Low Effort GDT Senators in La Belle Province to beat up some scrubs | Tuesday October 1st, 2024, 7PM

[LiseL]

I just don't see a true role for Gregor. He's speedy and has decent skill but not enough to really warrant a top 9 role, but also doesn't really play a physical/checking game that would warrant a 4th line role. He probably has a roster spot locked up just based on the fact management signed him to a 1-way just a few months ago, but I don't think it'll be on merit.

Hopefully Gregor's speed allows the 4th line to be effective in getting the puck out of the D zone and applying pressure in the Ozone. I think there's more than one way to be a good 4th line, but what do I know?

 

[NyQuil]

Game was actually in Ottawa and the last of the preseason. A lot of the players were in Belleville and got called up to play that game. It was an intentional move by DJ. They will be I Detroit on Friday and back in Ottawa on Saturday to play Montreal for the last game of the preseason. Will be interesting to see who plays.

Touche.

Here's the GDT:

GDT: - SENS @ Habs, Wednesday night 7:00 pm on TSN5

It was every single forward competing for a bottom six role and every single defenceman competing for a bottom pairing role.

 

[bert]

Game was actually in Ottawa and the last of the preseason. A lot of the players were in Belleville and got called up to play that game. It was an intentional move by DJ. They will be I Detroit on Friday and back in Ottawa on Saturday to play Montreal for the last game of the preseason. Will be interesting to see who plays.

I hope they just skip it or do the same thing as last year. Montreal is a terrible team, clearly with an agenda dont play anyone that might get injured please.

Gregor fills a 4th line role nicely, plays with a ton of pace dont see how he isnt a fit there and on the PK. At league minimum thats fine, they need guys that can stretch the zone.

 

[LiseL]

Those are my 3 concerns for making the playoffs as well.

Depending on what the end goal is, if it's to win a cup, I would say my worry is also the lack of star players. And I'm not sure how to get more. We won't have high draft picks...have to give up a first... we're going to have to hope to find an Alfredsson/Datsyuk/Zetterberg or something to be a true contender. (Someone who comes out of nowhere to be a top 30 player in the league)

Or you follow the Vegas model where you don't have a lot of stars up front but a lot of good players who can do it by committee. Granted, Vegas has a heavy team on the back-end, something else the Sens need to address at some point.

 

[Korpse]

Here's the GDT:

GDT: - SENS @ Habs, Wednesday night 7:00 pm on TSN5

It was every single forward competing for a bottom six role and every single defenceman competing for a bottom pairing

Think we are referencing different games. I was talking about the October 7th game. I may be a little mixed up, they might have had a stronger reaction to this game to be honest.

Montréal Canadiens - Ottawa Senators - Oct 7, 2023 | NHL.com

NHL Gamecenter - Montréal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators, Oct 7, 2023 - summary, stats, boxscore, play by play, recap and more.

www.nhl.com

 

[NyQuil]

Think we are referencing different games. I was talking about the October 7th game. I may be a little mixed up, they might have had a stronger reaction to this game to be honest.

It's probably me that has it wrong.

We sure do play them a lot in pre-season.

 

[LiseL]

If we're going with realistic odds, we have no shot at the Cup this year. We haven't made the playoffs in 7 years and will have to learn how to lose in the playoffs like everyone else (Tampa, Edmonton, Colorado and even Florida did)

I like our potential regarding star power at G + D but F is a question mark

G : Ullmark (if he extends) + Sogaard/Merilainen/???

D : Sanderson + Chabot + Yakemchuk

F : Stutzle + Tkachuk + Batherson

So the problem might be at F going forward. Giroux and Perron are too old now and will only be stop gaps. Norris could be in that group but due to his shoulder injuries, it's unpredictable at this point. I love Pinto and Greig but I think they are luxury support players and not stars. Guys like Halliday and Ostapchuk are nice but they are support at best too.

So I agree, in the next few years we'll need to find another star forward and at least another Top-6 guy to replace Giroux

Another brief analysis that shows how inept Dorion's management was. We should be stacked at all positions with still a good prospect pool considering the time we rebuilt and the wealth we started with.

You included Yakemchuk so I think you're looking at what we have going forward. I'd replace Chabot with Kleven in that conversation. Chabot hasn't look very good in a long time, nevermind going forward IMO.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Boucher could still work if he could stay healthy and learn how to fight lol.

He just needs to stay healthy in the AHL and lay big hits and maybe train with an ex enforcer and literally just come here a year or two from now and just hit everything that moves and kick some ass. He would also have a decent base level of skill, and wouldn't be like a parros level plug or whatever.

