GDT: Sens @ Philly

I don't think MacLean wanted Spezza in the first place. That's why they took forever to name him captain, and said everyone is being considered (from that leadership group).

I wouldn't mind trading for Heatley to eat up salary. It would never happen, but it would be funny to see. You want help Spezza? Here's your goal-scorer back #50in07

Michallica wrote:

NEELY wrote:

wprager wrote:Well, that was pathetic.  Spezza was awful.  Lehrer didn't give them much of.a chance either.  And that goal review totally undid them.  They would have been better off just playing on.  The hopes were raised and then dashed.  This team is to fragile for that kind of emotional rollercoaster.

No it didn't, the 3rd goal killed them and that was because again, Sepzza and his line are just killers of anything positive.  Got hemmed in again, Spezza gave Reid a love tap with the stick once while following him around 1/2 the ice but putting no pressure on him, just floated out to the point with Reid while he made a play to Timonen and Karlsson got walked.  Tough to blame the D with Spezza's line out there because you get tired defending the whole time.  

Lehner wasn't great despite stopping 35 shots, he needed to make once of those saves and he didn't.  First not so great game of the year for him though.  You go back with Anderson tonight and hope for the best.

Dude ur the only one pinning that GWG on spezza.  Most others see that as a total miscommunication and just terrible coverage from Karlsson (or missed assignments).  

That said, Spezza was AWFUL.  So incredibly awful.  I'm sick of him being on the point and having his shot blocked or his pass go wide and come back out of the zone.  

And don't care how many saves Lehner has, but he has to stop that 2nd, 3rd, and 4th goal.  That's 3/4 terrible goals he allowed.  What's up with his pads, both timonen and simmonds goals were the real back breakers IMO.  

Yah I am because Spezza was weak on the man with Reid, pathetic weak. Not so much as a breath on the guy and he just allows him to make a play up the 1/2 wall to Timonen. Karlsson has to hold his man there or at least get a piece and not let him walk in, no question. The thing is how damn tired is Karlsson and Methot at that point having played the entire shift in their zone, chasing the puck, because of Spezza's line having the inability to move the puck?

The center has to be the guy working the hardest in the defensive zone and on that shift and basically every other Spezza is the one giving it away and losing his man or just not being hard enough on the puck carrier. I've said this 100 times, no one expects Spezza to be Backes, Alfie, Brown, Zetterberg, Iginla, whoever, but they need something.

That 3rd goal started because of Spezza's weak coverage and checking, simple as that. Watch it again and you will see him follow Reid around the ice and basically do nothing. There were other mistakes on the play by Karlsson and a weak goal by Lehner but point is it all started with Spezza. It's been like that all year.

This team would be far better off with Fisher at this point than Spezza. Probably the wrong people (along with Kelly) to trade in hindsight.

Ev wrote:This team would be far better off with Fisher at this point than Spezza. Probably the wrong people (along with Kelly) to trade in hindsight.

I don't think so... I think the right moves were made at the time. I don't think it was a mistake to keep Spezza and let them focus around him for a few years, you have to see what you got right? I agree this team would be better off with Fisher right now but I don't think it would have been the last 2 seasons.

You are always looking for those type of vets but moving Fisher in the end was part of the reason they got Ryan (Noesen was the draft pick) and moving Kelly they got Prince out of it who is looking like he will be a decent NHLer at some point. Could they use those guys right now? For sure but the right moves were made with foresight from Murray as well.

Right now though? The right move is getting away from Spezza and actually developing Zibanejad as a center and learning to win as a team.

At the end of the day they planned on a Spezza/Ryan combo long term but guess what, it's turned out to be Turris/Ryan and that's not going to change.

They let Chara walk, they let Alfie walk, they let Redden walk, they cannot let Spezza walk for nothing.

Ev wrote:I don't think MacLean wanted Spezza in the first place. That's why they took forever to name him captain, and said everyone is being considered (from that leadership group).

I wouldn't mind trading for Heatley to eat up salary. It would never happen, but it would be funny to see. You want help Spezza? Here's your goal-scorer back #50in07

He put us in a terrible position if that's true. Stick to your guns and say no if you don't think he should have been captain. Now...you have a really serious issue. Spezza might be the odd man out at forward - not that we even have a second line anyway, but he might be the guy you seriously think about trading with Turris and Ryan being the top guys now. If that's what Murray thinks too, it gets really complicated. You have to ask Spezza to waive, you have to go through a lot of Dung now because of all this. Does he waive? Yeah, probably, but now you're again stuck in the Heatley boat where he can and will veto trades to dumps like Edmonton.

It's the Cussing Heatley situation all over again, it really is...I can't believe we're going through all of this again.

NEELY wrote:At the end of the day they planned on a Spezza/Ryan combo long term but guess what, it's turned out to be Turris/Ryan and that's not going to change.

They let Chara walk, they let Alfie walk, they let Redden walk, they cannot let Spezza walk for nothing.

The more I see, the more I'm VERY worried it won't be Spezza walking for nothing, it'll be Ryan.

...And seriously...MacLean is a great coach - I think - but what the Diddle was he thinking on one of the most important PPs we had last game.

