GAME DAY: Penguins @ Senators, 7:30PM, SNET/TSN1200

LeKing wrote:We're back Wing Dang Doodle. I'm telling you, we're Cussing back.

don't get your hopes up too much... if the way it's worked out so far this season is any indication

What a game to lead us into the Christmas break.

SpezDispenser wrote:What a game to lead us into the Christmas break.  

there was a drunken memo post by Melnyk on the locker room with something scribbled about no f&%$#@g X-mas bonus if we lost this game. messaged received.

SpezDispenser wrote:What a game to lead us into the Christmas break.

We get Crosby and the WBS Penguins, who had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

A win is good, but it's not streak yet.

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:What a game to lead us into the Christmas break.  

We get Crosby and the WBS Penguins, who had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

A win is good, but it's not  streak yet.

FYP.

Killjoy.

shabbs wrote:Ceci and Greening with the assists on the Z. Smith goal.

Ceci still makes lots of mistakes, but man does he look good.

Number Twenty Nine wrote:Until we have a six goal lead, I don't celebrate

So I guess you're still waiting?

spader wrote:

shabbs wrote:Ceci and Greening with the assists on the Z. Smith goal.

Ceci still makes lots of mistakes, but man does he look good.

His ice time is probably still very carefully managed (e.g. without checking shift charts I'd say he didn't start any shift with Crosby on the ice) but I'd say he's not making any more mistakes than, say, Corvo. He's also not shying away from contact. He's not a big bruiser by any stretch, but as a just-turned-20 kid with fewer than 10 games under his belt I'd say he is more physical than Wiercioch, Karlsson and Corvo.

Ceci has been nothing short of fantastic and I was skeptical of him when he was drafted by the Sens.  Did not know he could be this good this soon.

The other player I have been very impressed with over his last few games is Gryba. Love the way he's playing right now and I think he is finally starting to find his stride a little, he will be tough to take out of the lineup playing the way he's playing.

Yeah, Gryba was solid.

I was at the game. I sure picked a good one to go too. Plus my little 2 month old took in her first game (and slept through the entire thing)...so she was obviously the good luck charm.

We kinda put up a dud in the 2nd period, but, like last year, goaltending held us in there and then we put the pedal down in the third after no doubt getting some "motivation" during the second intermission.

It was wonderful to see Crysby crying about Methot's hip check after the game.

Kassian played really well in his 6 minutes...he had a couple nice defensive plays, and threw the body around too. He could play every night for us and I would have zero issue with that.

It was nice to see the ice time spread around to pretty much everyone...even Karlsson only played 23 mins. Spezza only had 15. There were 5 other forwards with more ice time than him.

Pageau was really solid on the faceoffs going 8-3.

The penalty kill was fantastic.

There's still tons of room for improvement, but if we can take one of the next two versus Boston, that'll be another big confidence boost...we play a ton of road games in the next month or so, so the guys are gonna need all the confidence they can get.

NEELY wrote:Gryba was absolutely fantastic tonight.  Karlsson amazing.


Spezza was invisible.

I wouldn't say he was invisible....he had quite a few giveaways and STILL can't get the puck out of his zone. Worst was when Neal pick-pocketed him when spezza thought he was about to lead a rush up the ice. Ugh. Hate when he fails.

As for the game, it didn't feel like a 5-0 thumping but I'll take it. Still find the defence is still too slow to react and too many times the pitts forwards snuck in behind for a clear break on anderson. I guess that's par for the course, only this time anderson made the saves. Still lots to improve upon. Loved Methot and Gryba's game, that was a good shutdown tandem.

and karlsson was in GOD mode.   

shabbs wrote:Pens have almost twice as many wins as us. 27 vs 14. Jeezus.

Fear not shabbs. MICHALLICA GDT FTW!   

Nice one.

Phillips had the second most PP ice time of all defensemen. Ceci had more PK ice time than PP; he had more PK time than Cowen.

I still sometimes have to toll my eyes at what MacLean is doing. This isn't a development league like the AHL, where you give out ice time based more on what the player needs to develop as mandated by the big club. Spezza may want to be given more responsibilities and get more PK time, but that's not in the club's best interest. Ceci is a good puck-mover but also a 20-year-old kid so why is he getting more PK time than Cowen?

There are lots of things to work on, still, including the coaching.

Can they fire the assistants and call up Richardson and Stirling?

Only in Ottawa can you win 5-0 against the best team in your conference and have your coaches called out.

tim1_2 wrote:Only in Ottawa can you win 5-0 against the best team in your conference and have your coaches called out.  

Pittsburgh was missing 5 of their starting defensemen. That's four callups from WBS. We have Ceci. Imagine if we had Methot-Ceci as our top pairing, then Boro-Wideman and Claesson-Sdao. Fleury has been playing a lot of games with Vokoun out the whole season, he was bound to have a stinker. Methot had a monster hipcheck on Crosby that put him out for a half period and also knocked out Dupuis. And yet Anderson still had to be excellent in stopping 27 shots and a couple breakaways.

Do you think Ceci should be getting more PK time than PP? Do you think Spezza should be getting *any*? (to be fair, Spezza did not have a lot of PP time, just a couple shifts, but that was not the case earlier)

I was only half-joking with my comment. It's not like normal things have worked for Mac this year, so maybe he's thinking of what would logically be the smart move and then doing the opposite.