GAME DAY: Florida Panthers @ Ottawa Senators :: 7:30pm ET :: Thu. Dec. 19th, 2013

Joke.

Haha wonder if they deal before the deadline at midnight.

What's the point in watching this team?

Panthers are a point behind us, 1 game in hand.

Jeezus Diddle.

Blow it the Diddle up. Now.

They actually played fine. Especially the defence

Refs jobbed the sens but how comical and clumsy was that 4th goal on the turn over by Karlsson? Story of the season right there

Only players I care about are Ryan turris Cowen Ceci zibanejad

What cost us the game? Pageau's careless high stick, missed call on michalek, or that abomination if a giveaway from karlsson?

Michallica wrote:What cost us the game? Pageau's careless high stick, missed call on michalek, or that abomination if a giveaway from karlsson?

0 Scoring chances from the middle of the 2nd period on

LeKing wrote:

Michallica wrote:What cost us the game? Pageau's careless high stick, missed call on michalek, or that abomination if a giveaway from karlsson?

0 Scoring chances from the middle of the 2nd period on

Spezza's rush that resulted in the PP was a chance. That's two nights in a row they get jobbed by horrible reffing. And not of the variety where you can say "Stop giving them opportunities to call a penalty." These were blatant non-calls that resulted in two goals in New Jersey, and one tonight. An we lose Zibanejad, too.

They ran out of gas halfway through the game. They should have scored more in the first.

Scott Clemmensen isn't a top goalie by any means.

No issues with Spezza's play yesterday, guy looked like he gave a damn and played with a bit of snarl.  Win or lose you that's what you want to see out of the captain.  Was getting in there and doing things he normally doesn't do and you have to respect the effort from him last night.  Everyone else?  Pretty lame for the most part. 2nd goal was on him but a lot of that kind of crap is forgivable with the effort he put in because s*it happens but you deal with it and go back out there and work which is what he did. I seriously have no confidence he keeps that going but w/e, credit where credit is due.

IMO a guy you seriously consider moving at this point is Methot.  What's he going to make when his contract is up?  Will he be worth that?  The blueline is crowded as it is and he's a guy that could bring back a really nice player up front because he has a ton of value.  Also shakes up the room in a big way and fact of the matter is this team can ill afford a guy that's out on the town every single chance he gets.  Too many young guys for that.

Hoags wrote:They ran out of gas halfway through the game.  They should have scored more in the first.

Scott Clemmensen isn't a top goalie by any means.

Sens have a nasty habit of making 2nd/3d stringers the game's 1st star. Have been doing this for years.

NEELY wrote:No issues with Spezza's play yesterday, guy looked like he gave a damn and played with a bit of snarl.  Win or lose you that's what you want to see out of the captain.  Was getting in there and doing things he normally doesn't do and you have to respect the effort from him last night.  Everyone else?  Pretty lame for the most part.  2nd goal was on him but a lot of that kind of crap is forgivable with the effort he put in because s*it happens but you deal with it and go back out there and work which is what he did.  I seriously have no confidence he keeps that going but w/e, credit where credit is due.

IMO a guy you seriously consider moving at this point is Methot.  What's he going to make when his contract is up?  Will he be worth that?  The blueline is crowded as it is and he's a guy that could bring back a really nice player up front because he has a ton of value.  Also shakes up the room in a big way and fact of the matter is this team can ill afford a guy that's out on the town every single chance he gets.  Too many young guys for that.

Methot looks to be in PMac's doghouse, a bit. First he doesn't bring him back into the lineup right away, then when he does he plays him on the third pairing and keeps Corvo with Karlsson.

Some might say that ended up costing us 4 points and they wouldn't be far from the truth. I've never coached so I don't know, but I hear enough on the radio (yeah, I know, it's from Simmer, but the guy *has* played in the NHL and has been in management as well -- whatever else you may think of him, he does have the credentials and first-hand experience) how calling the players out in the media like this, with clever/sarcastic comments wears out in a hurry. That comment he made yesterday that I thought he was talking about Torts, pretty sure now (after hearing him on the drive yesterday) was about MacLean. He's definitely changed how he handles things; he's feeling the heat and not in a good way.

Anyhow, back to my point -- I've never coached, but I wonder if those kinds of messages have their place early in the season, but when you are 3-5 points out of a playoff spot and the season is nearly half done, you need points and that means putting your best players out. I'm not saying that Karlsson doesn't try that spinorama and fall on his a$$ if he played with Methot the whole game, but Karlsson with Corvo is a potentially lethal combination, and not in a good way. Seriously, the refs not calling three penalties that all resulted in goals did not help, but the breakdowns the last couple of games have been Karlsson and Corvo, with Methot either in the pressbox or on the third pairing.

Was just re-watching the goals against. I had missed the tying one last night. Spezza ties #16 up and then just lets him go. That was pretty brutal. If he had continued holding him with his stick it would have been hooking, so he's got to move his feet and get position on the guy. Defintely found himself on the wrong side there.

The winning goal was another brutal play, this time by the refs. Michalek is clearly hooked when he's trying to get to the puck. I have no idea how two refs watching the play could miss that, the puck's right there so where else is their attention? Probably watching the friggin' cheerleaders.

And in the previous game there were two other blown calls that resulted in goals against. In that game the PP was 2/3 so you take away two goals and it's 3-2, then add two more PPs and who knows? Plus that 5th goals probably doesn't get scored anyway if the Devils don't have the momentum. And in this game if the hook on Michalek is called it's a 2-2 game and the Sens have a 90-secodn PP with 2 minutes to go in the game. I like our chances there.

4 points they could have had if not for brutal reffing. I know this sounds like whining but it's happened on back-to-back nights, kind of hard to take.

wprager wrote:Was just re-watching the goals against.  I had missed the tying one last night.  Spezza ties #16 up and then just lets him go.  That was pretty brutal.  If he had continued holding him with his stick it would have been hooking, so he's got to move his feet and get position on the guy.  Defintely found himself on the wrong side there.  

The winning goal was another brutal play, this time by the refs.  Michalek is clearly hooked when he's trying to get to the puck.  I have no idea how two refs watching the play could miss that, the puck's right there so where else is their attention? Probably watching the friggin' cheerleaders.

And in the previous game there were two other blown calls that resulted in goals against.  In that game the PP was 2/3 so you take away two goals and it's 3-2, then add two more PPs and who knows?  Plus that 5th goals probably doesn't get scored anyway if the Devils don't have the momentum.    And in this game if the hook on Michalek is called it's a 2-2 game and the Sens have a 90-secodn PP with 2 minutes to go in the game.  I like our chances there.

4 points they could have had if not for brutal reffing.  I know this is whining but it's happened on back-to-back nights, kind of hard to take.

FYP

Forget the refs man, I watch a ton of hockey and all the teams get Dung calls every single game. The best teams don't even care, they take the penalty, get scored on, shut up and move on. That's leadership for you.