Game Day: Sens host Detroit - Oct. 11th, 2008

Gerber had on of his strongest games since he's become a Sen. The last goal was weak, but without his tending up till then it could easily have been 6 or 7 to 1.

I can't believe how badly Heatley and Spezza played, these are the times were you lean on them so heavily. I'll toss this one up to the layoff between games and the Swedish trip because we know how awesome they are.

Fisher just wasn't in game shape, that was pretty much the long of the short of that.

Our D is very slow retreating back for pucks.

Winchester should be on the top line once and for all. What a beast along the boards! Wow.

Foligno's is definitely an early nominee for goal of the year.

What else...oh...Detroit is a lot better than we are. We looked like deer caught in headlights in the first, it could've been so much worse.

None of our D were particularily great to be honest. Not a great transition game at all (although Detroit's pretty friggin handy at breaking up breakouts).

Practice this week and try to shake off the rust for Friday.

Neely4Life wrote:SPezza and Fisher were absolutly awful tonight! Spezza must have had 3 give aways in his own zone, I dont care who you are playing againsts, thats unacceptable.

Fisher was brutal and just not into the game at all, brutal.

in the words of the announcer "brutal, and I mean brutal giveaways"

It's a shame... as all the focus will be on Gerber when he was not the main reason for the loss.

EDIT: Don Brennan is already at it. His article today is titled: "Soft Gerber goal brings out boobirds at Bank..."

http://www.ottawasun.com/Sports/Senators/2008/10/12/7058361-sun.html

Sigh...

Gerbs definitely kept us in the game last night. Yes it is frustrating that with a little over a minute left that he let that goal in but I think the bigger question is why the other players weren't there blocking or helping him out. Winnie was amazing and is becoming one of my favourite Sens. Fish seemed to be out of place at times and you gotta love what Ruutu brings to this game. It was funny to hear the fans start with the Ruutu chanting. People around me were asking why people were booing him.

It's a shame that Gerber had to spoil a good performance though. As mentioned, you can make save after save, but it all comes down to the all important ones that we don't seem to get.

As I've been advocating for ages now, Foligno should be top 6. I still stand by Heatley-Sepzza-Winchester/Foligno and the other one with Fisher/Vermette-Alfredsson.

Bottom line he let in another weak one. I've been defending him forwever, but he's making that job harder and harder.

Overall though that was an amazing game! Playoff type hockey already.

I too absolutely love Whinchester, he's just simply a very smart player. Picard I really like as well. He's the key to that trade and Murray knew what he was doing.

jamvan wrote:Bottom line he let in another weak one. I've been defending him forwever, but he's making that job harder and harder.

Overall though that was an amazing game! Playoff type hockey already.

I too absolutely love Whinchester, he's just simply a very smart player. Picard I really like as well. He's the key to that trade and Murray knew what he was doing.

Exactly my point... You can make 100 saves but no one remembers if you let in that weak goal... None of the top goaltenders let that happen.. It seems it's a weekly occurence with Gerber.. I'm sick of the same old argument "He was awesome tonight, he really held us in, it's too bad he let that soft one in at the end" He really has to go, before this season goes down the tubes and the players lose confidence in their goaltender.. Ottawa may not of deserved to win that game last night.. But a good goalie, would have at least gave them a shot... We should have walked away with at least a point regardless how we played before that point...

I really think we should try and see what we can get Toskala out of Toronto for. We've tried to get him in a Sens jersey before from SJ with no luck.

Yep I love Winchester. He doesn't look like a rookie to me, very composed. I agree with the consensus here that Gerbs isn't giving us the goaltending to win those types of games. My arguement this whole time is that Khabby really isn't either. I doubt the Leafs let go of Toskala at all. But with Fletcher, you never know...

I have to argue with you guys. Gerber gave us every opportunity to win this game, it came down to them shooting 43 times or whatever and us taking 22 shots, in the long run any NHL goaltender's eventually gonna let one in. This was a game that Detroit should've won by 3 or 4 goals easily.

Last night you could've said the same about 10 goalies including Toskala, Luongo and the new most interesting story to watch: Kipper and his amazing levels of suckage.

