Game Night - Montreal @ Ottawa, Wed, Jan 30, 2013

Well... that was better than anything I could have expected.

SENS WIN! SENS WIN! Anderson is THE ONE.

One thing that drives me nuts is fans leaving before the end of the game. Stay until the end, and salute your team when they put in a fine effort. Also, stay for the 3 stars for that matter. Just accept the fact when you go to a game that you're not getting home early. Drives me insane.

Great game for the Sens...we got plenty of bounces and was going all Neo in the net.

NEELY wrote:

Oglethorpe wrote:

NEELY wrote:

Oglethorpe wrote:

NEELY wrote:Everyone is going to pump the tires of the usual suspects but Boroweicki IMO is going to be a legit top 4 guy one day, right now he's a solid #5, 6. Just solid and players already hate his guts. A Train with an edge which is scary.

Weircioch better learn to play the right side.
Methot
Cowen
Boro

Don't think Weircioch has much of a shot at staying in Ottawa and IMO will be trade bait.

Agreed. I think he'll be a good player, but the left side looks very nice for years to come. Well done Murray!!!

Methot, Cowen, and Boroweicki... Solid and mean. Teams are going to play with 2 left wingers.

Weircioch will be some throw in a deal for a big time player... at least I hope. Don't see the future for him in Ottawa not to mention they still have Phillips for 3 or 4 more seasons.

Phillips is playing the right side tonight and looks pretty good. Doubt we will see him for more than 2 more years though.

For the next few years the D looks good

Methot - Karlsson
Cowen - ????
Boro - Philliips

Bogosian would fit it very nicely as a Gonchar replacement, if not we may have to resign Gonch for a year.

And...

CHRIS NEIL = WIN!

Signing Gonchar for one more season would be a good idea. Get Ceci a full season the in AHL and maybe he pushes after that. Getting Gryba in there wouldn't be the worst thing either.

Well 2-0 without Spezza so perhaps him waiting it out for 2 or 3 weeks isn't the worst thing. This team can play and win without him, be tough but clearly they are good enough.

NEELY wrote:Hahaha Hab fans are getting Ole'd, WELL DONE OTTAWA

That. Felt. Great. I heard some Andy chants too....not enough tonight. Anderson is Cussing awesome right now.

Went to the Washington game last night; it was my first in quite a while (especially since I've just gotten back from the UK). I never liked the Karlsson - Lidstrom comparison until last night when I saw in person his stickwork against Ovechkin. He walked away with a point on the game-winning goal but could have had a few others.

Tonight in a back-to-back he plays 30 minutes with significant PK time, picks up another point and creates many more opportunities. His defence was, once again, impeccable.

I know I'm totally preaching to the choir hear but it bears repeating: he has to be in the conversation about the best player on the planet. He's everywhere on the ice and he's fantastic in every zone. In particular I have no idea who the last player was who could work a breakout the way he can, but it's certainly not anyone else in the NHL right now. And he's continuing to play fantastically with Spezza out - it's not that he's benefitting from good players, he's raising the performance of everybody else on the team.

**** man. Mind-blowing.

Also Anderson is incredible.

The Alfie with the game winner tonight.

Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

NEELY wrote:Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

What keeps me from just being used to this is that he's even better than last season. Last year he was such an incredible offensive force and a lot of his defensive contribution came from the fact that he got the puck to the offensive zone so consistently. This year he is almost entirely flawless. Against Washington apart from one miscue (which happens with every player) it was like every attempt by a Capital to bring the puck by him was just a waste of time.

What is as incredible as his performance thus far is the fact that he has seriously upgraded his game every season going back at least as far as 2007. And he won the Norris last year.

tim1_2 wrote:One thing that drives me nuts is fans leaving before the end of the game. Stay until the end, and salute your team when they put in a fine effort. Also, stay for the 3 stars for that matter. Just accept the fact when you go to a game that you're not getting home early. Drives me insane.

Great game for the Sens...we got plenty of bounces and was going all Neo in the net.

