The Expendables - Ottawa Edition

It's easy as far as I'm concerned. Flipping lehner to go with Anderson is a short sighted option. For the sens to be contenders for the next 10 years I don't see Anderson being that guy obviously age alone and what we have down the pipeline is even more doubtful.
I'd rather we shove lehner I'm there and work with the growing pains the way Montreal did with price than let one of our most promising prospects go with nothing much coming up. Sorry but I'm not excited about anything else we have coming up.

tim1_2 wrote:Lehner has proven that when he's given consistent starts, he gets in a groove. I've always said I think he'll be a top 5 goalie someday and I stand by that.

Well, except this year. He got quite a few starts when Anderson went down and did poorly. I'm not saying this to dispute your point because I believe Lehner still will be a #1 goalie but he needs to be given the crease. This year was pretty much a waste.

You got to earn your starts in the crease.

Although MacLean insisting Anderson play 70+ games per season wasn't the way to do it.

NEELY wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

Ev wrote:man people need to chill with this Anderson Dung. He played a good 3 games. Whatever. We haven't won with him and he's expendable

The Ottawa Senators have won far, far less with Lehner. It would be different if there was some, any glimpse of promise in his NHL career to look back to -- and, no, 3 games in January one year doesn't quite cut it.

For the record, I'm not down on Lehner (or Anderson), but this will be a much tougher call for the organization than any Lehner advocates care to admit.

There's tons but MacLean refused to give him the net despite putting the team on his back on more than 1 occasion.  MacLean has borderline destroyed an extremely promising prospects and a guy who has shown how good he is at the AHL and how good he can be at the NHL level.

I'm sitting here telling people I wouldn't move Lehner because I would in the right circumstance but saying he hasn't shown the ability to be a #1 is BS.  He has.

Not at the NHL level, there isn't. Look, I'm high on Lehner, always liked him and think he had/has great promise. But he has had lots and lots of chances to take the reigns and he's never, ever managed to do so. People point back to that one 3 game streak in January 2014 or whatever and say 'there!, it's all PM's fault!', but I don't buy it. He's never made it that tough of a decision for any of his NHL coaches.

All that said, I don't envy the choice we face -- if we're thinking it's one or the other at this point -- and I can understand as well as hate either move. Long term, sure, Lehner could be another Price, and maybe that means living through 1-3 years of growing pains. I dunno. But the red flags with Lehner are not only has he not seized the reigns when he's had the chance, but I'm not convinced he's a favourite in the locker room. There are very few of the guys in Bingo that he won with that are now up in the NHL, and the ties there don't seem to be as strong as you'd think for a guy fans and the organization had pegged as their #1 of the future. And what's worse, the horizon for that future seems to keep receding.

IMO Lehner did take the reigns and was thriving until MacLean pulled the rug out. I think MacLean did nearly everything possible to ruin Lehner whether it was on purpose or not (it wasn't) and he hasn't recovered.

The second Lehner gets the net for good, where ever that might be, he won't be looking back. I hope it's Ottawa.

As for the locker room, yah he needs to grow up because staring your own guys down when you let in a week goal or two is a pretty good way to make sure no one likes or respects you. If that's the case you get him the hell out of there because again, it's all about the team.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

SpezDispensed wrote:Prepare to be surprised next season, I think.  What was the fluke?  The last half of the season, or the crappy first half of the season where we had a coach that literally looked like he was out to be fired.

There won't be monumental changes in the off-season, we're coming in full of confidence, Pageau is a major piece on line 3, Stone is now a star, Ryan should be up to speed and most importantly Cameron's system will be in place.

Do you think all your sudden criticism of "Mac" will undo all the repeated, enthusiastic praise you had for him previously? It won't. Your frequent compliments and high praise are a matter of public record as is your Stone-less "untouchable" list from just a couple of months ago.

I did think Mac was amazing for a while - who didn't? The guy won the jack Adams. But the problem was he shat the bed as badly as anyone I've seen. Completely lost the pulse of the room and made some mind bogglingly bad decisions.

I don't wish him ill will, but the guy isn't someone I'd hire based on what happened in Ottawa.

Anderson won that Jack Adams for him.

The team mobilized behind Hammond. They played with a ton of confidence in front of him.

