Ottawa Senators (present and past) TIDBITS & QUICK HITS!

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:This is strictly my opinion but I am predicting that the Sens will be better than NYR, NYI, Buffalo, Montreal, Detroit, Carolina in the East and at a minimum Vancouver, Arizona, Anaheim in the West.

Then there are a few teams that will fall off such as Chicago, LA, Minnesota, and NJ which would put the Sens around the 18-20 range this year.

Care to place a bet?

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:I like what Jaros brings more than Harper but I rather Jaros playing in Belleville than sitting with Harper in the pressbox

Yeah, that's why I want him playing big minutes with Wolanin etc. He's got some more developing to do

Flo The Action wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:This is strictly my opinion but I am predicting that the Sens will be better than NYR, NYI, Buffalo, Montreal, Detroit, Carolina in the East and at a minimum Vancouver, Arizona, Anaheim in the West.

Then there are a few teams that will fall off such as Chicago, LA, Minnesota, and NJ which would put the Sens around the 18-20 range this year.

Care to place a bet?

Haha not a chance!

Tkatchuk is a big key. That guy gets so involved. If he can develop his offence quickly, he'll be a force immediately. However, and we've kind of seen it already, he plays a style that might be hard on his body.

Also...Craig 'trade me' Anderson needs to be amazing obviously. But, the more I think about it, the more I get excited to see guys like Formenton, Tkachuk, Lajoie, Wolanin, White etc. compete at high levels every night. In other words, they had the right idea getting rid of old, stale players, they just seemed to go about it wrong.

Agreed. It was the right move to try to get rid of Smith. Their approach, however, was wrong. Guys like Smith and Harpur are impeding the development of younger, more talented prospects. While I see the value of someone like Smith, we have a coach who will play vets over rookies and will miscast Smith and many of our younger players as a result.

I would also like to see Boucher play Formenton with Duchene and Ryan just to see if he can keep up. Playing Dzingel with White and Boedker would give the Sens three balanced lines with a hard to play against energy 4th line.

Formenton-Duchene-Ryan
Tkachuk-Smith-Stone
Dzingel-White-Boedker
Paajarvi-McCormick-Pyatt

**Add Tierney and remove someone from L4

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:Formenton-Duchene-Ryan
Tkachuk-Smith-Stone
Dzingel-White-Boedker
Paajarvi-McCormick-Pyatt

Thumbs up.

The only friggin soft spot is Smith in 2C.

After seeing his demeanor and play in the preseason, I think Anderson is going to have a big year.He looks very at ease and he always rebounds after a bad season. He's getting up there in age, but I like what I saw from him this pre-season.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

I would also like to see Boucher play Formenton with Duchene and Ryan just to see if he can keep up.

Well, he'd certainly be able to keep up with Ryan.

Ev wrote:After seeing his demeanor and play in the preseason, I think Anderson is going to have a big year.He looks very at ease and he always rebounds after a bad season. He's getting up there in age, but I like what I saw from him this pre-season.

Ditto, but as you have said a few times - pre-season means nothing to veterans. When the chips are actually down let's see how he does.

I hope White can steal that 2C spot. That would be exactly in line with what we all want to see. Smith on the 3rd line is optimum.

PTFlea wrote:

Ev wrote:After seeing his demeanor and play in the preseason, I think Anderson is going to have a big year.He looks very at ease and he always rebounds after a bad season. He's getting up there in age, but I like what I saw from him this pre-season.

Ditto, but as you have said a few times - pre-season means nothing to veterans.  When the chips are actually down let's see how he does.

Correct, but I like his attitude off the ice so far as well.

I think most of the players are relieved that Hoffman and Karlsson are both gone. Everyone seems on the same page and are playing with a chip on their shoulders.

Duchene, when talking about the powerplay, said he was quite happy about the new format and it was less like a dictatorship.

Stone today, when asked how things will be without Karlsson, said he was always a go-to player and things will remain unchanged.

No one has yet to say anything regarding the loss of either player and seemed more upset about the potential of losing Smith.

Anybody listen to the Karlsson interview I'm stuck at work and can't listen all I see is the headline he says if they signed him they would have traded him anyway

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:Anybody listen to the Karlsson interview I'm stuck at work and can't listen all I see is the headline he says if they signed him they would have traded him anyway

I didn't listen to it and I don't plan on listening to it. The fact of the matter is we know Karlsson wasn't going to sign here with Melnyk as the owner, so they had to trade him. Time to move on.

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:Anybody listen to the Karlsson interview I'm stuck at work and can't listen all I see is the headline he says if they signed him they would have traded him anyway

Yup. Here it is:



Take-aways:
- he's still really sad that he was traded
- said teammates had no idea what was happening with the whole hoffman(s) feud
- confirmed he was offered a contract but knew even if he signed, they were still trading him, therefore confirming the offer wasn't in good faith by the senators
- 100% believed he was traded at the TDL
- didn't get into specifics with melnyk unfortunately but confirmed he (the euge) emailed him in the summer

No Duchene at practice today, which is bad. Tkachuk is in a contact jersey and I'm guessing he'll play tomorrow.