GDT: Sens @ Devils Jan. 21, Live on RDS, TSN5

[Xspyrit]

32-20 shots for the Sens
26-16 scoring chances for the Sens
17-9 high danger scoring chances for the Sens

Looks like they got a dose of their own medicine that they had against the Sharks

At least a few people should be happy though, we dominated the shots and scoring chances! Yeah!

This team is just plain bad. They need Anderson/Hammond to be on there game to win games. If either one has a off night, the Sens have no chance at all. We all no our defense won't be helping out our goaltenders.

Its time to rest Anderson for the rest of the season. Get a tanking goaltender that will help us finish in the bottom 5. Where is Toskala when you need him?

This is the story of most teams in the NHL. Goaltending is strong and if you don't have solid goaltending at least, good luck making the playoffs.

Anderson couldn't do much on the goals, Devils were heavily opportunistic and took some pretty good shots. They were just golden in that shot %, every chance they had resulted in a goal

Not blaming Anderson at all. Sens were again sloppy to start a game and act like they can get back into every game but this time the deficit was too big. They have to start to play with emergency at puck drop. Until they can do that, consistency will always be a huge problem.

If Ottawa plays more games like they did in the last 2 periods, season would be completely different.

But they rarely do because they seem to think "no problem". Is it like star syndrome? Is it Karlsson demeanor? (I'm not blaming him, just asking)

Honestly, this team realisitically should be fighting for last place with Columbus. But thanks thanks Karlsson and Anderson, we are still somewhat in the playoff race even though we most likely won't make it.

I am trying to be optimistic, but it is getting to the point where enough is enough.

I just want to know what the plan is for now and the future. Is the plan to just stay like this and hope to sneak into the playoffs and go on a run? If that is the plan, then it is a garbage plan.

There's also Turris, Stone, Ryan, Hoffman, Zibanejad, Methot and a few other quality players. There's too much quality to end up in the bottom of the standings. The "team recipe" isn't working this year for some reason, but let's not forget that they had 99 pts last season and were the best team in the second half of the season. Why they are not looking like the same team at all this season is beyond me, no idea.

But what's our vision, are we a gritty team that keeps guys to the outside and counter attacks. Are we a speed team that trades chances. Are we a possession team. Do we want to be a possession team. ?

Apparently, based on what the 4 Bruins players told me, the Sens are a "run and gun" team... It can work on some nights or totally bust. IMO, they have to become a possession team. I find they play much better when they are patient and work with the puck.

The PK is killing us. Being down 3 vs. down 5 is huge. Seems like almost every game you can count on a PP goal against.

Agreed. Having a below average PK is a huge disadvantage in this league.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I had a whole response typed out and accidentally closed the tab. D'oh!

Andy gets too many free passes in this town. He wasn't good last night, he hasn't been good this season and this team needs him to be good.

Guy has been stellar on a lot of nights. In the Top 2 players on the team this yr IMO.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Hoffman was -3 last night. Any of this is fault?

I would say no. Pretty hard to blame him for the giveaways he did not give away.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

I have a plan.

Maintain status quo.

Do all the revamping in the offseason. Fire Cameron at the end of the year. Force Murray out the door. Draft high, replace the coach, make some deals.

No one or two trades will completely fix us this year. But a new coaching staff, a UFA signing and 2 trades might do the trick for next year, or at least get us to respectable status.

 

[Bileur]

He reminds me of greening.

Both are big bodies, both can skate, both are extremely stupid hockey players. Both are limited in skill

I'm sure they both look amazing when they step on the ice in practice with no pucks and do a couple laps. That's about it.

I think Greening brought more to the table. He's clearly stronger, more physical, and loses less battles.

 

[Xspyrit]

Game cast for the game :

http://espn.go.com/nhl/gamecast?gameId=400815558

....watching McDavid center the top line and getting ready to welcome Matthews/Laine to Ottawa.

Without Andy, we'd easily have a couple more top 5 picks on this team. The amount of high quality shots and heavy play around the net this team allows are ridiculous.

From 2011-12 to 2014-15 (4 seasons) and NOT including this season :

SCA/60 : 16th
HSCA/60 : 19th
SA/60 : 28th

This season (2015-16) :

SCA/60 : 29th
HSCA/60 : 23th
SA/60 : 30th

Andy is a very good goalie but most NHL goalies are... Depends what you compare with... Other team goalies or Sens goalies of the past?

