GDT: GAME 9 | Kings @ Senators | Days of our Sens Edition | Thu Nov 1st 2023, 7PM | TSN5, RDS

[swiftwin]

Interesting hearing Dave Poulin talk about this game on TSN1200 this morning, he was certainly more positive about the teams play than the folks around here.

Poulin in the past hasn't been afraid to call a spade a spade, maybe the sky isn't falling...

But didn't you hear? Poulin is just doing lip service and is being diplomatic! You can't trust anything he says!!!!!

 

[HSF]

Interesting hearing Dave Poulin talk about this game on TSN1200 this morning, he was certainly more positive about the teams play than the folks around here.

Poulin in the past hasn't been afraid to call a spade a spade, maybe the sky isn't falling...

I mean Poulin has his opinion he also said that he blames Vegas aswell for what happened with Dadanov and also did not want to say that Ottawa should have double checked with the agent about a list.

All of which I think a lot of people would disagree with.

Not every analyst will have the same opinion about things like that and like firing the coach. A lot of ex NHLers also won't publicly say someone should be fired as they are part of that community.

 

[Agent Zub]

Sure we have a lot of injuries.

But what is concerning is our top guys are playing. Batherson, Brady, Stutzle, Chabot, Norris

Have all been crap. When they should be stepping up.

 

[jbeck5]

I'm not convince that this bunch of players are as good as some of you think.

Same. I'm losing excitement on this season quickly for that reason.

This is an improvement over the puempel, noesen, Cowen, Lehner, rundblad, Karlsson, wiercioch, Silverberg, zibanejad, Petersson, Hoffman, prince, pageau, Ceci, wikstrand, bishop days...but is it really that much better?

Back then we could make the playoffs every other year and win a round.

Now we've been hyping up a dozen young players just like we used to... But will this team ever make the playoffs?

We've also been hemorrhaging draft picks like it's nothing.

We traded #4(Bowen Byram) for a few months of Duchene.

We traded stone for nothing.

We traded a 2nd for Matt Murray.

We traded a 2nd for Stepan.

We traded #7(korchinski), 2nd and 3rd for debrincat.

We traded Gustavsson for Talbot.

We traded a 2nd to get rid of zaitsev.

We lost a 1st round pick for lying about dadanov.

So were a team who has yet to make the playoffs who's up against the cap, and has lost stone, Gustavsson, three 1sts, four 2nds, and a third for practically nothing.

I fear this rebuild is stopped dead in its tracks before it even takes off.

What assets do we have to help this core move to the next level after the 2020 draft? We've lost so many picks and players and are losing more that all of a sudden, our team doesn't look strong enough and there's nothing coming through the pipelines because we've either been ass at drafting the last 3 years or have lost a bunch of important picks.

What's their to be positive about? The outlook all of a sudden looks shitty when you look at where the improvements are even supposed to come from.

 

[Micklebot]

I mean Poulin has his opinion he also said that he blames Vegas aswell for what happened with Dadanov and also did not want to say that Ottawa should have double checked with the agent about a list.

All of which I think a lot of people would disagree with.

Not every analyst will have the same opinion about things like that and like firing the coach. A lot of ex NHLers also won't publicly say someone should be fired as they are part of that community.

Well, Poulin is a player and coach by trade, so his opinion on management probably isn't as developed as his opinion on the on ice aspect.

He's a pretty damn respected analysts, one of the better ones out there, and particularly know for his knowledge on the defensive side of the game

He also isn't emotionally invested in the team, so might be able to give a more even keeled opinion without getting hung up on the record.

Food for thought, nobody is perfect so maybe Poulin is wrong and the masses of panicked fans are right, but the points he made talking about how the team played all seemed pretty valid to me.

 

[NyQuil]

Of course we're worked up.

Logically, any 10 game stretch is the same as any other in the season.

But from a fan perspective, the "groundhog day" aspect of slow starts is rapidly getting tiresome.

DJ Smith announces that he's going to "coach differently" this year and "hold players accountable" but we have yet to see anything in that respect. So it's hard to determine whether anything is different this year when the results are the same and the coaching appears to be the same.

Meanwhile, virtually every team in our division gets at least 1 point every night, while we are losing outright during our longest home stretch of the season.

It seems silly to say the team isn't desperate enough after 9 games, but they aren't. They really aren't.

In the 2006-2007, Ottawa lost their top 3 centres to injury and responded with their best run of play in the season. What about the Hamburglar? Was he the greatest goalie in team history or was the team dynamite in front of him?

Adversity should be lighting a fire under these guys but have we seen a 60 minute effort yet?

