top 6 forward. Then when Regin comes back, the crops will be stronger going forward

LeKid wrote:Jared Cowen led the team in ice time by the way. I didn't expect it to be this fast.
Butler needs a few games in the stands. Because he sucks, and because I'm pretty sure he's not keeping the pace physically as indicated by Murray a few days ago
EDIT: Doesn't help that the centre is completely pooping the bed

28 minutes? Gonna be a beast. Jersey perhaps?

Hoags wrote:Michalek with goal #16 !!!

Tied for the league lead. Sweet.

Dash wrote:
Won't be switching - got too good of a deal with Bell. Just find it odd that they can't get us (supposedly) the CBC-Ottawa feeds in HD on CBCHE instead of Toronto (same with CTV too). Other than that, we get everything else we need/want.

That's what I used to think. I got a rent-free-for-life HD-PVR, SD terminal and cable modem. For years Bell could not match that. Now the cable mode fee is included so I don't get anything for that; that SD terminal has now been replaced with an HD one and that's an extra $10; and, of course, their rates keep going up.

Now I can spend the same money and get two HD-PVRs and a better upload speeds (perhaps better download as well--not sure). Of course those would be rates for 3 years then price on the rentals goes up. Then I look at Videotron who blow both of these out of the water in rental prices ($6/month for a 500GB PVR while Rogers charges $25; $3 for a non-PVR HD box while Rogers charges $13; and they've been doing la carte programming for years).

When Fibe TV comes to town (and my current 2-year promo expires) I'm going to try them out. If I don't like it I'll switch back and get a better deal. I'll lose the rent-free-for-life deal and that would suck, but unless they switch me to a 500 GB (or better) model and vastly upgrade their PVR firmware I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

That's the two biggest beefs with Rogers, for me. My PVR is 160GB, you can buy the 500GB but I believe the rental units (the new 8642) is either 160 or 320 (their page lists 20 hours HD which is the 160). That is ridiculously little, especially given how much they charge for the unit ($500 to buy or $25/month to rent). I cannot set up a recording with PIN-protection (I can only PIN protect a recording *after* it's been recorded); I cannot PIN-protect the recording itself --i.e. my kid can go into the scheduled recordings menu and cancel my show -- it *has* happened). It does not allow you to store the recorded shows in "folders" (at the very least split up the kids/parents stuff); or even combine it so that multiple episodes of the same show appear as one item -- have they ever heard of cascading menus? Hello? This isn't 1985!

Some of the features I saw on the Microsoft STBs when I was still with Alcatel -- this is 4 years ago -- blows the Rogers boxes out of the water, and I'm pretty sure Fibe TV will be similar. They had this feature where they could instantly switch channels by buffering enough of each channel received to be able to play up until the next full frame is received. After you switch to a new channel you would actually be a couple of seconds behind, and it would play back at 15% faster rate, out of that buffer, until it caught up with realtime. I hadn't seen fast switching like that since analog.

Anyhow, the biggest problem with Fibe TV will be the limitations of the copper from the curb-side box. If they can get it to handle 3 simultaneous HD feeds it will be a step in the right direction (I need to be able to record two shows and watch a third one -- with so much hockey on in HD it is a near necessity). Anyhow, I'm intrigued enough with Five to give it a try when it comes out.

Since we weren't under contract when we moved, they gave us a pretty good retention plan.
-No fee PVR rental for 3 yrs, after which we own it.
- $20 off bill per month
- we got the install done for free
- we got a 2nd line added for free too

we also took over my brother's internet that he had here and are getting a deal through that too.

One thing that is encouraging in regards to Spezza is that he has shown in the past that he is a second half player.

The team is in every game....with the exception of 4 losses (PHI, COL, @PIT, @BUF), the sens have competed hard in 22 out of 26 games. There's a good chance they win those close games as well (12-7-3 outside of those blowouts). I knew washington was going to win and was just hoping to get it to OT, and they did it so bravo :KKK:

That top 6 has gotta improve though. The line juggling has really thrown off some of the players. We need Regin badly.

Big Ev wrote:One thing that is encouraging in regards to Spezza is that he has shown in the past that he is a second half player.

True. He's been well above ppg pace for several years running. I still think he needs a winger though. Him and Michalek have never had great chemistry, despite what their start to the season might indicate (although I would argue it actually proves they don't have chemistry).

On the other hand, Foligno and Michalek have looked good together. I should bump my post from a few weeks ago saying he's got what it takes to be a top-6. People everywhere were saying he'd better watch out for Daug and then he goes almost ppg for 14 games (13 points in his last 14 games, 9 in his last 9). He's got 6 points in his last 5 games and has looked tremendous since being shifted back to his natural position.

Foligno had a great month of November for sure. This lineup will become waaa¥ more d¥namic when regin's back. Just what to do with the likes of Filatov and Butler....

Michallica wrote:The team is in every game....with the exception of 4 losses (PHI, COL, @PIT, @BUF), the sens have competed hard in 22 out of 26 games. There's a good chance they win those close games as well (12-7-3 outside of those blowouts). I knew washington was going to win and was just hoping to get it to OT, and they did it so bravo :KKK:

That top 6 has gotta improve though. The line juggling has really thrown off some of the players. We need Regin badly.

They've gotta try Regin back on Spezza's wing. There's no one else who can handle that spot. Still 10-12 games away from his return, though...

Sorry, but I still think Foligno's skill is better suited to wing. Fisher was our 2LC for many years and I'm sure he had stretches of GPG in his time here (i just looked up his game logs and he had many stretches of 9+ games averaging PPG or better). And yet we repeatedly said he is a great top-six winger but not a true 2LC. He's certainly better than what we have now, but hist N/S style of play is much better suited to wing.

DaCosta has a lot more creativity but he's simply not ready -- we have two potential 2LC in DaCosta and Zibanejad but right now we are waiting for Regin to get healthy.