Ottawa Senators vs Phoenix Coyotes, January 24th, 9:00

there's no way Ottawa is getting home ice.

Hoags wrote:

NEELY wrote:That game is on MacLean. If he doesn't try and force Butler down everyone's throat they win that game.

MacLean is awesome but WTF does he keep putting Butler up on the top line for ?

Showcasing?

Wow. A lot of doom & gloom here. I watched the first two periods before going to bed, and what I saw was a team for which you could definitely use the "tired" excuse...they just all looked out-of-sync. This team played more hockey than anyone up to this point, and had to finish up on a west-coast swing.

I'm going to give this group and coaching staff the benefit of the doubt (I think they've earned that). The break has come at a good time, and let's see how they do when they get back before we push the panic button. The "second half" of the season is well spaced out, and we have the benefit of playing more games at home than on the road. Also, I think we end up playing a lot of non-playoff teams from here on out. Things are still heavily in our favour, and we're in a spot NONE of us imagined four months ago.

17 of a possible 26 points so far in Jan. One more game left to play this month vs Boston on Jan 31st after the All Star break. A lot of road games in there. I'd say pretty damn good and the break will be much needed.

shabbs wrote:17 of a possible 26 points so far in Jan. One more game left to play this month vs Boston on Jan 31st after the All Star break. A lot of road games in there. I'd say pretty damn good and the break will be much needed.

You nailed it, pretty much. Yeah, we likely should've picked up a couple more points out of the last three games, but it's hard to fault this group if they're a little tired. Also, we did get some horrendous officiating against us (although the refs did kinda help us against the Leafs). Three games in four days with three different start times in three different cities in multiple time zones (none of which were Eastern). Kind of a tough little stretch after playing a ton of hockey up to this point.

Let's give them props for where they are, and assume that they will come back strong after the break. They've earned the benefit of the doubt.

tim1_2 wrote:Wow. A lot of doom & gloom here. I watched the first two periods before going to bed, and what I saw was a team for which you could definitely use the "tired" excuse...they just all looked out-of-sync. This team played more hockey than anyone up to this point, and had to finish up on a west-coast swing.

I'm going to give this group and coaching staff the benefit of the doubt (I think they've earned that). The break has come at a good time, and let's see how they do when they get back before we push the panic button. The "second half" of the season is well spaced out, and we have the benefit of playing more games at home than on the road. Also, I think we end up playing a lot of non-playoff teams from here on out. Things are still heavily in our favour, and we're in a spot NONE of us imagined four months ago.

No doom a gloom from me I was just really distrubed by how poorly Butler has played, that's my only concern.

The Sens are still in a fantastic spot going forward and unless every single team wins every single game behind them, they will find themselves in a playoff spot come April. The schedule lightens up and they play a ton of home games over the next month, that's huge. While Toronto has such a tough schedule coming up it's hard to believe they will actually make the playoffs.

The Sens can still finish this 6 game road trip at 500 if they beat Boston next week.If they don't, oh well. Still an amazing month for a team that no one yet believes in.

Big Ev wrote:Holy Diddle Sportsnet please fire Dean Broan and Denis Potvin. Classless and annoying those 2 are.

Ironic coming from you.

NEELY wrote:Petersson def deserves a shot going forward.

Someone has a huge opportunity to say the least, whether it's Petersson, Hoffman (not ready), Da Costa on the wing, someone can step up offensively now before Murray goes out of organization.

NEELY wrote:No doom a gloom from me I was just really distrubed by how poorly Butler has played, that's my only concern.

Yeah, the Butler situation is unfortunate. He has shown flashes of greatness, but just can't do anything consistently. Not a guy you want in your top 6 right now.

He's been given chances for success, and it won't be long before he's relegated back to the 4th line. The problem is that we're short on legit top-6 [i]scoring[u] wingers. This isn't necessarily a problem when all the guys are doing the little things right (i.e. Greening playing the body and being a beast in general). The guys are just a little out-of-sync.

If Murray can land another top-6 forward (think of where we'd be WITHOUT Turris right now), everything will be dandy.

I'm never a fan of the idea of juggling the lines like MacStache has done the past few games (what was wrong with Michalek-Spezza-Greening?), but I defer to the Stache, and can't question his coaching ability. He's shown that he's pretty in-tune with his team, but he can only do so much with what he has.