Allow me to rephrase Heats. I agree with the consensus here that Gerbs isn't giving us the goaltending to win those types of games on his own. (He is giving us the goaltending to keep us in the game, which is all I personally ask). There would have to be a better team effort to win that game, which is hard to argue since we lost yesterday despite Gerber's efforts. And yes there are only a handful of goalies who are better, not Khabby, not any available goalie IMO. Nevertheless, every year our fans get bent out of shape when we don't have an undisputeable premier stud in nets - with Hasek being the exception.

I think the key stat that sums it up well is:

Detroit: 41 shots
Ottawa: 22 shots

That ain't gonna cut it no matter who you have back there.

beerandsens wrote:Allow me to rephrase Heats. I agree with the consensus here that Gerbs isn't giving us the goaltending to win those types of games on his own. (He is giving us the goaltending to keep us in the game, which is all I personally ask). There would have to be a better team effort to win that game, which is hard to argue since we lost yesterday despite Gerber's efforts. And yes there are only a handful of goalies who are better, not Khabby, not any available goalie IMO. Nevertheless, every year our fans get bent out of shape when we don't have an undisputeable premier stud in nets - with Hasek being the exception.

For sure - and you can definitely count me in on that one. We just have to deal with the situation as best we can and wait until either a goaltender of consequence hits the open market - or a trade unfolds, or for Brian Elliot.

I think you nailed it for now though, the only thing we should need and/or expect is for Gerber to give us the opportunity to win. Beyond that it's up the significant talents of our top paid guys and the overall work ethic etc. etc. etc.

Here's another question to ponder: were Spezza and Heatley just plain bad last night - or did the Wings make them look bad? I ask because I think it's a scary question that Hartsburg might have to look at and coach them through. If a team is as good as the Wings are - or even close to it - they'll have the guys to take away time and space and passing lanes etc. Hartsburg has to make sure Spezza and Heatley adapt their game on the fly when teams smother them like the Wings did. They can't stick to the original game plan of entering the zone and using nifty passes to get scoring chances. If they want to be premiere players in this league, they need to understand what's happening and change their games on the fly to be a much more dump and retrieve game. If the Wings are defending the blueline and neutral zone, they need to be aware of dumping it and getting in on the Wings D. Winchester is good for that kind of thing, I think when they become aware of their situations, they'll know that if they dump it, Winchester will be in on puck retrieval and they can start blocking the walls and the cycle will begin.

If not, we'll play the better teams and be as frustrated as we were when the Ducks beat us.

504Heater wrote:I have to argue with you guys. Gerber gave us every opportunity to win this game, it came down to them shooting 43 times or whatever and us taking 22 shots, in the long run any NHL goaltender's eventually gonna let one in. This was a game that Detroit should've won by 3 or 4 goals easily.

Last night you could've said the same about 10 goalies including Toskala, Luongo and the new most interesting story to watch: Kipper and his amazing levels of suckage.

Sorry, Heater, I have to respectfully disagree. Yes, he stopped a lot of shots, but there were really not that many chances. How many saves did he make like the one Luongo did to keep the score 3-1 (and eventually the 'Nucks came back and tied it, then won in OT). Osgood may not have had as many shots to handle, but h certainly came up big on some nice chances the Sens had. Total shot count can be misleading. Detroit was better, but not 42-22 better.

And I still have an issue with the tying goal. If he's out playing the angle the shot hits him in the pads or goes wide. Sure, the rest of the Sens weren't ready for the play (they went for an ill-advised change on the play) but neither was Gerber. And it's not like he just came on for a shift -- he's in there for the duration, so he's got to always be ready.

I love that Milbury said during one of the intermissions that if you have a choice in the 5th round between a kid from Gothenberg and a kid from Canada, you always take the Canadian one (when Alfredsson was taken with a 6th rounder).

There's definitely reasons he's an analyst now and not a GM. That's just one of them.

504Heater wrote:There's definitely reasons he's an analyst now and not a GM. That's just one of them.

Honestly, though, from where I sit, he was a better GM than he is an analyst. At least as a GM I didn't have to see that smug mug of his or listen to the inane nonsense that comes out of his mouth. At least Cherry is usually right about the hockey side of things, and you can use his outfits to adjust the color saturation on your set. I find no redeeming qualities in Dickbury.