GAME DAY #51: Senators @ Penguins - 7:00 pm - Tuesday, Feb 2 2016

I'm not saying that Michalek is not worth his contract (he isn't, and that's not really open for debate -- we all said it was too much, too long for a player riddled with injuries) if he was healthy.

Point is, he wasn't healthy, has missed significant time this year and the previous years (knees, concussion, broken fingers) and is nowhere near the player he was before his *second* torn ACL.

My point was that his contribution to the team's success (both defensive and offensive) is nowhere near proportional to his salary. We've played without him more than one third of the games this season, and prior to his first injury he was *not* playing well at all.

We could have had a much better player for $4M. This is hind-sight, of course, but I'm only trying to make a point that we could have a much better team with a lower cap hit, so we cannot continue to make excuses that we are not a good team because of the budget.

Having a budget certainly puts constraints on you in that the GM cannot spend to make up for his mistakes. But as I said, the best way to kill a penalty is not to take one in the first place. Same goes for GMs.

wprager wrote:I'm not saying that Michalek is not worth his contract (he isn't, and that's not really open for debate -- we all said it was too much, too long for a player riddled with injuries) if he was healthy.  

Point is, he wasn't healthy, has missed significant time this year and the previous years (knees, concussion, broken fingers) and is nowhere near the player he was before his *second* torn ACL.  

My point was that his contribution to the team's success (both defensive and offensive) is nowhere near proportional to his salary.  We've played without him more than one third of the games this season, and prior to his first injury he was *not* playing well at all.  

We could have had a much better player for $4M.  This is hind-sight, of course, but I'm only trying to make a point that we could have a much better team with a lower cap hit, so we cannot continue to make excuses that we are not a good team because of the budget.

Having a budget certainly puts constraints on you in that the GM cannot spend to make up for his mistakes.  But as I said, the best way to kill a penalty is not to take one in the first place.  Same goes for GMs.

Um, yeah it's open for debate. He IS worth his contract for the reasons I already stated. They would have walked away if he wasn't.

No "we" all didn't say it was too long and too much.

Liked the michalek signing the day it was done and still like him on the team. Just wish he could stay healthy, he would immediately stabilize the 3rd line and move up when necessary.  

That game was a joke last night.  Let's not be fooled by the sens scoring 5 goals.  Fleury was not very good and the shots that went in were harmless for the most part.  Only the first two goals can I say were a result of hard work from the sens and both were because of mark stone.  ANd then stone gave the puck up to crosby for the hat trick and GWG

This getting outshot 2-1 business and not having a shot for more than 12 mins in a period is getting tiring and is reminiscent of 2010-11 season when they lost like 10 straight or something.

The team is clearly waiting for some kind of change to take place....I actually would trade chabot for an edler type of player.  No joke.

I would consider giving up a top-end prospect like Chabot only if they were one-player short of being a Cup Contender. In other words, no. Nuh-huh. No way!

I posted this elsewhere already so this is a paraphrase:

- Phillips/Greening/Neil/Smith off the roster and payroll
- Cowen/Wiercioch off the roster
- add top-four D-man to play left side with Ceci on second pairing and a top-six left winger (should be able to get those two for the money saved on those other contracts)
- add Claesson or Englund as 7th D
- White replaces Smith as 4th line C with Puempel/Prince/Lazar/Chiasson and the like on the wings (a line that's actually expected to score and not run around and try to catch the other team)
- Pageau and Michalek is a good start for the third line; may be add MacArthur
- Stone/Hoffman/Ryan/NewGuy as the wingers for Turris and Zibanejad

If that was our lineup, would we even need an upgrade? And let's say we only got either the top-four D-man or the top-six winger, then at that point do you consider moving a Chabot for that missing piece? Maybe.

The problem I'm having is that our players (defense) aren't developing the way we wanted. It's no wonder karlsson excelled, he spent a year in Sweden and really took off in the NHL (don't know how much playing 12 games in the AHL helped).

We thought Weircioch had turned a corner and he clearly hasn't. Cowen is a mess. Boro is being played out of his element. Only Ceci has emerged as somewhat dependable and even he's had his share of struggles. I'm getting sick now of this perpetual wait on prospects that don't pan out.

That's why I'd say screw it, trade chabot for an already developed piece. It would take a bit more to get Edler but sell high when you can. They did with Rundblad and got Turris.

Actually, take it to the "how do we fix senators" thread