Player Discussion Nick Cousins (C)

Hale The Villain

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We now have way too many forwards:

NHL:
Tkachuk - Stutzle - Giroux
Greig - Norris - Batherson
Perron - Pinto - Amadio
Gregor - Cousins - Gaudette
MacEwen, Crookshank

AHL:
Jenik - Ostapchuk - Bourgault
Highmore - Halliday - Pilon
Rees - Bongiovanni - Boucher
Reinhardt - Daoust - Petersson
Washkurak, Chiasson, Hodgson

Belleville is overflowing, and that's the case even with 14 forwards in Ottawa, which we absolutely shouldn't do given how awful our D depth is.

Staios needs to swap a forward for a D. Would be insane to go into the year with JBD or Hamonic playing every night, not to mention having zero LD depth behind Kleven.

We should be going 13F/8D/2G, not 14F/7D/2G. 3rd pairing depth is so much more important than 4th line depth.
 
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Bileur

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Jun 15, 2004
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I personally really like this signing.

Ok he has a "rat" reputation but seriously, we are not in a position to be nice anymore

What it mainly means is that Zack MacEwen, a Pierre Dorion genius signing, is not going to be a full-time player.

Nick Cousins is abrasive and everything but he can play hockey. It might mean that we won't ridiculously overpay to get the overrated Scott freaking Laughton

NC has shown good defensive metrics in the past and all his production comes at ES.

Scott Laughton has 80 goals and 121 assists in 601 career games. Nick Cousins has 62 goals and 97 assists in 592 career games but with 12:25 TOI/GP while Laughton has 14:26 TOI/GP, 2 more minutes per game, mostly on the PP. Difference is also that Cousins is much cheaper.

IMO it makes the Gregor signing better

Tkachuk - Stutzle - Batherson
Greig - Norris - Giroux
Perron - Pinto - Amadio
Crookshank - Cousins - Gregor

This is the 4th line I want

Good piece on the 4th line. Much better than MacEwen


I like the signing but I don’t see Cousins pushing out MacEwen.

If anything this makes MacEwen more important.

The sens are adding Perron and Cousins whose mouths and actions will be writing cheques all over the ice. Brady will cash those cheques if MacEwen isn’t around to handle it. We don’t need Brady taking on all the extra rough stuff this will create.

We’re also probably adding Kleven who is another one who will cause chaos and increase the likelihood of rough stuff.
 

Micklebot

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Apr 27, 2010
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Gadjovich, Bennett, Lomberg will all fight their own fights, Tkachuk to a lesser extent as well. Between those 4 they had 18 majors.

We have one player in that category this season in Brady and he had 6 majors last year. Ostapchuk is not making up the difference.

On top of that Miikkola can play a mean and so can Stenlund and Ekblad.

In terms of pests dragging a capable team into battle Florida last year vs us is no comparison.

What do you mean?

edit- omitted MacEwan because hopefully he is not in the lineup.
None of those guys are enforcer types though which is why I asked who you meant by enforcer types, and I don't know what you mean by Ostapchuk isn't making up the difference, the goal isn't to have as many fights, it's just about taking care of things should it happen. Brady can handle himself, Ostapchuk can, MacEwen will likely get ~30 games the same way Gadjovich did,
 

mysens

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Apr 9, 2013
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I like this and don't like this,.When this guy stirs up $hit, he turtles and runs away leaving one of our players to step up and fight. Who the heck is that going to be? If no one, then the Sens players will be exposed to a cheap shot coming right back at them. This will no doubt bring the entertainment level up I suppose.
 

Senovision

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May 23, 2011
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Do we have any fighters that play for Belleville?
(We had this guy Imama but he wasn't great at it.
He now is in the Pittsburgh organization.)
Anyone else in Belleville that can fight and could be brought up?

 

bert

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We now have way too many forwards:

NHL:
Tkachuk - Stutzle - Giroux
Greig - Norris - Batherson
Perron - Pinto - Amadio
Gregor - Cousins - Gaudette
MacEwen, Crookshank

AHL:
Jenik - Ostapchuk - Bourgault
Highmore - Halliday - Pilon
Rees - Bongiovanni - Boucher
Reinhardt - Daoust - Petersson
Washkurak, Chiasson, Hodgson

Belleville is overflowing, and that's the case even with 14 forwards in Ottawa, which we absolutely shouldn't do given how awful our D depth is.

Staios needs to swap a forward for a D. Would be insane to go into the year with JBD or Hamonic playing every night, not to mention having zero LD depth behind Kleven.