Meh, that's a tall order lol

 

[Micklebot]

It's probably me that has it wrong.

We sure do play them a lot in pre-season.

Got to build up those preseason rivalries to boost the ratings...

 

[SpezDispenser]

Just goes to show how underrated Watson was for us. Gonna keep bringing that up lol, even if now he is past his expiry date. He really enabled Kelly and Kastelic to dial it up physically as well.

Kastelic would have been nice to keep, but there were definitely some attitude problems there that needed to be solved through a trade, which remains to be seen.

Neither watson or kastelic are gonna enforce much

 

[LiseL]

Could somebody find a list of good players from the Ottawa area? Let's say 27 y/o and older

It'd be nice to luck out into another Giroux situation. There's also Quebec players who could be interested in being closer to home.

I think we might be able to attract good support players if we become a good playoff team but star players in their prime? Hard to say, we didn't attract many during our 11 years playoffs streak

Yeah, but did we even need them during that timeframe? We couldn't keep Hossa and Chara due to money constraints. We had solid teams back then, built through drafting and trades. Oh, those were the days.

 

[NyQuil]

Neither watson or kastelic are gonna enforce much

A funny anecdote about Watson was a Preds fan who came in here asking about Boro after we had basically exchanged him for Watson.

"A good team guy, will block shots with his face if he has to in order to help his team, not particularly skilled, fights a lot, usually loses."

He said, "OMG, you just described Watson!"

 

[LiseL]

vast majority of vets don't care about preseason and aren't going all out so that they don't get injured. Even in winning programs

I don't think competing necessarily means going all out, but it certainly means not being asleep the first 30 minutes of the game. I know most vets mail it in, but I've noticed that many of those same vets also mail it in during some regular season games which is the point I was trying to make.

 

[Ouroboros]

Neither watson or kastelic are gonna enforce much

There is no way that Watson would have let last night's game end without doing something, even if it was just assaulting somebody's knuckles with his face. He was not good at the technical aspects of fighting - which is probably to be expected from someone who only started doing it at 25 - but he never needed to be told twice what his job was.

Thus far in pre-season, MacEwen has stood by while Donovan Sebrango fought Ryan Reaves, Jan Jenik fought Boko Imama and Arber Xhekaj tried to decapitate Stutzle. What's up with that?

Seems like he's no longer willing or able to do the single line-item on his job description.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

There is no way that Watson would have let last night's game end without doing something, even if it was just assaulting somebody's knuckles with his face. He was not good at the technical aspects of fighting - which is probably to be expected from someone who only started doing it at 25 - but he never needed to be told twice what his job was.

Thus far in pre-season, MacEwen has stood by while Donovan Sebrango fought Ryan Reaves, Jan Jenik fought Boko Imama and Arber Xhekaj tried to decapitate Stutzle. What's up with that?

Seems like he's no longer willing or able to do the single line-item on his job description.

I agree. Watson knew his role. What purpose does MacEwan serve here? I thought he was supposed to replace Watson as the punching bag at minimum, but I don't see him drop the mitts much.

 

[Micklebot]

There is no way that Watson would have let last night's game end without doing something, even if it was just assaulting somebody's knuckles with his face. He was not good at the technical aspects of fighting - which is probably to be expected from someone who only started doing it at 25 - but he never needed to be told twice what his job was.

Thus far in pre-season, MacEwen has stood by while Donovan Sebrango fought Ryan Reaves, Jan Jenik fought Boko Imama and Arber Xhekaj tried to decapitate Stutzle. What's up with that?

Seems like he's no longer willing or able to do the single line-item on his job description.

I have zero issues with a player that doesn't want to fight, but he literally has no other purpose on this team, seems like he wants to play in Belleville, maybe the wife isn't a fan of Ottawa life?

 

[Ice-Tray]

No matter who else was on the team, Brady is going after anyone who cheap shots Stu or G like that. No question.

Brady is Brady, he enjoys that part of the game and will always stick up for his guys, especially in the heat of the moment.

What we do need are other guys who can step up when games get hot. Ostapchuk has some solid fights, and Jenik appears to be pretty fearless, but we still lack a guy on D.

I’d like to see Kleven be more aggressive, but we may have to wait and see if the big mean Swede can make the show!

We don’t need fighters, we need hitters and aggressive players that don’t mind the rough stuff, maybe even like it, Boucher does, like Brady does, like The Swede (lol), those are the guys that heat up.

Most big guys tend to be gentle and hesitant to fight, and most players don’t enjoy hitting hard.