(1) New York Rangers vs (8) Ottawa Senators - Playoffs Round 1

Big Ev wrote:
Nah you threw him under the bus. Already seeing people call for Lehner. It's a joke.

No it was a (dis)honourable mention for Andy, it wasn't his fault we lost but he wasn't sharp tonight either. Nobody was. Team was just flat, typically Sens game after a long layoff.
As for Lehner it was a bit of a joke that if we lose 3, MacLean might feel tempted to put Lehner in and see if he can save the season like he did for Bingo.

It felt like the last Habs game where we spent most of the game shooting pucks at Josh Gorges shin pads. They are really aggressive on the shot blocks and the Sens need to pick better shots, because few good ones got through.

The Rangers are Dung, they turtle in front of Lundqvist all night and just take advantage of our mistakes. Felt like a Bruins game.

This is where we need Spezza and Michalek to get in there and make the Rags D scramble a bit more. Andy needed the 4th goal, but hot damn Cowen was scared. In fact, there must have been 10 giveaways right in front of our net. Madness.

TheAvatar wrote:First goal was Kuba's fault. Third goal was Cowen. Gotta find a way to find more time and space for Karlsson. I hope he doesn't get punched in the face anymore; we can't afford the penalty

First one was on Andy. Guy had no shot, all he had to do was hug the post. Instead he goes way out, and leaves too much room.

Hoags wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

you say they could play better then you blame it on Anderson

man sometimes I don't want to be a part of this fan base lol

I said they've played better, last time I checked Anderson is part of the team genius.

"Pinkie" would be the first to admit he wasn't anywhere near #beastmode.

I blame this on Mendes tweeting howAnderson was 6-0-0 at MSG and how the Sens were 13-1 in their last 14. Way to hex it up!

Well, hopefully the Sens got their "sillys" out and will have a better showing in Game 2 from start to finish. They hung with the Rags at the start and then let it slip away.

Anderson certainly wasn't in #beastmode, that's for sure. But you can't hang this on him. The first goal was a combo of Kuba not getting his man and Andy being off the post a bit. Hard to call it a soft one, lucky shot. The 2nd goal was a total crapping of the bed by Cowen and Gonchar. 3rd goal was a rocket that Andy would love to have back for sure. 4th goal was on Foligno for getting stripped behind the net and the rest of the Sens on the ice who let Richards sail in untouched. They need to recognize who's on the ice at all times. Gotta be better.

I can't remember seeing the Sens be sloppier in both ends of the ice since our terrible stretch to start the season. Part of that was the Rangers (who do an amzing job of clogging up lanes and getting sticks/bodies on everything), and part of that was the Sens just being bad (nerves or whatever). I fully anticipate McStache righting the ship when it comes to the bad defensive plays and sloppiness up front.

Two guys that stick out as needing to be way better are Spezza and Smith. Hopefully both of those guys can turn it around next game as our group of centers has to be stronger (although for the most part Turris was good last night).

Zack Smith is a guy I thought would be an absolute beast in the playoffs and there is still 3-6 games to go before you can make a real judgement but he was AWFUL last night. No jam, no drive, and really didn't show up.

Spezza is another guy that needs to be better although the Rangers focus in on him and give him very little time and space.

The other guy is Michalek, he was in never-never land last. Forgot he was on the team at times.

Anderson was not good. He plays like that and the Sens will not be winning a game in this series. He doesn't need to be Lundqvist but he needs to make a save.

I thought Karlsson was VERY solid all game considering the Rangers entire forcheck was based on rattling Karlsson. He moved the puck, got shots through, and was solid in his own end.

I think Karlsson has set the bar so high based on his play this season that it's dissapointing when he has nights like last night. He wasn't bad by any stretch, especially with the amount of pressure they put on him, but he'll need to make better decisions if we have any chance in this series.

It was a tough game to judge last night, as no one really played up to snuff (except Turris, Alfredsson and Neil) which could be because the Rangers are just THAT much better (doubt it) or because of nerves, ect (more likely).

stempniaksen wrote:I think Karlsson has set the bar so high based on his play this season that it's dissapointing when he has nights like last night. He wasn't bad by any stretch, especially with the amount of pressure they put on him, but he'll need to make better decisions if we have any chance in this series.