No Turris/Ryan/Mac, nope. He trots out Spezza, Conacher and Michalek. Dumb, dumb and dumber - especially last night. Not Spezza with Zibanejad - a kid who looked like he was trying, nope, Michalek and Conacher. Not Z.Smith who worked his tail off and had some nice chances either.

What the heck makes you put Spezza with Michalek and Conacher out like that? For fun? Well, it wasn't fun - at all.

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:At the end of the day they planned on a Spezza/Ryan combo long term but guess what, it's turned out to be Turris/Ryan and that's not going to change.

They let Chara walk, they let Alfie walk, they let Redden walk, they cannot let Spezza walk for nothing.

The more I see, the more I'm VERY worried it won't be Spezza walking for nothing, it'll be Ryan.

Ryan is having the time of his life here. The only way he walks is due to the budget.

Ryan won't leave. I'm confident. He is adopting the country and city as his home. He is the go-to-guy, like he always wanted to be.

If we re-sign Ryan, I'm happy. He's the heart and Cussing right he's the skill. I said it yesterday and I'll say it again and again, I'd trade Jason Spezza immediately for another Ryan-like player. I wouldn't flinch - and yesterday's game was a fiasco for Spezza.

At least Conacher had that one chance where he drove the net, Spezza did nothing. Bad, bad, bad, bad times.

All I really care about is re-signing Ryan. Then focusing on Methot and MacArthur and Lehner. With Turris and Karlsson under contract long term and Cowen too I guess, it's time to move Spezza for a top six winger and a 2nd pairing D-man if possible - or a high end prospect.

Worst part is teams like toronto and mtl keep on winning....and walloping opponents at that too. Don't like our chances to be quite frank. How the Diddle did we beat boston?

Corvo needs to get in now, I don't want karlsson playing the entire 2 mins of powerplays and tiring himself out.

We can't even bring guys up right now because we don't have the roster space. You could send Grant/Z-Bad/BoroCop down to make space, but then you're punishing guys that have actually played well. Could always waive Kassian to send him down, but I think we want to keep him around the big club. Unless Murray makes a multiple-player for one-player trade (multiple players going out) our hands are kind of tied right now in terms of roster callups. The only move that currently makes sense is sending down Grant and calling up Hoffman, but that's not going to turn our fortunes around either.

Michallica wrote:Worst part is teams like toronto and mtl keep on winning....and walloping opponents at that too.  Don't like our chances to be quite frank.  How the Diddle did we beat boston?

Corvo needs to get in now, I don't want karlsson playing the entire 2 mins of powerplays and tiring himself out.

Some semblance of success can come if you can assemble a 2nd line that doesn't kill momentum every time they're out there. Frankly, if they're not gonna trade Spezza right now, he needs two veteran wingers to prop him up. Fast, big guys who know how to compensate for what he's doing right now.

Still good to try. If turris/zibby is supposed to be our 1-2 punch at center, then I'd rather they send grant back down and put zibanejad at center. What's the point of playing him as a winger with grant, not even on the top two lines?

SpezDispenser wrote:

Michallica wrote:Worst part is teams like toronto and mtl keep on winning....and walloping opponents at that too.  Don't like our chances to be quite frank.  How the Diddle did we beat boston?

Corvo needs to get in now, I don't want karlsson playing the entire 2 mins of powerplays and tiring himself out.

Some semblance of success can come if you can assemble a 2nd line that doesn't kill momentum every time they're out there.  Frankly, if they're not gonna trade Spezza right now, he needs two veteran wingers to prop him up.  Fast, big guys who know how to compensate for what he's doing right now.

This is where I also agree to a degree with neely that spezza has to make his players better. Right now he's overthinking it and making dumb passes and or shots that will easily be blocked and taken out of the zone. What the heck was he thinking at the end of the game on that 6on4? he passed it directly to the flyers defender, no senator in sight near the side of the net.

Give the flyers credit. They kept it simple and shot it from anywhere and everywhere

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

NEELY wrote:At the end of the day they planned on a Spezza/Ryan combo long term but guess what, it's turned out to be Turris/Ryan and that's not going to change.

They let Chara walk, they let Alfie walk, they let Redden walk, they cannot let Spezza walk for nothing.

The more I see, the more I'm VERY worried it won't be Spezza walking for nothing, it'll be Ryan.

Ryan is having the time of his life here. The only way he walks is due to the budget.

They need to spend to the floor, without Ryan they can't even do that. So rest easy there, no way Melnyk can get around it.

tim1_2 wrote:To make matters worse, Minnesota got shelled last night by Montreal, so they'll  be pissed.

I was half-joking about Lehner.  Seriously though, if he doesn't let that first no-angle goal in, or stops either the 3rd or 4th, that game could've been ours.  

The Turris no-goal was just typical of how things have been going for us.  

It's not like we're horrible, but we're very mediocre at best.  We're playing a lot like last year actually, but it seems that with the higher talent level in the lineup now, we've gotten away from the hard-work that made last season a bit of a success.  Kinda depressing.  It's like guys think they don't have to put in as much effort since all our stars are healthy.  

Not to pile on him, but on that second goal he had lots of time to push off with his left leg and slide across. Instead he dove and was way out of position to do anything.