We should be going 13F/8D/2G, not 14F/7D/2G. 3rd pairing depth is so much more important than 4th line depth.
Too many? There's always injuries. This team has been thin for years. It's great to have depth. Norris hasn't been healthy for 3 years. Gaudette is an AHL player and you have him in the top 12. That's not having too many forwards. He's also not going to play a 4th line role neither is Crookshank.

If there aren't any injuries I'd bet my house on this being the top 13 they start with.

Tkachuk Pinto Batherson
Norris Stutzle Giroux
Perron Greig Amadio
Gregor Ostapchuk Cousins
Macewen
 

BigRig4

Registered User
Feb 22, 2014
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Do we have any fighters that play for Belleville?
(We had this guy Imama but he wasn't great at it.
He now is in the Pittsburgh organization.)
Anyone else in Belleville that can fight and could be brought up?

Signed Hodgson I believe his name is (the guy who pissed off Stone in preseason last year)
 

Senovision

Registered User
May 23, 2011
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Hayden Hodgson

Signed Hodgson I believe his name is (the guy who pissed off Stone in preseason last year)
Ok thanks I just looked up the hit on Mark Stone on Youtube as well.
I just posted him fighting Jeannot.
Wes McCauley the referee sounds like a ring announcer when he gets on the microphone to announce the penalties. Lol
 
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Xspyrit

DJ Dorion
Jun 29, 2008
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By the way, Nick Cousins kinda reminds me of Maxim Lapierre for those who knew him, an absolute rat on the ice but seems nice IRL. He's now an analyst on TVA and has a blog with Guillaume Latendresse, they're fun to listen to.

We now have way too many forwards:

NHL:
Tkachuk - Stutzle - Giroux
Greig - Norris - Batherson
Perron - Pinto - Amadio
Gregor - Cousins - Gaudette
MacEwen, Crookshank

AHL:
Jenik - Ostapchuk - Bourgault
Highmore - Halliday - Pilon
Rees - Bongiovanni - Boucher
Reinhardt - Daoust - Petersson
Washkurak, Chiasson, Hodgson

Belleville is overflowing, and that's the case even with 14 forwards in Ottawa, which we absolutely shouldn't do given how awful our D depth is.

Staios needs to swap a forward for a D. Would be insane to go into the year with JBD or Hamonic playing every night, not to mention having zero LD depth behind Kleven.

We should be going 13F/8D/2G, not 14F/7D/2G. 3rd pairing depth is so much more important than 4th line depth.

Gaudette should be in the AHL unless he is an injury call-up so the logjam is more in the AHL, which is a good thing for once we should have a good AHL team

Cousins #10, Gregor #11, Crookshank #12 and MacEwen #13 is not too much depth IMO. It's probably just "NHL average" and that's if Crookshank proves he is a NHL player

And yeah, that is my main worry about letting Brannstrom go : have JBD or Hamonic in the lineup every game. JBD to a lesser degree but I don't even want to see Hamonic. Wish we could have kept Brannstrom as he can play RD just fine but I guess he wouldn't accept a pay cut with Ottawa as he didn't have to
 
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Xspyrit

DJ Dorion
Jun 29, 2008
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Montreal, Canada
He doesn't impact a game in the slightest. No one even recognizes him as a player that has any impact in the league.

He might have felt into obscurity but he was a 30+ scorer just a few years ago

That said it doesn't matter, he doubled Cousins' production last season and his face is still as punchable as ever, like Nick Cousins who is at the top of this list...
 

PlayersLtd

Registered User
Mar 6, 2019
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None of those guys are enforcer types though which is why I asked who you meant by enforcer types, and I don't know what you mean by Ostapchuk isn't making up the difference, the goal isn't to have as many fights, it's just about taking care of things should it happen. Brady can handle himself, Ostapchuk can, MacEwen will likely get ~30 games the same way Gadjovich did,
Gadjovich is an enforcer type by today's NHL standards but anyway, my point was more tough players that can fight if need be.

Cousins takes a spot from MacEwen essentially so I don't know how much we can include him into the equation.

We now have a slew of hated pests in the lineup but shy of Brady and Ostapchuk (and yes Macewen when he's in which everyone agrees is hopefully rare) we have nobody to take on the rough stuff that they might command.

Taken one step further it's not that we have nobody, it's that we have a lineup full of guys that want to look the other way. Zub is tough compared to most of our lineup and that isn't great. This puts Grieg for example in a position where he might need to fight his own fight, or Giroux at 36/37 who might have to get in the middle of a scrum, or Harmonic who might need to dress more than we would like for those matchups. Those aren't ideal outcomes.
 

