Post-Game Talk: Devils @ Sens - Oct 17th, 2013 - "And Condra misses the open net" edition

[YNWA14]

MoO also has the ability to own up to past stances, and not sound like a broken record in the face of a dying argument.

For someone so obsessed with me I'm surprised by this post. I've always owned up to things I've said wrong (actually making topics just to do so). The broken record thing is unsurprising given the source.

I think at this point I'm going to let maturity take over though and step away from any of the rest of your comments. Looking through your history I can see a pattern and you obviously still have a lot of growing up to do.

 

[KAPOW]

didn't notice #14 at all and i'm still questioning he brings anything significant to this team. michalek wasn't good either but that shot was a rocket!

 

[Punchbowl]

People are hilarious about Spezza. MoO complains about people turning on Spezza yet said he would trade him for Jeff ****ing Skinner and that he wasn't a top 15 centre (newsflash: he's arguably a top 5 centre in the league). Anyway Spezza will continue to be our best player. His defensive play has been really noticeable the last two games that Michalek goal highlighting him coming back on the play to support the puck and he was hard on the fore check for that empty netter.

That's not ridiculous, that's a difference of opinion.

If you're both defending Spezza then all you're criticizing MoO for is not liking Spezza as much as you do. Proposing a Skinner deal is overboard, but I imagine that was a couple years ago when Skinner was a more promising prospect (I can't believe he's still only 21, he was a 30 goal scorer at eighteen!). Spezza is one of my favourite players on the team, is it 'hilarious' if I don't think he's a top 5 centre? No, I just have a different reasonable opinion.

MoO's stance should be encouraged if he's defending Spezza and not turning on him over a couple little miscues despite his personal misgivings about him.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

didn't notice #14 at all and i'm still questioning he brings anything significant to this team. michalek wasn't good either but that shot was a rocket!

I'd like to see Greening with Pageau and Smith on the 4th line, but I'm no Andy Sutton.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

didn't notice #14 at all and i'm still questioning he brings anything significant to this team. michalek wasn't good either but that shot was a rocket!

He's a black hole of puck possession.

But he was horrendous to start last season as well so maybe he's just a slow starter? Hopefully that's the case because he's contributing nothing to the team at the moment.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I thought Spezza was fantastic last night and in most games, I think he's really taking the whole captain thing to heart. He's very intense now.

 

[Hossa18]

Allow me to help!

The Ottawa Senators are the league's most penalized team. Erik Condra is one of the leagues best penalty killers. Mystery solved!!!

Where is Ottawa right now in terms of penalty killing percentage? If he isn't getting the job done then maybe the mystery isn't solved!!!! I am not saying that he is not a good penalty killer or that he isn't useful but MacArthur, Turris, Pageau, Greening, Michalek, and Spezza could all kill penalties and add offensively as well.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

He's a black hole of puck possession.

But he was horrendous to start last season as well so maybe he's just a slow starter? Hopefully that's the case because he's contributing nothing to the team at the moment.

Greening seems to be at his best when he's along the boards or clogging up the blue paint. I think that's why he's worked well with more skilled players, he can just play the simple game and use his speed and size to make life miserable for the opposition down low.

 

[SenzZen]

For someone so obsessed with me I'm surprised by this post. I've always owned up to things I've said wrong (actually making topics just to do so). The broken record thing is unsurprising given the source.

I think at this point I'm going to let maturity take over though and step away from any of the rest of your comments. Looking through your history I can see a pattern and you obviously still have a lot of growing up to do.

I'm obsessed with you while you're piecing patterns together through my post history?

And I was talking about the guy you were flaming for sticking up for Spezza...

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Where is Ottawa right now in terms of penalty killing percentage? If he isn't getting the job done then maybe the mystery isn't solved!!!! I am not saying that he is not a good penalty killer or that he isn't useful but MacArthur, Turris, Pageau, Greening, Michalek, and Spezza could all kill penalties and add offensively as well.

He led our #1 ranked PK last year in SH ice time for forwards.

When we're killing this many penalties, getting Spezza and Turris to PK all the time is gonna have reprocusions. That starts eating at their 20 minutes of ice time. We'd rather have them playing at even strength instead of Kassian, Smith, Neil etc. You need to get your bottom 6 guys out there in those situations to be a well rounded team. And as I said, he's a GREAT penalty killer. You don't want to downgrade to a player like Greening in those game breaking situations because they pretty much define games in today's PP fest of a league.

 

[YNWA14]

That's not ridiculous, that's a difference of opinion.

If you're both defending Spezza then all you're criticizing MoO for is not liking Spezza as much as you do. Proposing a Skinner deal is overboard, but I imagine that was a couple years ago when Skinner was a more promising prospect (I can't believe he's still only 21, he was a 30 goal scorer at eighteen!). Spezza is one of my favourite players on the team, is it 'hilarious' if I don't think he's a top 5 centre? No, I just have a different reasonable opinion.

MoO's stance should be encouraged if he's defending Spezza and not turning on him over a couple little miscues despite his personal misgivings about him.

I think it's fine to defend Spezza now and if you're going to turn over a new leaf and actually like the player that's fine too. The problem is chastising a bunch of people for doing something that you are prone to doing yourself. It's just hypocritical.

Also I'm not sure that thinking having Skinner > Spezza was ever a reasonable opinion (or that he wasn't a top 15 centre in the league). But to each their own I guess.

Usually I'll go out of my way to avoid this stuff though so I'll stick to talking just hockey and not other posters, history, etc.

He led our #1 ranked PK last year in SH ice time for forwards.

