Player Discussion Nick Cousins (C)

[DJB]

Amadio - Cousins - Gregor - Gaudette all worker bee types.

Not much offense but willing to do the dirty work and battle hard . Something our bottom 6 lacked last year

 

[bert]

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.

Not in that role not even close, we watched him... He played games here, he is a top 6 or bust player hence why he is an AHLer. If you do some research on how Green coachs his 4th lines play heavy. Those guys dont play that way and they are not good defensive players, this team is going to be built and run with purpose.

They arent going to stunt young players development to win games in Belleville there will be some common sense applied here.

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.

I guess we simply dont agree about the player. In the 30 + playoff games he playoff games the last two years he has played this hasnt happened. It looks like through his 11 year NHL career there are three isolated incidents, hopefully he learned from them and they are in the past. He brings it every night, high level compete, good on the cycle, good in battles and gets to the net Makes the other teams life miserable this is what this team has been lacking. I am glad they are starting to develop an identity.

 

[bert]

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...

Go Habs Go! You can have Gallagher. He cant keep up and is the most overpaid player in the league.

 

[bicboi64]

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

That's a pretty good comparison.

Hopefully Green and co can get him to chill on the dirty stuff or Brady can show him how to answer the call if he pulls dirty crap

 

[Samboni]

I’m ok with the signing as long as he doesn’t take any stupid penalties… especially in the o-zone.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

Not in that role not even close, we watched him... He played games here, he is a top 6 or bust player hence why he is an AHLer. If you do some research on how Green coachs his 4th lines play heavy. Those guys dont play that way and they are not good defensive players, this team is going to be built and run with purpose.

They arent going to stunt young players development to win games in Belleville there will be some common sense applied here.


I guess we simply dont agree about the player. In the 30 + playoff games he playoff games the last two years he has played this hasnt happened. It looks like through his 11 year NHL career there are three isolated incidents, hopefully he learned from them and they are in the past. He brings it every night, high level compete, good on the cycle, good in battles and gets to the net Makes the other teams life miserable this is what this team has been lacking. I am glad they are starting to develop an identity.

I mean he's a 4th liner and I guess he's OK in that role. I just think the baggage of being a piece of shit and not having the guts to back it up is not good for this team.

Kevin Bieksa makes some silly takes from time to time but he sure as shit knows about physical play and rats in the NHL. The start of this video has his take on Cousins and I can't really disagree with him here.

 

[SpezDispenser]

^ Doesn't look great on Cousins in that video, but note that Gudbransson attacks him in a 2-1 game with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Mission accomplished.

EDIT: Nothing wrong with that hit on McAvoy at all. Not at all.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

^ Doesn't look great on Cousins in that video, but note that Gudbransson attacks him in a 2-1 game with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Mission accomplished.

EDIT: Nothing wrong with that hit on McAvoy at all. Not at all.

Agreed on the McAvoy hit. If he does that all year I'm fine with it.

 

[bert]

I mean he's a 4th liner and I guess he's OK in that role. I just think the baggage of being a piece of shit and not having the guts to back it up is not good for this team.

Kevin Bieksa makes some silly takes from time to time but he sure as shit knows about physical play and rats in the NHL. The start of this video has his take on Cousins and I can't really disagree with him here.

He was a key piece on a team that went to the SCF in their top 9. You are selling the player short, its fine to not like him but I am not sure this is an honest evaluation.

 

[God Says No]

Why are people pencilling Cousins at C? I don't think he's played there much lately.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Agreed on the McAvoy hit. If he does that all year I'm fine with it.

Absolutely. I think he needs to to stay in the lineup. Forecheck, forecheck, forecheck.

 

[LiseL]

He's the Senator that Hab fans and Leaf fans deserve.

I was reading the Leafs board after the acquisition and they're already complaining, something to the effect, already hated the Sens, now hate them even more lol. Looking forward to seeing Reilly's reactions to all of our pests.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Amadio - Cousins - Gregor - Gaudette all worker bee types.

Not much offense but willing to do the dirty work and battle hard . Something our bottom 6 lacked last year

Which is what we sorely needed last year. We needed those type of constant forecheck workers. You can also tell Tkachuk was getting frustrated having to do most of the physical pests work. Gaudette isn't as hard-nosed but he's always hustling.

Crookshank should make it even more interesting keeping Gaudette on his toes.

Then we have Ostapchuk in the wings ready to fill in but expecting a big year in the AHL with him leading the charge down there with Janik.

The is the route we needed to take. Lest we forget Greig who himself is an absolute menace and expecting him to breakout akin to Mercer like impact player.

Pinto is going to also have a terrific year.