It was a tough game to judge last night, as no one really played up to snuff (except Turris, Alfredsson and Neil) which could be because the Rangers are just THAT much better (doubt it) or because of nerves, ect (more likely).

The thing with Karlsson is he is supposed to move the puck out of the zone, up to the forwards, get pucks through, and jump into the rush on occasion... he did that. The guys around him have to be way better for him to have any kind of success in terms of point production. He's doing all the right things out there and if the forwards show up next game the Sens will be fine.

I think last night was a very clear indication of how they are lacking 2, top 6 forwards. Maybe Silfverberg and Zibanejad come in next year and fills those spots but right now it's lacking. A guy like Foligno should be playing his best hockey of his career right now and he looks like nothing other than a 3rd line grinder. It's an issue.

That's a valid point actually, if the forwards take some of his passes and do more with them we aren't talking about his "shortcomings" today. I still think he could have made better decisions, but he was far from the worst offender last night, at least he showed some fire.

And having a couple of guys to step in would be ideal for sure, as Greening and Foligno would probably be better served in the bottom-six (which would allow us to sit Daugavins who was terribad yesterday and make guys fight for their spot instead of being inserted into the lineup by default because they are better than Butler/Konopka).

Nevertheless, I think Ottawa will come out with a much better effort in game 2 and that, regardless of a win or loss, we'll all be a lot happier witht he teams effort.

stempniaksen wrote:That's a valid point actually, if the forwards take some of his passes and do more with them we aren't talking about his "shortcomings" today. I still think he could have made better decisions, but he was far from the worst offender last night, at least he showed some fire.

And having a couple of guys to step in would be ideal for sure, as Greening and Foligno would probably be better served in the bottom-six (which would allow us to sit Daugavins who was terribad yesterday and make guys fight for their spot instead of being inserted into the lineup by default because they are better than Butler/Konopka).

Nevertheless, I think Ottawa will come out with a much better effort in game 2 and that, regardless of a win or loss, we'll all be a lot happier witht he teams effort.

Winchester was near invisable too. Thought O'Brien showed a bit though. Liked his game.

Wonder if we'll see Carks in the line-up for Game 2 if he's ready. The Rags were able to walk right in pretty much all game. There was very little push back from the Sens. They gotta be tougher on the puck and tougher on the man.

Well, that was somewhat disappointing. We all know we weren't going to win every game and it would be difficult to win the series against this team, but being down 4-0 after outplaying them for the most part was surely frustrating. I am very happy that we were able to break the goose egg and score a few on Lundqvist to show that he is indeed human and we can in fact score on the guy if we manage to get pucks through to him. That should definitely give us some confidence going forward.

The one thing that REALLY frustrated me last night was that on practically (if not all) icings the Rangers had, MacLean put out Turris (he who can't win a faceoff) to take the faceoff and it always led to us not winning the faceoff and chasing the puck again. Why did he not have Spezza out there every time? Or Winchester or someone that could actually win the faceoff? Why put in this young buck who has but a grand total of about 6 playoff games under his belt and put so much pressure on him? It definitely was not working and I don't know why he didn't adjust this throughout the game. I'm definitely not a coach, but I was very frustrated with that and was definitely question MacLean for the first time ever this season. We would have had so much more opportunity to be in the game if we could've capitalized on those ridiculous icings they kept taking. I've actually never seen a team that is supposed to be as good as the Rangers, ice the puck so often. They also caught on that Turris was the man that was taking the faceoffs, therfore it wasn't a big deal if icing the puck was what they needed to do to get out of a certain situation where they felt uncomfortable.

Anyways, I'm happy with the way we ended the game and I think we actually got more jump and hopefully after watching some video today and adjusting, we'll come out harder and stronger tomorrow night.

It is afterall a 7 game series.

GO SENS GO!!!

I figured the first game would be tough for this group. Anderson was okay, maybe even better than okay, but okay is not enough when going against the Rangers. Lundqvist let in two but those didn't matter to the Rangers at that point.

The two keys in this series are Anderson playing about as well as Lundqvist and the Sens PP producing. If neither of those things happen, it will be a very short series.

shabbs wrote:Well, hopefully the Sens got their "sillys" out and will have a better showing in Game 2 from start to finish. They hung with the Rags at the start and then let it slip away.

No matter what, the kids are getting a ton of experience. We can't really lose because, according to The Gene, "we've already won."

Like Gilroy's game to be honest. Thought he played really well.