Hale The Villain

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Too many? There's always injuries. This team has been thin for years. It's great to have depth. Norris hasn't been healthy for 3 years. Gaudette is an AHL player and you have him in the top 12. That's not having too many forwards. He's also not going to play a 4th line role neither is Crookshank.

If there aren't any injuries I'd bet my house on this being the top 13 they start with.

Tkachuk Pinto Batherson
Norris Stutzle Giroux
Perron Greig Amadio
Gregor Ostapchuk Cousins
Macewen

Gaudette played NHL minutes for Green when he coached the Canucks. I think he'll get an opportunity to make the team and is probably better than Ostapchuk. Seriously doubt the Sens see him or Crookshank as unfit for a 4th line role like you seem to.

The number of bodies is a problem for Belleville and the young forwards we should be trying to get some ice time to develop properly.

I don't want Halliday or Bourgault pushed to 3rd line AHL minutes because of too many bodies. Same goes for Boucher and Petersson, who may not even have spots to win with how many quality AHLers are ahead of them.

At the same time our depth on D is laughable, particularly on the left side. No way Roos or Davies should be seeing NHL ice unless there are numerous injuries, yet they are our only insurance on the left side.

Moving a forward like Crookshank or MacEwen for a 7/8 D makes a lot of sense to equalize our depth at forward and D.
 

Masked

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Apr 16, 2017
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Gaudette played NHL minutes for Green when he coached the Canucks. I think he'll get an opportunity to make the team and is probably better than Ostapchuk.

Those are two players with completely different roles. Gaudette is here to step in if there's an injury in the top 6. Ostapchuk is here to be a heavy presence in the bottom 6.
 

Hale The Villain

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Those are two players with completely different roles. Gaudette is here to step in if there's an injury in the top 6. Ostapchuk is here to be a heavy presence in the bottom 6.

Green has literally played Gaudette in a 4th line role before, so I wouldn't be so sure the 4th line is only ever going to be occupied by energy/defensive guys.
 

Alf Silfversson

Registered User
Jun 8, 2011
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Or third or second, he has proven he can play in that role on a cup contender. He is not a traditional player to play there but he has the ability to fit into a line if put in a position to succeed and when its structured properly.



OMG is that an actual identity they are building. God forbid.


Plays significant role on the best team in the league the last two seasons. Scored the series winning goal against the leafs but yeah he is trash.

Everyone i know that actually plays hockey loves this. Gotta leave it to the internet hockey fan to hate it.

Buddy I played hockey for close to 40 years. Your schtick where if people don't love the same moves as you automatically "never played hockey" is getting beyond old.

I like players with character, not guys who fold like a cheap suit in the face of true heavyweights like Michael Bunting. This is a cowardly player. I've played with guys like this and it's hard to look them in the eye after they refuse to answer the bell, time after time. Not good for the culture of the team.

I don't mind players who cross the line and do some dirty shit in the pursuit of being competitive but that ain't Cousins. He has no backbone and seems to go for predatory hits just for the sake of doing it. He's a weasel who writes cheques and then has his teammates foot the bill.

Oh and he's just getting signed to league minimum right before camp. Seems like plenty of guys "who played hockey" took a hard pass on Nick Cousins. And for good reason; his defensive play was lacking last year and he was a healthy scratch on several occasions. The Colorado Avalanche, one of the best run teams in the league, gave Parker Kelly more money earlier in the offseason with Cousins very much on the table. He's not good and all the dirty hits in the world won't change that. But here's hoping he has a bounce back season this year.
 
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lancepitlick

Registered User
Nov 20, 2016
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Terrific signing.

Cousins-Gregor will be an excellent mainstay on our 4th line and can fill in 3rd line for injuries. Finally.

Tkachuk - Stutzle - Giroux
Perron - Norris - Batherson
Greig - Pinto - Amadio
Cousins - Gregor - Gaudette

We just need a D and we are set to challenge for wild card.
I absolutely live that there is a shit disturber on every line. Let's face it, most of the roster is soft as silk. If the antics of some cause others to be forced to play with more edge than I'm all for it. You don't want them scrapping all the time, but Stutzle, Chabot, Sanderson, Norris, Zub, Pinto - they could all stand to harden up slightly, especially if the team ever actually makes the playoffs. And a guy like Kleven should learn to fight. You are 6-4. Do you need to fight often? No. Do you need to be able to when the situation calls for it. Absolutely.
 

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