When we're killing this many penalties, getting Spezza and Turris to PK all the time is gonna have reprocusions. That starts eating at their 20 minutes of ice time. We'd rather have them playing at even strength instead of Kassian, Smith, Neil etc. You need to get your bottom 6 guys out there in those situations to be a well rounded team. And as I said, he's a GREAT penalty killer. You don't want to downgrade to a player like Greening in those game breaking situations because they pretty much define games in today's PP fest of a league.

This is a very well-reasoned post. The stronger the ability of the bottom 6 to pick up slack on PK time and defensive zone coverage the more open your top lines are going to be for offensive opportunities. The more offensive opportunity that guys like Spezza, Turris, Ryan, Conacher and co. get the more they are going to score.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Greening seems to be at his best when he's along the boards or clogging up the blue paint. I think that's why he's worked well with more skilled players, he can just play the simple game and use his speed and size to make life miserable for the opposition down low.

Yep. CG is fine as long as he doesn't handle the puck.

 

[costermonger]

I've resigned myself to the fact that he'll never get back to being the player he was before Cooke stomped him

Not sure I understand the basis for this. As you say, it's a long road to recovery, and he's got another 1/3rd of a year before he's been recovering long enough that 'back to normal' is a realistic expectation.

Sometimes I wish he hadn't played last spring. It's insane that he was able to recover enough to do so, but I do feel like it has given people a false sense of the timeline.

 

[SenzZen]

Not sure I understand the basis for this. As you say, it's a long road to recovery, and he's got another 1/3rd of a year before he's been recovering long enough that 'back to normal' is a realistic expectation.

Sometimes I wish he hadn't played last spring. It's insane that he was able to recover enough to do so, but I do feel like it has given people a false sense of the timeline.

Probably just trying not to get my hopes up too high.

He was unbelievable at the time of the injury- I don't need him to get back there to be happy.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Sometimes I wish he hadn't played last spring. It's insane that he was able to recover enough to do so, but I do feel like it has given people a false sense of the timeline.

totally agree. I don't get the sense that a lot of fans completely understand the medical miracle that was his return last season. He'll be fine and he deserves a bit of slack.

 

[NyQuil]

Where is Ottawa right now in terms of penalty killing percentage? If he isn't getting the job done then maybe the mystery isn't solved!!!! I am not saying that he is not a good penalty killer or that he isn't useful but MacArthur, Turris, Pageau, Greening, Michalek, and Spezza could all kill penalties and add offensively as well.

Considering we are shorthanded for such long periods of time, and the number of 5 on 3s given up in 7 games, we're in the middle of the pack at 15th with around an 81%.

Could be worse.

 

[costermonger]

Probably just trying not to get my hopes up too high.

He was unbelievable at the time of the injury- I don't need him to get back there to be happy.

Haha okay, that makes a lot more sense than the "I'm only happy when I'm sad" approach that some posters take.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Considering we are shorthanded for such long periods of time, and the number of 5 on 3s given up in 7 games, we're in the middle of the pack at 15th with around an 81%.

Could be worse.

Its all part of the master plan. Paulrus wants the team to take boatloads of penalties early on so that the Sens can perfect their PK unit. Also the book on the Sens will be to trap them during 5 on 5, and wait for the inevitable flood of poweplays to take the offense to them.

After the Olympic break, the Sens will flip a switch and stop taking dumb penalties. Opposing teams will be flabbergasted, and the Sens will go undefeated the rest of the way securing the top seed in the conference.

 

[OttawaSenators11]

Lehner gets the start tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Sensinitis]

I don't understand why Wiercioch and Karlsson don't play the whole 2 mins on the PP. They're our only two options really.

Get Phillips off the PP for the love of God. Both Methot and Cowen would be better options.

 

[Nordic*]

Turris has been better than Spezza.

Yeah, I said it.






Btw, the Turris for Rundblad deal, turned out to be great.

 

[TonySoprano11]

Turris has been better than Spezza.

Yeah, I said it.

He has been. Is anyone even doubting this?

 

[coladin]

The difference is when Spezza is bad, he HURTS the team. That's the key difference. When Datsyuk, Kopitar or Toews don't produce offensively, not only do they not hurt their team, they HELP defensively.

When Spezza is playing badly, he's usually slow and not moving his feet. He attempts plays standing still and it fails miserably. It obviously hurts him a lot defensively too. When he plays badly, he's not producing offensively, horrible giveaways, extremely weak defensive play, bad positioning, etc.

Spezza is the ultimate double-edge sword.

I disagree.

Spezza is always going to be Spezza, but he is more well rounded as a player and he has been on on the PK too. I think he is trying to play better in all facets of the game. You may be alluding to the Spezza of 2006.

 

[NyQuil]

He has been. Is anyone even doubting this?

Tie between Turris against Toronto and Spezza against NJ in terms of best performance for a forward this year IMO.

Turris has been a bit more consistent, but if Spezza continues his tear, it's hard to imagine Kyle keeping up.

 

[coladin]

I was at the game, electric atmosphere! However, this board is so pessimistic it infuriates me thoroughly. It is quite evident holes are still in our game, but it is 7 games in. Things will get better. We won 5-2, can you guys ever be satisfied?

Really? That was the dullest home opener I have been too, with many, embarrassing empty seats to boot. Oh Canada, eh? And they were cheap seats.

You would think after last year's playoff run, the pesky sens and all that , the place would be jumping. I have a feeling there may be some Alfie bitterness from people who have stayed away. That is the only logical explanation.