Without him, we'd likely have a great goalie keeping us in games, because that's what happens for 80% of NHL teams. Ex : where would be the Habs or Rangers without Lundqvist or Price? Well, we got the answer for the Habs...

The Blues seem to be one of the few teams that would do good with any decent goalie.

So I disagree that we'd have more top-5 picks on the team, unless we would have had Elliott and Emery as goalies for a while, and even then... Alfie, Karlsson, Ryan, Stone, Turris, Hoffman, Methot, Spezza.... too many good/great players that would have kept the Sens out of the basement. We'd just would have miss the playoffs with higher picks with below average goaltending

New coaches, same problems. How many coaches do we need before we look at the players? We always seem to get a great initial burst from the players under a new coach and then a complete lack of urgency and disappointment.

This year may be a bit different, we look reeeeeaaaaally banged up right now, but the trend is there.

Agree with this... It is a weird cycle...

Cameron had some interesting comments in the post-game interview on TSN1200 last night. He said they play a skill game, and have to have the puck. But when defending, they're not getting down & blocking shots; not getting dirty. This sheds some light into why they put Boro into the situations they do... he exemplifies the gritty, hard-working defense that they want to see. I imagine he wants to see a Rangers-style defending -- boxing out, blocking shots, but instead the players are letting shots and skaters get right trough them. The players are trying to win the puck with stick checks, and trying to break-up passes.

Exactly, most of this team is useless without the puck. They can be very good with it, but they also lose it quite easily. As a group, they lack tenacity and are just not strong on the puck. They need that puck to express their skill and develop their possession game. We miss players like Alfredsson and MacArthur...

That's kinda scary. We don't really have the skill to play a skill game, and we don't have tenacity to play that dirty, gritty defending game, either.

But we have the skill...

Ryan, Hoffman, Turris, Stone, (MacArthur), Zibanejad, Prince, Pageau, Michalek, Karlsson, Ceci is a lot of skill (and they were a top-3 offense for a while)

Players like Wideman and Wiercioch also have skill, but that doesn't make them very efficient offensively (and defensively for that matter)

Problem is a team/system thing... again

Solution is you can't trade 1 or 2 players to magically change things... Maybe there's a few players without a lot of skill like Borowiecki and Neil but probably every team has some of these...

 

[jbeck5]

I think Greening brought more to the table. He's clearly stronger, more physical, and loses less battles.

Sure, but i think chiasson has better hands, passing, and is faster in game. I do know greening is faster in skills comp. Maybe chalk that up to chiasson having more acceleration and greening more top speed.

But i don't think one is clearly better than another. The only thing that's clear is that they both don't belong in the NHL.

 

[exv91]

I think Karlsson is a great captain, but I think he could use another voice or two to assist in the leadership role. Apart from Neil and Methot, I think we’re pretty lean with on-ice leadership. This is a real young and impressionable group of players that appear to get frazzled easily. Last night’s first period was a good example of that.

I also don’t think Cameron is the right guy to coach this team.

 

[Holdurbreathe]

Exactly, most of this team is useless without the puck. They can be very good with it, but they also lose it quite easily. As a group, they lack tenacity and are just not strong on the puck. They need that puck to express their skill and develop their possession game. We miss players like Alfredsson and MacArthur...

But we have the skill...

Ryan, Hoffman, Turris, Stone, (MacArthur), Zibanejad, Prince, Pageau, Michalek, Karlsson, Ceci is a lot of skill (and they were a top-3 offense for a while)

Players like Wideman and Wiercioch also have skill, but that doesn't make them very efficient offensively (and defensively for that matter)

Problem is a team/system thing... again

Solution is you can't trade 1 or 2 players to magically change things... Maybe there's a few players without a lot of skill like Borowiecki and Neil but probably every team has some of these...

Fact is no team is very good without possession unless they have an elite goaltender.

While I agree the team has skilled players, they have too many player in the line-up that lack the required attributes for the role they are in or as is the case in some instances just lack NHL ability.

IMO this team's makeup just isn't equipped to play the game the way Cameron believes NHL teams need to play to win.

The Sens have 4 D that just aren't physically equipped to consistently win puck battles in the D-zone, so overall possession is a crap shoot.

Currently the forwards do not just have to help out, but consistently have to get down below the goal line and win battles for the D.

This creates two problems, breakdowns in defensive coverages and when/if possession is gained, fewer passing options resulting in more D-zone turnovers.

