GDT: - New York Islanders @ Ottawa, 7:30PM SNET/TSN1200

This team is in a lot of trouble.

Can't believe they had 57 shots against.  Murray needs to make a deal, even if it's just to shake things up.  It doesn't matter what's going out the door to a certain point.  Anderson is the biggest piece they have to deal.

honestly don't think the Isles were that great btu obviously they need a trade of some sort. The old guard of Phillips, Spezza, and Neil are getting outplayed by the new guard

If they want to fix what's going wrong this season it would certainly seem as though a trade of some sort is in order. Maybe they aren't in a rush to fix it? Go with status quou and sell it as all part of the re-build process.

Ev wrote:honestly don't think the Isles were that great btu obviously they need a trade of some sort. The old guard of Phillips, Spezza, and Neil are getting outplayed by the new guard

Phillips IMO isn't that bad and has been playing the same old same old which is all you need from him. Spezza and Neil though, they can't keep up and they are bringing the Sens down at this point. Really don't think Spezza makes it to another contract with the Sens.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:If they want to fix what's going wrong this season it would certainly seem as though a trade of some sort is in order.  Maybe they aren't in a rush to fix it?  Go with status quou and sell it as all part of the re-build process.

Neil and Spezza are big issues right now... not sure that can be fixed with a trade.

It can be if you purge Neil.

Spezza, whatever, we know at the end of the day he will produce points at least. He is what he is. Neil does nothing right now.

Neil would be perfect on Philly lol

Ev wrote:It can be if you purge Neil.

Spezza, whatever, we know at the end of the day he will produce points at least. He is what he is. Neil does nothing right now.

Neil would be perfect on Philly lol

Spezza is a huge reason why the Sens are getting domianted 5 on 5... if not the biggest. He's the "#1 center" and is losing every puck battle and race. His production isn't going to increase from here on out and truth be told, the Sens were better last year without him.

If the Sens are out of it come March (and they very well might be) you have to look at trading Spezza and Neil. There is just no way you can keep going with those guys at this point and they will still have value.

That's not a good argument because we could just say the Sens were also better without Karlsson.

Spezza has been pretty bad but you gotta just roll with him now. Just put actual wingers on his line next game and roll with it. Nothing you can do at this point.

Ev wrote:That's not a good argument because we could just say the Sens were also better without Karlsson.

Spezza has been pretty bad but you gotta just roll with him now. Just put actual wingers on his line next game and roll with it. Nothing you can do at this point.

Karlsson was the MVP of the NHL until he was hurt and won a Norris year prior, lol. The two aren't even comparable at this point... Karlsson needs to be a lot better though with his decision making.

You can roll with growing pains from the younger guys like Karlsson, Cowen, and whoever else, Spezza, Neil, Greening, Michalek, they have to be doing something 5 on 5.

Spezza just looks soooo bad...

NEELY wrote:Either Spezza is hurt or he doesn't give a f***

Spezza looks pissed off but not in a good way. He's pissed (rightfully so) with being shackled to Neil the whole night, but he's got to channel that anger/resentment into his playing, not lack thereof. You're right, he looked apathetic. Nut, seriously, what is PMac trying to do here -- grow good men or win some hockey games with millionaire players? This isn' the CHL. Spezza is paid $6.5M to play top line minutes with a top line; Neil is (over)paid $2M to run around for 9 minutes banging anything slow enough for him to catch.

Turris is the only one whose line didn't change. What, you expected instant chemistry between Spezza and Neil? And what's happened to Greening?

So, no, not making excuses for Spezza -- he just wasn't even trying -- but let's not forget that Turris has been playing with mostly the same two since day 1.

I'm really scratching my head on what PMac did there. Maybe it was just to shake people up, but we still gave up a ton of shots (and goals) so message not received. Didn't like the moves when I first heard about them, liked them even less when I saw the product on the ice. Did you see how many empty seats there were? Next game (Dallas) will be worse after this performance. If I was Melnyk I'd be very upset at this.

Spezza has been tried with everyone and nothing has worked. Might be a Spezza problem. Fact is he can't keep up with the pace of the game and injuries and surgeries have caught up to him. PP he looks fine and will produce, he has value there. As the captain and a 5 on 5 player, lol, it's turning into a joke.

NEELY wrote:

Number Twenty Nine wrote:

NEELY wrote:Anyone from here on out who says Turris isn't the best center on this Sens team loses any credibility they have.  

We certainly ended up on the better end of that deal.  I was at the Coyotes game last night.  Good God he's awful.

Haha the same people that said that was an awful deal at the time are still the same people that pump Spezza's tires.  I think Ev and I were the only ones that loved it.

You're completely forgetting the fact that before he even came over I was quoting stats about high-scoring defensemen from the SEL. I believe of the top-10 all time there was only one name I remembered and he was nothing much in the NHL. Lidstrom wasn't a top-scoring defenseman in the SEL when he played. I was saying how high-scoring forwards tend to translate to the NHL game a lot better than high-scoring defensemen.

I believe you were the one person before he came to NA saying "lets wait and see", credit there.

In terms of Ev and I, we were both elated with the trade because we knew Turris was this good or had the potential to be.

NEELY wrote:

Ev wrote:It can be if you purge Neil.

Spezza, whatever, we know at the end of the day he will produce points at least. He is what he is. Neil does nothing right now.

Neil would be perfect on Philly lol

Spezza is a huge reason why the Sens are getting domianted 5 on 5... if not the biggest.  He's the "#1 center" and is losing every puck battle and race.  His production isn't going to increase from here on out and truth be told, the Sens were better last year without him.

That's all nice and dandy, but when your goalie is stopping 95 pucks out of every 100 you tend to win. They didn't win last year because Turris stepped in to replace Spezza. If you recall the dialog here it was all about how Turris is struggling as the 1LC, how he's not ready, may never be ready. Fact is the 2n line center plays against weaker opposition and that 2nd line -- the only one PMac kept intact -- is benefiting huge from that.

Sit Spezza out or play his line against the 2nd best of the other team and then we will see if Turris can continue to produce.

Spezza had a really bad game, looked like he was sulking out there. A bit disgraceful, IMO. But at the same time I am really pissed off at PMac for making these lines up.

That said, Condra and MacArthur got their 1st, Karlsson got 2 points, Lehner got them 1 at least (more than Andy did last few games), Cowen played better, Gryba as well.

Now can we drop this stupid experiment and get back to the real lines and pairings?

Are you really telling me that Turris DIDN'T play against the Isles top line? Spezza is already the second line C now.

OK, not doing any more GDTs, PGDTs until they string together 3 wins.