I don't think it's helped lately that Karlsson has been a little off (that's my impression), and guys like Smith, Daugavins, and Greening just don't quite seem to be playing like they were earlier. Again, hope the break is a cure-all.

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:Petersson def deserves a shot going forward.

Someone has a huge opportunity to say the least, whether it's Petersson, Hoffman (not ready), Da Costa on the wing, someone can step up offensively now before Murray goes out of organization.

I agree with you that Petersson or Da Costa could be a potential solution, I don't think they are the ideal solution for making a playoff push down the stretch. A "rental" top-6 forward is the best bet for THIS year. Obviously, the NHL experience for Petersson or Da Costa would be beneficial to their development, but that is probably more of a "last year" solution, as there is a playoff spot on the line now, and there's not a lot of room for error.

I assume there is some sort of unofficial (or maybe official) trade moratorium for the next few days, but maybe we'll see some action early next week?

SpezDispenser wrote:What the hell is happening? How is that not a goal?

I know what happened but no one seems to believe me.

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:I get the no goal, I dont understand the penalty

I don't. Foligno is driving to the net with a defender on him gets a shot off from the top of the crease and Alfie puts in the rebound. Tied game.

Then some a-hole with a striped shirt starts waving his arms, just like the other a-hole last night pointing to center.

People on here know I don't even bring the refs up most of the time, but damn...let's justbe thankful we're done with the West coast for a while.

The team is absolutely emptied. Did you see Karlsson at the 2nd intermission interview? He looked like like a Zombie.

tim1_2 wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:Petersson def deserves a shot going forward.

Someone has a huge opportunity to say the least, whether it's Petersson, Hoffman (not ready), Da Costa on the wing, someone can step up offensively now before Murray goes out of organization.

I agree with you that Petersson or Da Costa could be a potential solution, I don't think they are the ideal solution for making a playoff push down the stretch. A "rental" top-6 forward is the best bet for THIS year. Obviously, the NHL experience for Petersson or Da Costa would be beneficial to their development, but that is probably more of a "last year" solution, as there is a playoff spot on the line now, and there's not a lot of room for error.

I assume there is some sort of unofficial (or maybe official) trade moratorium for the next few days, but maybe we'll see some action early next week?

I'm not sure there's any kind of moratorium right now, but I can see GMs not wanting to announce trades that may even involved an all-star player right now.

Unfortunately I think you guys are right, I think the Sens are gonna need a top 6 guy to play with Spezza. In a perfect world we'd have Michalek - Turris - Alfredsson and then Foligno - Spezza - Greening, but it doesn't appear to be working in terms of production. I think we could always go back to the Greening - Spezza - Michalek and Foligno/Condra - Turris - Alfredsson top two lines, but when you break it down it would be much better to get Greening down with Z.Smith for now and import someone to score.

I think we may have seen Butler play one of his last games for a while. It's not that he's awful at the game of hockey, but he's supposed to be a goal-scorer and it's clear that there's a disconnect there. I would guess that Petersson will get a shot when we come back from the break - and if he doesn't do it, then we'll have to acquire someone. The cheaper the better please...someone mentioned Huselius, I've always liked him if he's healthy. He makes a lot of $$ for the rest of this year, maybe he'll come a bit cheaper.

Also, watching Fat Penner play the other day, I think he could be fine here for the rest of the year - but I don't want to give up much for him, so that's likely out as well.

A top 6 to play with Spezza is gonna cost something we don't want to pay.

LeKid wrote:A top 6 to play with Spezza is gonna cost something we don't want to pay.

Then we don't pay it - simple as that. Murray has a lot of work to do for sure in terms of burning up the phone lines trying to find the best deal on a guy who can score. It won't be easy - and I've thought for a while that it won't happen, which is 100% fine with me personally. We have the nucleus of a very solid scoring team with options from Bingo, I'd rather put Petersson in a position to succeed, I'd rather see Daugavins get some time, I'd rather see Da Costa get a chance on wing (still too weak though IMO), Hoffman. Or again, go back to the Greening - Spezza - Michalek, Condra - Turris - Alfredsson.

Meh, depends who it is. If it's a Cullen type deal again, you do it.

Oglethorpe wrote:

Big Ev wrote:Holy Diddle Sportsnet please fire Dean Broan and Denis Potvin. Classless and annoying those 2 are.

Ironic coming from you.

But I'm not paid to broadcast to thousands of people in a public forum.