Ottawa Senators TIDBITS & QUICK HITS!

NEELY wrote:It would be nice if someone could surpass the Sens and into 5th for sure. 6th is where you want to be in the 1st round, no question. That said, Ottawa can be Montreal in a 7 game series.

tim1_2 wrote:Montreal's fate will lie in the hands of Price. He's been pretty good lately, but has had this habit of letting in one bad goal per game. In the playoffs, that becomes much more costly. We've basically been playing playoff hockey for the last 15 games or so, so I think we'll be one of the more mentally prepared teams for the playoffs.... Our playoff fate lies in the hands of Spezza I think. If he comes back and is close to 100%, he could be the difference maker in a series. A healthy Michalek would be a big bonus too, but I don't think we can expect that at this point.

With Turris coming around, and Smith filling in nicely, being able to slot Spezza back in would give the team such an offensive boost.

I also assume will be healthy come the playoffs...and I also assume he'll be in #beastmode.

shabbs wrote:BooBoo: According to reports out of Bowling Green, the Senators have signed 6-foot-3 goalie Andrew Hammond. #Sens

https://twitter.com/SunGarrioch/status/313628564962541568

Who is this? NCAA FA?

NEELY wrote:It would be nice if someone could surpass the Sens and into 5th for sure. 6th is where you want to be in the 1st round, no question. That said, Ottawa can be Montreal in a 7 game series.

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:It would be nice if someone could surpass the Sens and into 5th for sure. 6th is where you want to be in the 1st round, no question. That said, Ottawa can be Montreal in a 7 game series.

They are pretty even. Each team has had a regulation win and a SO win. But they were missing Subban in the first three games, and the regulation win was over Budaj. If we meet up in the playoffs they will have home ice (all wins in the first four games came on home ice), they will play Price, and Subban has had a Karlsson-like season since he signed that contract.

It's true that we didn't have Spezza in the lineup in any of the games, so far but, frankly, at this point I am not sure how effective he will be. We've only seen him play 5 games this season and, frankly, apart from the PPG pace, he wasn't all that good.

NEELY wrote:

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:It would be nice if someone could surpass the Sens and into 5th for sure. 6th is where you want to be in the 1st round, no question. That said, Ottawa can be Montreal in a 7 game series.

They are pretty even. Each team has had a regulation win and a SO win. But they were missing Subban in the first three games, and the regulation win was over Budaj. If we meet up in the playoffs they will have home ice (all wins in the first four games came on home ice), they will play Price, and Subban has had a Karlsson-like season since he signed that contract.

It's true that we didn't have Spezza in the lineup in any of the games, so far but, frankly, at this point I am not sure how effective he will be. We've only seen him play 5 games this season and, frankly, apart from the PPG pace, he wasn't all that good.

Might have something to do with his back being the way it was.

Either way, Ottawa isn't an easy out for Montreal, that's for sure. And if you want to use the Price logic, Ottawa has had their backups in for 2 games against the Habs and came out with 3 points.

tim1_2 wrote:Even with a healthy Spezza, missing Karlsson could easily be the difference in ANY playoff series. That said, I think we would keep ANY series really close, just based on the way we've been playing lately, and being able to grind it out.

A healthy Anderson gives us a shot against anyone.

I even think we'd have a shot against the Pens, based on the fact that I'm not sold on Fleury. Both Fleury and Price have the tendency to let in a bad goal here and there, whereas I think I saw Anderson let in one bad goal all season up until he got injured.

I think I'd rather play Montreal over Boston and Pittsburgh, but we'd certainly be the underdog in any of those series. The team I'd least like to see is Pitts.

NEELY wrote:

shabbs wrote:BooBoo: According to reports out of Bowling Green, the Senators have signed 6-foot-3 goalie Andrew Hammond. #Sens

https://twitter.com/SunGarrioch/status/313628564962541568

Who is this? NCAA FA?

Yup, NCAA UFA. Bowling Green is an awful program right now and he seems like a guy that was keeping them in every game. May not be more than an AHL goaltender at the end of the day but it's a free prospect and look at a guy who will have every chance to be competing for an AHL roster spot next year. If he turns into anything more than that, fantastic.

tim1_2 wrote:Even with a healthy Spezza, missing Karlsson could easily be the difference in ANY playoff series. That said, I think we would keep ANY series really close, just based on the way we've been playing lately, and being able to grind it out.

A healthy Anderson gives us a shot against anyone.

I even think we'd have a shot against the Pens, based on the fact that I'm not sold on Fleury. Both Fleury and Price have the tendency to let in a bad goal here and there, whereas I think I saw Anderson let in one bad goal all season up until he got injured.

I think I'd rather play Montreal over Boston and Pittsburgh, but we'd certainly be the underdog in any of those series. The team I'd least like to see is Pitts.

wprager wrote:By the way, I just checked Bishop's game log and he has 27 games of 30+ minutes (missed 28 by 37 seconds in a game last year against Pittsburgh -- starting to really hate that team). So his next game will seal the deal on his RFA status at the end of this season.

Actually, given that this is a shortened season, they should have reduced the number of games required accordingly. Maybe that's in the full CBA. But whatever, he should have it in the bag, soon.