You do realize it's 75% Habs fans in there, right?

asq2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

What keeps me from just being used to this is that he's even better than last season. Last year he was such an incredible offensive force and a lot of his defensive contribution came from the fact that he got the puck to the offensive zone so consistently. This year he is almost entirely flawless. Against Washington apart from one miscue (which happens with every player) it was like every attempt by a Capital to bring the puck by him was just a waste of time.

What is as incredible as his performance thus far is the fact that he has seriously upgraded his game every season going back at least as far as 2007. And he won the Norris last year.

Kid is incredible, controls the game like no other player in the game and no other player in the last 20 years aside from Lidstrom. Just as impressive is the fact he never gets touched or hit by others. I remember people screaming about a small guy not being able to play D... well you can't hit a guy that you can't catch.

Generational talent and I am saying it now, I would take him over Stamkos. Karlsson is a better player.

asq2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

What keeps me from just being used to this is that he's even better than last season. Last year he was such an incredible offensive force and a lot of his defensive contribution came from the fact that he got the puck to the offensive zone so consistently. This year he is almost entirely flawless. Against Washington apart from one miscue (which happens with every player) it was like every attempt by a Capital to bring the puck by him was just a waste of time.

What is as incredible as his performance thus far is the fact that he has seriously upgraded his game every season going back at least as far as 2007. And he won the Norris last year.

Well, let's not forget a few things:

1. Lots of players are not in game shape.
2. The East is very weak this year, and we still haven't seen the Bees, Rags and Flyers. Oh, and we lost to the Pens.
3. He's freakin' awesome!

NEELY wrote:Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

Totally was at that game and saw the same thing. Sweden Finland am I right?

NEELY wrote:

asq2 wrote:

NEELY wrote:Still remember him playing in the WJC at the Civic Center and saying to myself "this kid is special". Never saw anyone walk the blueline like he did and control the game like he did. I remember saying he was the best D man on the ice each and everytime, made Hedman look like a 2nd rate D man and people thought I was just a homer and nuts.

4 years later... top 5 player on the planet. Best D man in the world.

What keeps me from just being used to this is that he's even better than last season. Last year he was such an incredible offensive force and a lot of his defensive contribution came from the fact that he got the puck to the offensive zone so consistently. This year he is almost entirely flawless. Against Washington apart from one miscue (which happens with every player) it was like every attempt by a Capital to bring the puck by him was just a waste of time.

What is as incredible as his performance thus far is the fact that he has seriously upgraded his game every season going back at least as far as 2007. And he won the Norris last year.

Kid is incredible, controls the game like no other player in the game and no other player in the last 20 years aside from Lidstrom. Just as impressive is the fact he never gets touched or hit by others. I remember people screaming about a small guy not being able to play D... well you can't hit a guy that you can't catch.

Generational talent and I am saying it now, I would take him over Stamkos. Karlsson is a better player.

Well, duh! I said that last night. Stamkos is still very one-dimensional. Karlsson is leading the league in TOI but is third in ES TOI (Big Buff leads there because he only has 38 seconds of SH TOI -- that's 38 seconds *total*, not per game). Karlsson is getting 2:20 SH TOI per game -- not league leading by any stretch, but he's only getting 3:36 PP TOI per game. Never thought we'd see Karlsson getting 2/3 as much PK time as he does PP time.

Yeah I know it's early and I don't want to get ahead of myself. But in terms of what he's done this season there were a lot of Finnish posters saying he may also win the Finnish Elite League defenceman scoring race despite not playing half the season.

All I can say is (and I'm probably not qualified as I got into the Senators later than a lot of you I'm sure) we've had some great players who have put up great numbers don the Sens jersey: Heatley, Spezza, Hossa, Chara, Redden, Yashin, etc. The only player I've watched who has had a comparable on-ice impact to EK right now is Alfredsson right after the last lock-out. And then we are talking about the greatest player in the franchise's modern history in his prime versus Karlsson at 22.