Musings:
1. Snoopy looked slow in the first, brilliant in the second and most of the third, and terrible on the Brule goal. That thing had shades of Martin Gerber. Bad goal at a worse time. I hate when the guy makes some unbelievable saves on breakaways and turnovers throughout the third period only to let one slip in like that. He stopped the two that he needed to in the shootout (though I could have stopped the Comrie wrister). Oddly enough, you can make an argument that we won because of Pascal or you can say that we won in spite of Pascal.
2. Alex Picard is awful. I know that we're going to get a cryptic response from Canucnik that I don't know that I'm talking about and don't know hockey, but he needs to learn from Carkner and the 'keep it simple, stupid' approach. Too many dipsy doodles equals too many turnovers. He shows up on the scoresheet for a strong offensive pinch on the Neil goal and I'll give him full credit for knowing when to go in, but his defensive play in our end was far too lacklustre.
3. Nice to see Ryan Shannon get some open ice to use his speed. I've made no secret that my expectations are low of him and think he's a product of the salary cap, but he had a hard-working game and made a nice pass on the Foligno goal.
4. I had no problem with the refs putting their whistle away tonight. Sure, there were some hooks and grabs in overtime, but it went for both teams. Games like that allow both teams to get into a flow and roll some 5-on-5 lines. I'll take our lineup against Edmonton's lineup anyday in 5-on-5, though we all decided to make it interesting.
5. Quote of the night from Galley, "the Senators equipment manager is taking the piano off of Cheechoo's back and taking it to the locker room." What a weird play! What was Visnovsky doing letting Kovalev just take it away? Cheechoo roofed it so quick that nobody really knew if it went in or not, plus the guy has scored so many goals that he didn't want to jump around like he just won the Cup. Then again, we all know that inside, he probably wanted to fly around the ice for a minute or two after getting that insanely huge monkey off his back. Perhaps he read the blog on Monday?! I'm pretty sure that Another Sens Blog is Clouston's homepage.
Strange win, flashes of solid hockey mixed with flashes of ugly breakdowns and turnovers. In the end, a win is a win is a win...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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12 comments:
Duff:
#14 is -1 and fought it (the puck) all night...#55 is -1 and got benched late in the 3rd...Phillips was even but had his worst game of the season...Alex is +1 sets up the tieing goal and is our only little bit of offence from the back end with Carks...notice they get the bulk of the 5 on 5 time with the first line and thus the push to make offencive plays...with the least amount of help from the forwards in thier end.
So yes your critism of Alex is very tough and I question your knowledge of DEFENCEMEN because I think you are another frustrated Scoring Forward and you know what I think of those guys!
Nik, I'm sorry, but I'm rescinding any street cred from you if you try and defend Picard's performance tonight. All the defencemen had trouble handling the puck, including Lee and Campoli. Carkner was strong. Picard was our worst, bar none. By just telling me the plus/minus of each player makes it sound like you didn't even see the game. Be objective of Picard, for once.
Duff:
What you failed to notice Alex has been told to stretch out and create as he is the only one who can that's why he plays the last half of the hockey games with Alf and Jason when we are tied or behind.
Do you think you are smarter than CiCi...why do you think he is still out there late in the game when the D-bench has been shortened!
I still don't know any defensemen that coughs up the puck as much as Picard.
Why do you defend him? Especially using a stat as controversial as plus minus?
Get out of bed with the kid and realize he is no good. I have never skated with a hockey stick and probably play better then the guy. Sure he is great in the o zone, but if you turn the puck over at least once every period then your "greatness" in the o zone is worthless to any team.
I've often stood up for Picard, but no matter what anyone, including Canucnik, says: That was a brutal game defensively. He's just playing in too many situations for a guy that needs to be a 5-6 D-Man and keep learning to make better decisions. Offfensively, he's good. If the Sens had enough reliable D-Men so that Carkner and Picard (or Campoli-Lee-Karlsson if they could do better) could play 12-14 minutes in selected situations, we'd all have lower blood pressure.
Duff and Pynch: Seeing as Clouston would never go a day without reading ASB, how about a simple post just for him?
SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN. SHEAN DONOVAN.
(I think you can imagine the rest. I can't remember a time that a veteran 4th liner making barely over league minimum has such an OBVIOUS effect on the wins and losses of his team. This is geting silly now.)
I watched most of the game, 1st and last 3/4 of the third. Seeing those EDM goals had me worried it was going to be a 7-2 ass whooping. I notice Leclaire has about the same Save percentage as Gerber did last year. He needs to be better - still growing pains for sure, coming back off an injury and all.
Our D isn't helping him out - that Penner goal should have been batted to the corner - but Lee (I think on Penner) is a huge mismatch for a mammoth forward.
No question Picard has had his ups and downs, but you can't argue with the O he brings on a D that has little.
Campoli played fairly well last night - I like seeing these guys hit - it's what a D has to do. Take note, Kuba.
The good news is they're stealing points while getting their shit together.
Glad Cheechoo got the monkey off his back. We need him on a roll. Kovalev looked like he too was trying to finally get in the game.
I think Murray should be focussing on getting a #1 or #2 defenseman. Even if only for 1 or 2 years. (Yeah I know the three Saviours will come in and make all of our dreams come true by then so why bother, right?)
Clearly with A-train down, the current group is marginal back there. Lee looks really soft. Weak passes, clearing attempts. No wonder they sent him down ...
Sacul, what is your point again? Just kidding. We'll pass it along to Cory...
And MoP, nice recap. You're bang on with Lee. He appears to be a boy in a man's game (apologies to Duff for stealing his line).
Question - if you could have ANY #1-#2 defenceman in the league, who would you choose? Let's disregard the cap space/trade issues here and have some fun. I'd go after Redden. Just kidding! If it's anyone, I'd want Chara. He's the missing piece, and we know he looks good in black, red and gold. Who would you take?
Sure, if the Sens were just allowed to pluck any player for the blue line, Chara would be a great choice. This year is not as great for him, but he just has it all...and so many of us still hate Muckler for letting him walk. You could just look at other Norris winners for other examples. The only ones that might make less sense are all offense/little defense guys (Mike Green, Sheldon Souray, Brian Campbell) but most of those guys are hurt anyways. One local guy who's Mr. Offense but also very good defensively is Dan Boyle. He'd look so great as a Sen.
Realisticly, the Sens need to look for a 3-4 guy to play with Kuba, not a 1-2 guy. I'm seriously thinking grandpa Chelios could be an option at this point. I really liked Grebeshkov's game last night. Do the Sens have anything the Oilers want?
Chara would definitely be an upgrade over Lee. LOL.
If I could choose 2 - Chara and Shea Weber.
Chara Kuba
Weber Karlsson (You could get away with having him here now with a sitter)
Phillips Volchenkov
That'd be pushing 23M on D though.
One word: Pronger.
He's as tough as Chara, same offensive skills, not as long a reach, and he has one more Cup ring than the big guy. The knock on Chara will always be his playoff success; Pronger doesn't have that.
For many people Pronger is one of those guys you want on your team and hate when he's on any other.
For me, I just can't get over hating him. He's injured so many players and cut so many careers short, I can't believe he hasn't been suspended even more than he has been. He's very talented and plays with the mean streak you like to see, but I think he's got the "screw loose" thing where he's a distant cousin of Steve Downie's. He just doesn't seem to care at all about the people he's carelessly cut down and altered their ability to earn a living in hockey.
The knock on Chara will always be his playoff success
Thank you for pointing that out so I didn't have to.
I do, however, agree Chara would be an upgrade over Lee.
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