GAME DAY: Ottawa Senators @ New Jersey Devils :: 7:30pm ET :: Wed. Dec. 18th, 2013

SpezDispenser wrote:

LeKing wrote:Just get whatever you can get man, it's not like we're missing some prospects.

This is where Murray earns his money. To Philly for voracek?  To Toronto for jvr?  Oh please, Iove jvr.  He and Ryan and Turris together.  Dare to dream...

Nonis isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer either.

I can see Spezza to the Leafs being a nightmare that would come back to haunt us. Oh boy.

As far as I am concerned this is karma for Melnyk and Murray blowing negotiations with Alfie big time.    They can shove their budget up their Donkey, eat Dung and die for all I care.

I don't think this is all on Spezza, there is something wrong with the "leadership group" in Ottawa.  They've always said they led by committee.  I guess Alfie could keep everyone else in line for the most part.

They need to get rid of Neil and Phillips.  Nothing against them really, just get rid of anyone who's been here a long time and complete the culture change.

Murray doesn't have the balls to deal Spezza, he's way too loyal to longtime Sens. That's always been his biggest fault as GM imo, too much faith in people that don't deserve it.

Hoags wrote:As far as I am concerned this is karma for Melnyk and Murray blowing negotiations with Alfie big time.    They can shove their budget up their Donkey, eat Dung and die for all I care.

I don't think this is all on Spezza, there is something wrong with the "leadership group" in Ottawa.  They've always said they led by committee.  I guess Alfie could keep everyone else in line for the most part.

They need to get rid of Neil and Phillips.  Nothing against them really, just get rid of anyone who's been here a long time and complete the culture change.

Based on what? What in their game says "yah, they need to go". You get rid of Neil you pay double to bring in someone like him. Phillips, he's the only guy with facial hair on the blueline.

The perfect emoticon for the current situation.

NEELY wrote:
Based on what?  What in their game says "yah, they need to go".  You get rid of Neil you pay double to bring in someone like him.  Phillips, he's the only guy with facial hair on the blueline.

Based on the fact that some people are just too comfortable in Ottawa and don't give a Dung, because they know they'll be retiring here.

And if CP4 is the only guy with facial hair on the blueline that about says more about the state of our blue line than Phillips. Too many kids with 1 year or less of NHL experience expected to do things they're clearly not ready for.

shabbs wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

LeKing wrote:Just get whatever you can get man, it's not like we're missing some prospects.

This is where Murray earns his money. To Philly for voracek?  To Toronto for jvr?  Oh please, Iove jvr.  He and Ryan and Turris together.  Dare to dream...

Nonis isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer either.

I can see Spezza to the Leafs being a nightmare that would come back to haunt us. Oh boy.

Yeah and JVR and Ryan haunting the East for years to come though.

NEELY wrote:From the Sun today....

"Coach Paul MacLean isn't happy at all.

He questioned the club's work ethic and leadership."

"We're an inconsistent group. We can't get the puck out of our zone. We play good against good teams. We play bad against teams below us. That's just a lack of focus, a lack of leadership and that's a lack of us wanting to play in the National Hockey League and be an elite team. We are a long, long way from being an elite team."

That's really bad and basically what everyone thought.  Anyone who says that isn't a direct shot at Spezza is just lying to themselves at this point.

Coach MacLean needs to step up to a mirror. Some of these the guild is probably shared with management, but still:
- sending Pageau and Zibanejad down while keeping Conacher
- continuing to play Conacher, giving him lots of top-six minutes
- not walking the walk when it comes to "best players play" (ANdersson, Cowen, Conacher, Michalek, Spezza, Greening, etc.)
- continuing to pair Spezza with Michalek when it's clear both of them have lost a couple of steps and should be split up)
- sitting Lehner after his 3 game winning streak (broke the kid's confidence, IMO)
- sitting Methot when he was ready (last night)

The moves with the goaltending were truly bizarre. Bringing up Zibanejad and playing him on the 4th line when he's performing better than half of his top-six when correcting for ice time. He's benched Karlsson for a half period but for most of the season he continued giving him 25+ minutes even when he was playing badly (in his own end).

NEELY wrote:
Team is firing on all cylinders when Spezza is out last year, best coached team in the NHL all things considered, makes the playoffs, wins a round.  Spezza comes back and WHAM hammered by Pitt. Reg season starts and the Sens have been awful pretty much the entire way aside from a few games just like Spezza.
 

Neely come on. We lost to Pittsburgh because they were far better than Montreal, Anderson stopped being a wall and Vokoun wasn't as bad as Price was. Spezza was coming cold and off an injury much like several others, we stood no chance against them.
The team was OK in MacLean's first year when Spezza was #4 in league scoring, there was no leadership questions. The team has always been Dung defensively under MacLean, they give up too many shots they can't kill penalties the goalies have been bailing them out for 2 years. MacLean's Jack Adams belongs to Anderson.