Give up the first goal, deflate, give up a few more, fight back, repeat.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Damn, we are really missing Zub, Chabot and Branstromm

Even just Zub back would really bolster things. I miss Chabot too, but we need a stabilizer back there so Sanderson can play his explosive game with being shackled.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[NyQuil]

My kid has been sick all week, and it's been rough. Half his daycare is out too. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Our light schedule might be a silver lining because we're just roadkill (at home) in our current state.

 

[jbeck5]

I get the same impression. I don't think Staios and Andlauer think they have any capital to lose this season with the fans or hockey community. If things don't work this year, everyone will chalk it up as the last failure of the previous regime. I'm sure they prefer to make the playoffs, but I don't get the sense at all that they're too bothered if it doesn't happen. I think they'll take their time with the GM hire, then let the new GM find a coaching staff, and if it takes 4 months, it takes 4 months.

By the time we'll be ready to compete, half our prime will be passed their prime...guys like Chabot, batherson, chychrun, etc will be passed their statistically more productive years. We'll be saying it's a young man's game and we need to get younger. Lol

It's the last 15 years over and over again. No real development of a consistent winner happening here right now.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

My kid has been sick all week, and it's been rough. Half his daycare is out too. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Our light schedule might be a silver lining because we're just roadkill (at home) in our current state.

I mean it might be a silver lining in that the players themselves will feel better. Doesn’t really translate to wins or anything. We got killed by buffalo the last time we had a nice long break

 

[NyQuil]

I mean it might be a silver lining in that the players themselves will feel better. Doesn’t really translate to wins or anything. We got killed by buffalo the last time we had a nice long break

Well, I'm just thinking that if our schedule was full we'd be dropping even more losses with how they are playing and how the roster is looking at the moment.

 

[jbeck5]

Did YOU look at this roster? We have 3 AHL defensemen, and were down to just TWO centers in the game before the end of the 1st period.

There's always a list of excuses for sens fans, I've noticed.

It's always something different... Injuries are a fairly common excuse.

What did the sens of old do when their Hart runner up in Yashin bailed? Played with structure and made the playoffs. Other guys stepped up.

What do we do when we have injuries? Fold and blame the injuries.

 

[NyQuil]

By the time we'll be ready to compete, half our prime will be passed their prime...guys like Chabot, batherson, chychrun, etc will be passed their statistically more productive years. We'll be saying it's a young man's game and we need to get younger. Lol

I'm not as concerned about statistical primes. Particularly for defencemen.

Part of the reason why I think statistical primes fall off is that veterans leave a little bit in the tank for the playoffs.

We've had guys like Volchenkov, Phillips, Methot and Phaneuf play key roles on long playoff runs, well after their statistical primes.

In general though, you have to lose in the playoffs before you can win. And we can't even get to that point.

What do we do when we have injuries? Fold and blame the injuries.

We had Anderson, Karlsson and Spezza out and made the playoffs.

We had Spezza, Fisher and Vermette out and made the playoffs.

Has nothing to do with Ottawa specifically. Maybe these current guys under this current coach.

 

[jbeck5]

It absolutely can.

"The computer is broken". "Just hit it with a hammer, it can't make it worse"

Think of it more like.

"The computer isn't working"


Have you tried unplugging it and restarting it with a new coaching staff?

 

[aragorn]

every team works hard in the NHL especially this early in the season.

Working hard is the bare minimum. Do they work smart? I have yet to see that. Just a bunch of guys going balls to the wall into the boards and skating back but consistent pressure 5 on 5 is lacking

Work. As. A. Team.

I agree with you that they need to be smarter & that comes with experience & learning which goes to my point of them being a young team making young player mistakes. You hope they learn from it at some point, but given they are different ages with different learning curves playing different positions it takes time for them to get it together as a team, but I think it is slowly coming along & they are vastly improved from last yr, I think that is obvious.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Well, I'm just thinking that if our schedule was full we'd be dropping even more losses with how they are playing and how the roster is looking at the moment.

I see yeah.

 

[aragorn]

Boston loses Bergeron, Krejci, Hall, and deadline acquisitions Orlov and Bertuzzi. They then proceed to start the season 9-0-1. The team loses 25% of their roster, all of which are impact players, and they still win. Meanwhile, we watch the same shit, different year ("they've taken a step forward to compete for the playoffs!").

Didn't they get bounced out of the first rd of the playoffs last yr? Didn't Florida also have a great regular season the yr before & get bounced out in the first rd of the playoffs? Don't the Sens look like a better team than last yr? Doesn't it seem like they are improving?

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

My kid has been sick all week, and it's been rough. Half his daycare is out too. Wouldn't surprise me at all.

Our light schedule might be a silver lining because we're just roadkill (at home) in our current state.