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I'm gonna be that asshole that comes from the other board and gives his 2 cents. This is a nice win for Ottawa. Everyone in that locker room will love him and every other team will hate him. He'll draw you more penalties than he'll take just because he's a shit disturber.

As for on the ice, he's a 4th line energy guy, there's really not much to analyze. He was actually on the 2nd line for Florida for a lot of the year until they got Tarasenko oddly enough and that role didn't work out because he's a 4th liner. The Sens/Panthers games will be even more fun and with Brady, Stutzle, Perron, Cousins, everyone will hate Ottawa. And trust me, it's way more fun to be a fan of a hated team than a pitied team.

 

[Alf Silfversson]

He was a key piece on a team that went to the SCF in their top 9. You are selling the player short, its fine to not like him but I am not sure this is an honest evaluation.

I mean the Panthers didn't want him at league minimum. They were obviously done with him. I don't like players like him. If I want a dirty player on my 4th line I want him to stick up for himself and his teammates. I don't feel Cousins does that.

But whatever, he's cheap thankfully only on a 1 year deal. I would, however, have preferred if we used our scant cap space on an experienced defender.

 

[Cosmix]

Throw 'em? Cousins is one of the league's biggest turtles. Brady will still have to do it all and more because this guy will stir up shit and go down easier than the prom queen.

I should have dated more Prom Queens.

 

[Cosmix]

Why didn't Florida bring him back at that price?

That's what I am thinking too.

MacEwen and Watson would be a good tilt. Nice job getting a guy to be your fighter and signing him for 3 years and then realize he can't fight

I just watched the Probert-McSorley tilt from ancient history. That was a ten rounder!

MacEwen and Watson would be a good tilt. Nice job getting a guy to be your fighter and signing him for 3 years and then realize he can't fight

I just watched the Probert-McSorley tilt from ancient history. That was a ten rounder!

I mean the Panthers didn't want him at league minimum. They were obviously done with him. I don't like players like him. If I want a dirty player on my 4th line I want him to stick up for himself and his teammates. I don't feel Cousins does that.

But whatever, he's cheap thankfully only on a 1 year deal. I would, however, have preferred if we used our scant cap space on an experienced defender.

Cousins brings some things I like and others I don't. He is not my first choice for the 4th Line.

 

[Cosmix]

Hopefully his first shot is at the rat that is Brendan Gallagher.

or Reilly.

So who did he just push off the roster? Angus? Gregor?

Gregor has a one-way. Crook does not.

I like the Cousins signing but I fear that it's going to expose how much we need an enforcer type, at least another body who will stand up. We have 5 guys (Perron, Stu, Grieg, Cousins and Crookshank) who will stir the pot but will look the other way when it comes to fighting their own battles. We can't be that team vs Xhekaj, Mailloux, Anderson and Pazetta for example.

Brady is Brady and if Ostapchuk is in the lineup that will help. Before anyone says it, Kleven did not show a willingness to fight in the A and you don't want him in that situation anyhow, he doesn't have the experience. Maybe Jenik can force his way into the lineup from time to time.

Our #7 dman should be someone who is willing and able to fight even if it means trading a pick. Englund would be a dream.

Still a need for toughness IMO.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Wonder how Gregor and cousins gel. Would like ostapchuk on that other side. Or even crookshank

 

[Crosside]

Cousins: You can never have enough experience

Senators forward Nick Cousins joins Graham and Matt to talk bout his decision to sign with the team, what he makes of the fit, players on the Sens he's already tight with, and how he's been able to thrive as a pest.

www.tsn.ca

 

[Cosmix]

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 and Crookshank are AHL material and on 2-way contracts, I think. We are not "overflowing".

 

[Cosmix]

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.

We could run Gregor-Cousins-MacEwen as the the 4th line.

 

[Loach]

Cousins is a winger....

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

or Reilly.

Lol, or that. I don't think he comes anywhere close to how much Gallagher used to bug me though. My most hated NHL player for a few years there for sure with the Montreal rivalry being much more alive than the old Leafs rivalry.

 

[Cosmix]

^ Doesn't look great on Cousins in that video, but note that Gudbransson attacks him in a 2-1 game with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Mission accomplished.

EDIT: Nothing wrong with that hit on McAvoy at all. Not at all.

I did not see any egregious hits; perhaps only 1 nearing a hit to the head that I don't think was called by the refs.

A few of Chris Neil's hits were far more physical than what I saw in that set of videos. I don't consider Chris Neil as a rat; he was a very physical player.

Cousins is a winger....

He did play C in junior and I think a bit in theNHL. Not sure if he has the legs left to play 4L C.