This isn't on MacLean at all. Last year he could coach, this year he has Spezza. Guys going up and down is an organizational decision as well not just the coach.

Either way, Spezza is the player than needs to head out next and whether you are a Spezza fan or not there is no way you can deny the idea that his time in Ottawa is more than likely up.

Hoags wrote:

NEELY wrote:
Team is firing on all cylinders when Spezza is out last year, best coached team in the NHL all things considered, makes the playoffs, wins a round.  Spezza comes back and WHAM hammered by Pitt. Reg season starts and the Sens have been awful pretty much the entire way aside from a few games just like Spezza.
 

Neely come on.  We lost to Pittsburgh because they were far better than Montreal, Anderson stopped being a wall and Vokoun wasn't as bad as Price was.  Spezza was coming cold and off an injury much like several others, we stood no chance against them.
The team was OK in MacLean's first year when Spezza was #4 in league scoring, there was no leadership questions.  The team has always been Dung defensively under MacLean, they give up too many shots they can't kill penalties the goalies have been bailing them out for 2 years.  MacLean's Jack Adams belongs to Anderson.

Spezza always plays well off the hop for a new coach... clock work.

Anderson was out for 24 games last year fyi, that's 1/2 the season. MacLean is not to blame for this mess and like I said Spezza isn't going to get another coach in Ottawa. 6 in 9 years is enough.

MacLean's made some deranged decisions this year. I maintain that he went Dung for brains at one point.

Mac has done some weird things, for sure, but we also aren't privy to the entire story. There are always things going on behind closed doors that we don't know about.

I'm not going to throw Mac under the bus yet, as some guys are doing great under him.

Maybe years from now when someone like Lazar is captain we'll see a different team.  Until then I think most of the "leadership group" is more interested in getting drunk and banging ho's after a game.

Karlsson is the face of the franchise now, what's he going to teach up and comers? How to get a good divorce lawyer in this city?

Sounds familiar doesn't it? At least it's not dope this time.

SpezDispenser wrote:MacLean's made some deranged decisions this year.  I maintain that he went Dung for brains at one point.

I think it's pretty clear that he's sending a message up to his leadership group very gradually. First it was the obvious guys you could scratch... then it was a guy like Cowen and Conacher... all the sudden Methot was scratched, now he's essentially calling Spezza out by name in the media. MacLean has tried EVERYTHING to get Spezza going even at the cost of the guys who are playing well like MacArther (who is struggling now). I don't want to say he's given up but what other options are there? People are so quick to jump on the coach like they know better... seriously at this point what options does Paul MacLean have?

tim1_2 wrote:Mac has done some weird things, for sure, but we also aren't privy to the entire story.  There are always things going on behind closed doors that we don't know about.  

I'm not going to throw Mac under the bus yet, as some guys are doing great under him.  

Look what Turris and Karlsson have become under MacLean... #1 D man, #1 center. Ryan looks great most of the time... Cowen and Wiercioch are coming along, Smith is a complete player that can play in any situation if needed. It's such a cop out to blame the coach because it's the worlds easiest target. He can't play the game for the players and the message has not changed in his 3 years. 200 foot game, speed, aggression, effort. That's it.

NEELY wrote:
Spezza always plays well off the hop for a new coach... clock work.  

Anderson was out for 24 games last year fyi, that's 1/2 the season.  MacLean is not to blame for this mess and like I said Spezza isn't going to get another coach in Ottawa.  6 in 9 years is enough.

I'm not blaming MacLean just saying he's had good goaltending in the past 2 years to cover up for this team taking too many penalties and having a bad PK. If our goalie doesn't bring his A game, we are SOL.

Anderson was outstanding when he did play, he single handedly beat Montreal since they ran circles around us for most of the games. Bishop and Lehner filled in and were damn good when they did.

All coaches need good goaltending, it's just the way it is. You need a guy you can count on. Is MacLean without fault? Absolutely not but his Jack Adams had everything to do with his team and the coaches around him including himself... goaltenders are included in that. He got them all on the same page though which is impossible to do with Spezza, that's my point in this whole thing.

NEELY wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:MacLean's made some deranged decisions this year.  I maintain that he went Dung for brains at one point.

I think it's pretty clear that he's sending a message up to his leadership group very gradually.  First it was the obvious guys you could scratch... then it was a guy like Cowen and Conacher... all the sudden Methot was scratched, now he's essentially calling Spezza out by name in the media.  MacLean has tried EVERYTHING to get Spezza going even at the cost of the guys who are playing well like MacArther (who is struggling now).  I don't want to say he's given up but what other options are there?  People are so quick to jump on the coach like they know better... seriously at this point what options does Paul MacLean have?  

Again, Methot missed a lot of time with a terrible flu. He couldn't have gone back to back - or why bother?