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Hate to sound like a drama queen but this, to me, is a career defining game for Spezza. Win or lose, he needs to be the best forward on the ice. He needs a playoff game performance. He doesn't need to hit (he never will) but he needs to be moving up and down the ice every shift. If he can't carry the team in a game like this, we're just wasting our time. The rest of the team (the young ones) can blame inexperience but if they do, they better be saying that they failed to match their captain's intensity.

Let's take it over to the GDT.

Let's burn that GDT.

Hey, did Ottawa play this past weekend? I was busy.

Hey, did everyone quit the message board? Wouldn't blame ya, just let me know so I'm not here talking to myself.

Hi Tim

Ev wrote:Hi Tim

Hi Buddy! How about those Ottawaaaaaaaa SENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNATORES?!

is somebody making money off this site? What's with some of the ads up top lol

Ev wrote:is somebody making money off this site? What's with some of the ads up top lol

A lot of them are targetted based on your search history. So if you're seeing some weird stuff....

i don't think the rolling ones are. They are all sens blog and stuff like that

If you could look back this season and 1 thing that defined that team and IMO was the reason the Sens have had the year they have had was when Lehner was on that 3-0 stretch, Sens were playing well, and things seemed to be turned around. MacLean then goes back to Anderson. IMO that was the biggest mistake all year and has caused a lot of problems. Lehner hasn't been the same since then either.

I have adblock installed, I never see ads anywhere
It's great especially when watching videos.

NEELY wrote:If you could look back this season and 1 thing that defined that team and IMO was the reason the Sens have had the year they have had was when Lehner was on that 3-0 stretch, Sens were playing well, and things seemed to be turned around. MacLean then goes back to Anderson. IMO that was the biggest mistake all year and has caused a lot of problems. Lehner hasn't been the same since then either.

I think that was all part of the master plan to play Lehner as little as possible.

There should never be one single turning point like that. It speaks to a fragile team. I think the turning point was July 5th when The Alfie signed with the Wings.

Alfie leaving period, be it retirement or a trade hurt the Sens.  No one is going to question that fact but lets not pretend it isn't something that wasn't going to happen at some point.  It shouldn't have happened the way it did but it was going to happen at some point.

Talking strictly about this season IMO that 3 game stretch was the turning point and the point where MacLean lost a bit of respect and leeway.  Lehner was the guy in the net that had turned the season around at that point, the team was playing better, and the younger guys were clicking and playing hard.  MacLean wanted to go with his guy and it cost them the season.  

Going into next year I am not sure you can go with Anderson and Lehner.  I don't think Lehner is ready for the ups and down of being a #1 yet but he is clearly not meant to be a back up goaltender either.  When he plays lots he plays well and that's what a #1 goaltender is.  This also takes away a choice MacLean has bumbled up all season long for the most part.


And of course a young team is fragile. They needed leadership and Spezza struggled to provide that early on but Spezza seems to be finding his way even if it's only a small amount. Young teams struggle when things go off the rails and there was only 1 point in the season where things got back on the rails but MacLean decided to switch trains because he likes one more than the other at this point. Anderson lost his job but MacLean refused to give it to Lehner.

NEELY wrote:
Talking strictly about this season IMO that 3 game stretch was the turning point and the point where MacLean lost a bit of respect and leeway.  Lehner was the guy in the net that had turned the season around at that point, the team was playing better, and the younger guys were clicking and playing hard.  MacLean wanted to go with his guy and it cost them the season.

They lost the season when the season started IMO. They never had any consistency or focus. Constant slow starts, getting outshot in the 1st period, early goals, horrible afternoon games. It doesn't look like they were ready to start the season at all.

Not sure if you pin it on the coach or the players. We've had so many coaches(and a coach that recently had brilliant success) I can't pin it on the coach(solely).

The team isn't good enough to play how MacLean wants right now. You either get a coaching staff who can make something of these players or you get better players for MacLean(or you wait for them to develop).

The question now is how to fix what was not supposed to be broken?

Normally after an under-achieving season you see the coach get canned, or big player movement. Rarely do you see nothing happen...I'm afraid we might see a whole bunch of nothing.

Ideally, I'd trade Spezza for whatever you can, and move forward. I have this fear that we'll do a bunch of nothing (maybe sign Hemsky), and hope for the best. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.

The last thing I think we'll see is a MacLean firing.

this is hilarious

http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/showthread.php?t=1625719&page=4

tim1_2 wrote:The question now is how to fix what was not supposed to be broken?

Normally after an under-achieving season you see the coach get canned, or big player movement.  Rarely do you see nothing happen...I'm afraid we might see a whole bunch of nothing.

Ideally, I'd trade Spezza for whatever you can, and move forward.  I have this fear that we'll do a bunch of nothing (maybe sign Hemsky), and hope for the best.  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different outcome.  

The last thing I think we'll see is a MacLean firing.  

Re-signing Hemsky and keeping Spezza go hand in hand. They keep both or they move Spezza and Let Hemsky re-sign elsewhere.

Honestly after watching the last couple of weeks, I have changed my tune, I think they need to do very little. The team will be stronger after the adversity of the last two years.

*side note: Clarke MacArthur may never get considered for the captaincy, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think he is one of the team leaders right now. Love his game this year, especially lately. The guy is going all out trying to make things happen.