Yeah, I fully realize that now. Anderson literally won that jack Adams for Mac. Plus, his schtick had t gotten old and guys were buying what he was selling.

Under Cameron they needed someone to come in and make saves while they got the system down and Hammond didthat and more.

I also think z Michalek is coming to Ottawa. Whether that's what we need or not is debatable, but he's certainly an upgrade on Gryba.

all this BS about lehner throwing people under the bus, it's happened quite few times that Anderson has done exactly what you are accusing lehner of doing. i clearly remember Anderson saying guys have to play better in front of him while he was letting in a few softy himself.

enough with this nitpicking crap. everyone says stuff once in a while in front of the cameras or behaves a certain way in which they regret. it's all part of being human.

i haven't seen it done on a regular basis so i'm not worried about that at all.

when it comes down to it you give the net the way price was given the net. I'd rather lehner fall on his face for a while and learn some humility than losing him. it's pretty obvious he can get on when given the chance to play.

you trade Anderson because plain and simple he will not be our guy three years from not and we will be looking pretty bare without him.
end. of. story.

Lehner is a guy that would come out after a game and blame himself for bad goals, whereas Anderson never does that. Anderson was more publicly critical of the team than Lehner ever was.

What I want to happen - Trade Anderson and run with Lehner and Hammond and then bring up O'Connor (I'm assuming he signs here as it's what I want to happen ) if Hammond faulters or after O'Connor has had a season or 2 in Bingo.

What most likely will happen - They'll keep Anderson out of fear of what might happen to Lehner as they've shown a propensity to do that and Hammond will walk for ZIP and IF we're lucky we'll have O'Connor. We'll go into next season with Anderson and Lehner and if we have O'Connor then they'll trade Lehner as soon as O'Connor feels he's ready for the NHL.

Looks like Hammond will be offered a contract. A fresh batch of contacts are being sought for reports on Burgled Hams; to coincide with the glorious signing of Hammond's new contract. Stay tuned.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:Looks like Hammond will be offered a contract.  A fresh batch of contacts are being sought for reports on Burgled Hams; to coincide with the glorious signing of Hammond's new contract.  Stay tuned.

Remains to be seen whether he takes it or sees what he can get on July 1st

For sure but, if they do the right move, and trade Anderson, then they can afford to give Hammond market value.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:What I want to happen - Trade Anderson and run with Lehner and Hammond and then bring up O'Connor (I'm assuming he signs here as it's what I want to happen ) if Hammond faulters or after O'Connor has had a season or 2 in Bingo.

What most likely will happen - They'll keep Anderson out of fear of what might happen to Lehner as they've shown a propensity to do that and Hammond will walk for ZIP and IF we're lucky we'll have O'Connor.  We'll go into next season with Anderson and Lehner and if we have O'Connor then they'll trade Lehner as soon as O'Connor feels he's ready for the NHL.

I don't know about any one else, but I'm about this concerned about Hammond walking.

Flo The Action wrote:all this BS about lehner throwing people under the bus, it's happened quite few times that Anderson has done exactly what you are accusing lehner of doing. i clearly remember Anderson saying guys have to play better in front of him while he was letting in a few softy himself.

enough with this nitpicking crap. everyone says stuff once in a while in front of the cameras or behaves a certain way in which they regret. it's all part of being human.

i haven't seen it done on a regular basis so i'm not worried about that at all.

when it comes down to it you give the net the way price was given the net. I'd rather lehner fall on his face for a while and learn some humility than losing him. it's pretty obvious he can get on when given the chance to play.

you trade Anderson because plain and simple he will not be our guy three years from not and we will be looking pretty bare without him.
end. of. story.

I wish Lehner had done more these last three years to make 'giving him the net' an easy decision. That would make trading arguable the best goalie in Sens franchise history a whole lot easier.

I think the ideal situation is to have Hammond start the year as the backup.  If he doesn't transform back into the Hamburglar, well, no big loss, he's only the backup.  If he does, then we've effectively got Tim Thomas reincarnated for another year.  It seems like a low risk move to bring him back...I also assume the price tag won't be huge on a one or two year deal.

Regardless of what happens with Hammond, I think we still need to trade one of Anderson or Lehner.