Name 2 things that could make or break Ottawa's season

The point with being a 6/7 d-man, especially on the Sens with the glut of 6/7 d-men, is that you will be the first guy healthy scratched to make room for someone else. If Phillips is your Captain, you're not healthy scratching him.

One thing's for sure: Melnyk believes the cost per point ratio will be what makes or breaks the Sens season. :D

Ugh. Enough of the budget crap.

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I feel like the goaltending will be better with Spezza gone and the team ready to completely buy into Mac's system, but I might be fooling myself.  If Anderson stumbles - and again, there's no reason for that, then it's Lehner time for the next decade.

Yeah, Spezza's rebound control was the pits!  So glad they got rid of him.  Couldn't stop a beach ball.

FWIW, I think his point is that the C and the D have an important defensive relationship. If the C isn't doing his job, that makes it harder on the G and allows more quality chances.

Right, SD?

No, I'm pretty sure he meant Spezza was Dung in goal.

Right, SD?

1. Goaltending controversy (huge distraction)
2. The 3/4 pairing

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:I feel like the goaltending will be better with Spezza gone and the team ready to completely buy into Mac's system, but I might be fooling myself.  If Anderson stumbles - and again, there's no reason for that, then it's Lehner time for the next decade.

Yeah, Spezza's rebound control was the pits!  So glad they got rid of him.  Couldn't stop a beach ball.

FWIW, I think his point is that the C and the D have an important defensive relationship. If the C isn't doing his job, that makes it harder on the G and allows more quality chances.

Right, SD?

Lets call Spezza a top line c for us last year for arguments sake. He didn't play the way you need a top guy to play at all. Back checking is a huge part of this game now. And that's Macleans system dumbed down. Lose the puck? So be it, go get it back as a 5 man unit and get it back into the offensive zone. The system doesn't allow for guys to not give max effort coming back - and not only was it a pivotal player who wasn't coming back hard enough, he's the captain.

Read the articles out there about MacLean butting heads with players and the feeling that some players weren't serious enough about their roles - that's Spezza it's in reference to.

Zibanejad didn't make the roster out of camp. Pageau sent down in November. Methot benched. Wiercioch, well who knows what that was all about. And let's not forget JOB. Spezza got away with it because of the 'C' but he was not the only one dogging it.

Like I keep saying, just getting rid of Spezza is not going to fix things. But replacing him with a guy like Legwand will certainly help. Chiasson to push Stone, Lazar to push Zibanejad. Borocop to nudge Cowen and Phillips. Paul and Guptill to push the others in Bingo. Throw in Pageau and Hoffman and maybe the increased competition for top nine spots will produce some good results, hopefully keeping Neil and Condra to third line icetime.

Still not sure what Greening will be doing. At that salary he should be playing third line if not second, but that means one of the younger guys (Lazar, Hoffman, Pageau, etc.) are playing with Neil and Condra and doing what, exactly?

We need a many-for-one trade or we'll be parting ways with a fw players like we already did with Da Costa.

Good post prager. Pretty fair points.

yeah it does give raise to a question about where Condra and greening fit in and to a certain extend Neil.
greening is a guy that you can win with IMO, thankfully his cap hit can be taken aside as we're not to preoccupied with the cap hit. Condra's place could be taken up by a more promising youth IMO. and although Neil is good for the heart of this team he's less and less effective for this team. I doubt we have Neil leave this team but maybe like last year he's been used in roles he's best not suited for.
it does point at packaging assets for sure. but with our glut at center Smith is a guy team have inquired about year after year that i could see us building a package around.

I think Smith is an excellent 3rd line center, but with Turris as the #1 and Murray saying that Zibanejad is the future 1LC, you know he and Legwand will be 2A/2B for the next couple of years.

So will Smith be happy playing 4LC?

Smith is not an excellent 3rd line center. Mike Richards is the 3rd best center in LA and if we want to go anywhere that's the level of 3rd line center we would need to call him excellent.

Point was that he is better than a 4th liner and not good enough to be our 3LC (assuming that, by the time Legwand's contract is up Turris/Zibanejad/Lazar arem our top three centers). Don't talk about the winner of two of the last three Cups when I'm talking trade to one of the other 20-odd teams for whom he would be an excellent 3LC.

You just said Smith is an excellent 3rd line center. Don't see anywhere you talking about a trade to 20-odd teams and even then he wouldn't be an "excellent" 3rd line center on any NHL team. Sean Couturier is the definition of an excellent 3rd line center and Zack Smith is not even close to being that.

I think smith is a great 3rd liner to be honest, but we will be using him as a 4th liner this year

Smith is a bit of a tweener. I think he fits best as a 4LC that plays on the PK as well.

LeKing wrote:You just said Smith is an excellent 3rd line center. Don't see anywhere you talking about a trade to 20-odd teams and even then he wouldn't be an "excellent" 3rd line center on any NHL team. Sean Couturier is the definition of an excellent 3rd line center and Zack Smith is not even close to being that.

Yes, I did. But we have Zibanejad likely playing 3LC or 2BLC and our GM is of the opinion that he is a 1LC in the making. And we'll have Lazar as a 2/3LC in a couple of years, if not sooner. So Smith who, due to his seniority, is about to start making a lot more money than those two, will be playing 4LC. You seem to keep forgetting that there are 30 teams in this league and that "excellent 3LC" does not mean he is top-5 in the league in that role.

Ev wrote:I think smith is a great 3rd liner to be honest, but we will be using him as a 4th liner this year

That is my hope, yes, because if not, then that likely means Neil and Condra are out there 10+ minutes per game creating an offensive vacuum.

Don't get me wrong, I think Neil and Smith can still be important contributors on this team (Smith, especially against the tougher opposition where I think Turris and Zibanejad and Lazar may need a bit of relief; and of course in the post-season). Neil, not so sure about his contributions any more. I'd just like to see less of him. Especially in the last minute of the game, down by one.