GAME DAY: Boston @ Ottawa, 7:30PM, Wednesday, December 14, 2011

DaCosta and Rundblad's problems are not the same. DaCosta plays the right way and most of the time makes the good decisions with the puck. He's just not ready physically and needs a little confidence boost.

Rundblad clearly has no clue what to do out there. Needs a full season or more of adjusting to the smaller ice.

LeKid wrote:DaCosta and Rundblad's problems are not the same. DaCosta plays the right way and most of the time makes the good decisions with the puck. He's just not ready physically and needs a little confidence boost.

Rundblad clearly has no clue what to do out there. Needs a full season or more of adjusting to the smaller ice.

That works in Rundblad's favour as well though, he's physically ready, he just needs to play massive minutes and have the coaching staff weed out some of the bad habits.

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Boston didn't get 1 PP last night

Ottawa dominated that game start to almost finish. Thomas was awesome, Anderson wasn't, Rundblad made 2 huge mistakes. That's the game summed up in a sentence.

Don't forget Alfie throwing a short hard pass into Karlsson's skates when EK was last man back, leading to another goal.

Oglethorpe wrote:

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Boston didn't get 1 PP last night

Ottawa dominated that game start to almost finish. Thomas was awesome, Anderson wasn't, Rundblad made 2 huge mistakes. That's the game summed up in a sentence.

Don't forget Alfie throwing a short hard pass into Karlsson's skates when EK was last man back, leading to another goal.

Alfi could take a slap shot on Anderson and shelf it and I wouldn't say a bad thing about it.

No one would. Watching the game with SensGirl obviously and she cursed Karlsson real good on that play. I told her to watch the replay again, that was Alfie firing a pass to Karlsson - in his skates to boot, but no, she won't say a bad thing about him.

SpezDispenser wrote:No one would. Watching the game with SensGirl obviously and she cursed Karlsson real good on that play. I told her to watch the replay again, that was Alfie firing a pass to Karlsson - in his skates to boot, but no, she won't say a bad thing about him.

Cause he's the Alfie. Who talks bad about the Alfie when he's so fantastically awesome?

Seriously though, Karlsson's been pretty bad defensively of late, he made a horrendous play all by himself right after that if you recall. I love the kid though of course, but he's been having a rough go at it of late.

I'd like to see Karlsson adopt a more defensive style. Bulk up and block shots, clear the front of the net. That sort of thing.

SensGirl11 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:No one would. Watching the game with SensGirl obviously and she cursed Karlsson real good on that play. I told her to watch the replay again, that was Alfie firing a pass to Karlsson - in his skates to boot, but no, she won't say a bad thing about him.

Cause he's the Alfie. Who talks bad about the Alfie when he's so fantastically awesome?

Seriously though, Karlsson's been pretty bad defensively of late, he made a horrendous play all by himself right after that if you recall. I love the kid though of course, but he's been having a rough go at it of late.

I agree, the last 5 games he's been sub par defensively.

I'll say one thing about this team I like: we make brutal turnovers night after night but we keep trying to play uptempo with high risk plays and don't go into shy mode. Looks awful right now; long term with more skilled players and more experience/chemistry gonna be redwing-esque.

LeKid wrote:I'll say one thing about this team I like: we make brutal turnovers night after night but we keep trying to play uptempo with high risk plays and don't go into shy mode. Looks awful right now; long term with more skilled players and more experience/chemistry gonna be redwing-esque.

Yeah man, I keep thinking the same thing. No offense to the guys out there, but with a more skilled group, this will be very, very exciting to watch.

spader wrote:
If that's the turnover you're talking about, Ev, I gotta agree with N4L. That one was on Alfie. He clearly put it behind EK and hit him in the skate.

In other news, Spezz scores one to keep the Sens in the game.

There were others. I don't blame him for Alfie's brain fart but he had a few of his own. True, most of them were late in the game when they had to open up and press for a goal. I won't hang this one on Karlsson but I will hang at least one goal squarely on Rundblad. And #7 is not leading the league in points by a defenseman -- by a long shot -- so there just isn't any way I can justify his presence in the lineup. He is making the same mistakes, he is playing with no urgency, he is making high-risk plays in the wrong areas at the wrong times and he is playing very, very soft. He has to go to Bingo and the sooner the better.

Hoags wrote:I wouldn't blame Anderson when he's got the worse defense in the NHL in front of him, missing 2 of its regulars no less.

He gives up easily and loses confidence though. After a brutal giveaway or two I notice his games goes rapidly downhill.

But if the team is playing well and keeps the turnovers low he's usually focuses and motivated.

The defense in front of him was worse last year and he did better. You cannot argue that he is not playing at a lower level than last year. Does it have anything to do with a 4 year deal? God, I hope not.

wprager wrote:He has to go to Bingo and the sooner the better.

I've been saying so for months.

Anderson was lights out for his first 6-7 games then came back down to Earth for the rest last year. He has been pretty good so far, considering the number of pucks he sees.

dennycrane wrote:Anderson was lights out for his first 6-7 games then came back down to Earth for the rest last year. He has been pretty good so far, considering the number of pucks he sees.

That itself is wrong because based on the number of pucks, his save % is still lower than 0.900% and he can't consistently come up with games where his sv % is over 0.900

^ Agreed. Being under 900 is unacceptable for a starter.

being under a 900% means 3 goals or more go in each and every game. That means the team needs to score at least 4 each night to win a game. That's not a sustainable trend in terms of goal scoring.

Anderson has to be better, plain and simple.

Any updates on the Foligno knee-on-knee?