Even with successful first passes, the speed through the neutral zone is slowed simply because 2vs2 offensive attacks put little pressure on the opposition's D.

The team has been built around speed and skill, until Cameron figures out this isn't going to change in the short term, he needs to play the D and forward combinations that allow for the greatest opportunity for success.

 

[Holdurbreathe]

I think Karlsson is a great captain, but I think he could use another voice or two to assist in the leadership role. Apart from Neil and Methot, I think we’re pretty lean with on-ice leadership. This is a real young and impressionable group of players that appear to get frazzled easily. Last night’s first period was a good example of that.

I also don’t think Cameron is the right guy to coach this team.

PW turnover sandwiched by two power play goals in the first 11 1/2 minutes has nothing to do with leadership.

Most teams would sag when 3 goals are scored on opposition ice early in the game, leadership aside.

 

[Bileur]

Sure, but i think chiasson has better hands, passing,

True but with no results.

and is faster in game. I do know greening is faster in skills comp. Maybe chalk that up to chiasson having more acceleration and greening more top speed.

I think Chiasson is just better at predicting where the play will go.

But i don't think one is clearly better than another. The only thing that's clear is that they both don't belong in the NHL.

Agree to an extent. I still think that if Greening were making 675k-1million there would be a spot for him on some team.

 

[jbeck5]

True but with no results.



I think Chiasson is just better at predicting where the play will go.



Agree to an extent. I still think that if Greening were making 675k-1million there would be a spot for him on some team.

I don't. He's putting up goon type numbers the last couple years. Those guys fall out of the league quick regardless of if they're making league minimum or 3 million.

He's on pace for ~25 points in the ahl and hasn't put the puck in the net at the NHL level since 13-14.

 

[MiscBrah]

why are people posting scoring chances and Corsi %?

The game was over after 10 minutes. If you didn't watch the game, don't take any solace from the fact that it looks like we were just unlucky.

 

[starling]

why are people posting scoring chances and Corsi %?

The game was over after 10 minutes. If you didn't watch the game, don't take any solace from the fact that it looks like we were just unlucky.

5 goals on 8 shots is unlucky more than anything else though.

 

[Xspyrit]

Fact is no team is very good without possession unless they have an elite goaltender.

While I agree the team has skilled players, they have too many player in the line-up that lack the required attributes for the role they are in or as is the case in some instances just lack NHL ability.

IMO this team's makeup just isn't equipped to play the game the way Cameron believes NHL teams need to play to win.

The Sens have 4 D that just aren't physically equipped to consistently win puck battles in the D-zone, so overall possession is a crap shoot.

Currently the forwards do not just have to help out, but consistently have to get down below the goal line and win battles for the D.

This creates two problems, breakdowns in defensive coverages and when/if possession is gained, fewer passing options resulting in more D-zone turnovers.

Even with successful first passes, the speed through the neutral zone is slowed simply because 2vs2 offensive attacks put little pressure on the opposition's D.

The team has been built around speed and skill, until Cameron figures out this isn't going to change in the short term, he needs to play the D and forward combinations that allow for the greatest opportunity for success.

I agree with most of this...

- The team is still in development, we miss some pieces to be truly competitive (notably in the bottom-6 F and bottom 2 D pairs). Players like Neil, Chiasson, Wiercioch, Wideman, Borowiecki, Cowen need to be upgraded

- Maybe Cameron want a system that doesn't suit most of his players and lack the veterans (as well as tenacity) to really apply it.

- Is it the D that are not able to win enough puck of battles or both the D and Forwards?

- So yes, we lose too much time running after the puck instead of having it on our stick which is the way we would demonstrate our skill and shine

- Agreed forwards have to come back too low and it also causes them to be exhausted faster

- Good point, it means that if we play proper it really limits our offensive deployment. We play a run and gun system (Bruins players also said that) and that only benefit a few of our players.

- Also agreed that the combinations might not be optimal. We need career coach. Well, we always needed one. No idea why Murray refused to hire one. Is he trying to find another Babcock?

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

The answer is very very simple.

Cowen, Wiercioch and Boro as 3 of your top 6 D with Wideman surely... SURELY means you're gonna lose like that.

Especially since our offense isn't anything spectacular nor is our goaltending(well at least not always anyway).

This team really actually needs 2 top 4 defenders and one of them a legit top 3 defender.

Until that happens, we are not going anywhere anytime soon.