Hopefully better soon

 

[NyQuil]

Have you tried unplugging it and restarting it with a new coaching staff?

It's entirely possible that these aren't the right players.

But I won't be convinced until I see a new coach with a different system.

 

[inthewings]

By the time we'll be ready to compete, half our prime will be passed their prime...guys like Chabot, batherson, chychrun, etc will be passed their statistically more productive years. We'll be saying it's a young man's game and we need to get younger. Lol

It's the last 15 years over and over again. No real development of a consistent winner happening here right now.

It's going to be a legitimately challenging situation for the next administration. Some very, very good pieces (Stutzle, Tkachuk, Sanderson). Some pieces we hope are good pieces (Norris, Batherson), and then support players like Greig and Pinto. I'm guessing management is going to spend a few years doing its best to add cheap undervalued supplementary pieces to the team, but assembling an actual Cup contender is going to be difficult given the cap situation and the dearth of talent on the farm.

There's not going to be much room to add actual salary to the current team, and there isn't likely any impact talent coming from the farm. So meaningful improvements will likely have to come from shrewd trades/FA signings for guys that are very undervalued at the time of acquisition.

I'm a bit concerned we spend 2-3 years in the 95-100 point range, and then enter a 'rebuild the rebuild situation'.

 

[jbeck5]

It's entirely possible that these aren't the right players.

But I won't be convinced until I see a new coach with a different system.

I think we've overhyped these players like we did a decade ago with the list of young players I mentioned above.

We always think our players are the next best thing...but we haven't been a contender in what, 15 years?

How long does it take to build a team that can make the playoffs consecutively let alone a few years in a row?

Do we need to tear it down and suck and get better players while not pissing away talent and draft picks like dorion did? Do we need another 5 year reset to collect picks without pissing them away on crappy players and to fix problems?

 

[WallyD]

Surprised it wasn't a bigger story that we had on the ice at the same time in one game Stutzle, Byfield, and Lafreniere.

Is the last guy you mentioned intended to be (Alex) Laferriere? I had to look it up after thinking the same thing, that (Alex) Lafreniere (NYR) had been traded to LA.

 

[jbeck5]

It's going to be a legitimately challenging situation for the next administration. Some very, very good pieces (Stutzle, Tkachuk, Sanderson). Some pieces we hope are good pieces (Norris, Batherson), and then support players like Greig and Pinto. I'm guessing management is going to spend a few years doing its best to add cheap undervalued supplementary pieces to the team, but assembling an actual Cup contender is going to be difficult given the cap situation and the dearth of talent on the farm.

There's not going to be much room to add actual salary to the current team, and there isn't likely any impact talent coming from the farm. So meaningful improvements will likely have to come from shrewd trades/FA signings for guys that are very undervalued at the time of acquisition.

I'm a bit concerned we spend 2-3 years in the 95-100 point range, and then enter a 'rebuild the rebuild situation'.

Maybe we need to address the situation now and not waste 2-3 years being mediocre before we decide to tear it down a year.

We had a nice base here for a strong team, but like I showed, traded away several first and 2nd round picks for nothing...this could be like 5 impact players

We traded three 1sts, and four 2nds, and stone and Gustavsson...for what? Nothing.

Imagine having those 7 top 2 round picks back and stone as captain and Gustavsson in the pipes.

We would look a lot more serious.

But there's nothing we can do about those 7 crucial picks we've lost except try to rebuild without losing those picks.

We already lose one of our next 3 firsts. Maybe we need to get rid of this year's first and then we can actually start fresh with all our picks. Trade anyone worth value, collect all these picks,and then actually sign good vets, like what Pittsburgh did to surround Crosby.

This endless mediocrity doesn't sound appealing, and it looks like that's exactly what we're heading for with no cap space or prospects in the pipelines. We wasted so much.

 

[Alex1234]

I hope Andlauer and Staios, who stress accountability so often, are listening closely to DJ’s post game pressers.

He pretty much immediately goes into excuses:

- Injuries to Greig and Kastelic
- LA’s D would look worse (like ours) if they were missing as many guys

It’s the same old crap which avoids accountability and sets low expectations.

The guys hear this and know the coach doesn’t think he has the horses. It’s disappointing and doesn’t set the table for guys to break through their ceilings.

Why not pump his guys tires while setting higher expectations by saying he’s got three first round picks in his D core, an 800 game veteran, and a promising young pairing with size and mobility?

Why isn’t he saying the guys know what to do, have the ability to put the plan in action, and he trusts them to execute?

There’s just no benefit to the team from complaining about injuries.

He gives them excuses from the get go
That's why they like him so much