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

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.

Michallica wrote: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....

Don't care, Don't know.

Seriously, what do you do with a guy like Butler? He's shown top-6 skill. He's about as natural a goal scorer as you can hope for. But he's lazy (you can debate that, but you'd be wrong. I know direct from the org that they aren't impressed with how he spent the summer). And he's sophomore slumping. He has value, but it's low right now. He won't clear waivers and he's occupying a roster spot that should be filled by someone else right now. He's quite simply nothing more than an injury replacement.

Do you give up on a guy with 35-35 upside in just his second year? And by that I mean do you trade him in a package for a player that has the same upside but is more valuable now (brassard, for instance)? Or do you sit him until that fire inside him burns his Donkey off the bench?

Filatov, on the other hand, I couldn't care less about. I've seen his attitude and it's Dung. What Prags said about his formspring account only further legitimizes my belief that the kid is a prima donna and probably a locker room problem (which fits with Umbergers (?) tweet, post-trade). If he stays, he should be in Bingo. If he goes, who gives a Dung. I'd be fine with him returning to the KHL for the next 2-3 years and remaining Sens property. If he ever grows up, he could be a nice addition when the team is ready to compete for the Cup.

I don't think anyone would claim Bobby Butler off waivers at this point in time.

wprager wrote: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.

True enough, but I would rather have Foligno at centre with two all-star wingers than have him on Spezza's wing. Those two have very little chemistry. Spezza really has a tough time altering his game. As far as #1 centres go, we probably have one of the worst...

Big Ev wrote:I don't think anyone would claim Bobby Butler off waivers at this point in time.

I'm pretty sure several teams would.

cash wrote:

Big Ev wrote:I don't think anyone would claim Bobby Butler off waivers at this point in time.

I'm pretty sure several teams would.

Just one -- the first one that wants him

Exactly. Lots of teams have room for a young, struggling, 2nd year goal scorer.

cash wrote:Exactly. Lots of teams have room for a young, struggling, 2nd year goal scorer.

Not suggesting that this is the same thing, but remember Grabner? My point is simply that we don't know what we've got with BB, but maybe we should give him a bit of time (since we're rebuilding anyway) and see if he can figure it out.

spader wrote:

cash wrote:Exactly. Lots of teams have room for a young, struggling, 2nd year goal scorer.

Not suggesting that this is the same thing, but remember Grabner? My point is simply that we don't know what we've got with BB, but maybe we should give him a bit of time (since we're rebuilding anyway) and see if he can figure it out.

Fair, but Butler is about half as fast as Grabner and less than half as dependable in his own zone/on the pk. Butler has to figure out a way to make himself relevant, and frankly scoring is the only way he'll be of any consequence.

I find myself agreeing with both of you. On the one hand, there *is* such a thing as the sophomore slump, and it's not like Butler has a huge cap hit and a long term. On the other hand Butler is one-dimensional and right now he is not doing much along that dimension.

To be clear, my post on Butler being picked up on waivers was in no way advocating putting him there.

Also I think it's more that he isn't even generating changes, let alone points. He's been pretty much useless regardless of the line he's on.

cash wrote:To be clear, my post on Butler being picked up on waivers was in no way advocating putting him there.

Also I think it's more that he isn't even generating changes, let alone points. He's been pretty much useless regardless of the line he's on.

I should also clarify that I don't believe that BB is equivalent to Grabs. I just think that he's still an unknown quantity.