Who is to blame on Senators inconsistency?

[topshelf15]

Coaching is a big one. Another one is having only 1 playmaking/pass-first center. Ottawa is not a puck possession team.

More specifically second line center (zibby)and our best LW in hoffy .Couple this with an already real bad left side after Hoffy,and some of the worst LHD in the nhl .And you get the Ottawa Senators

 

[Knave]

Coaching is a big one. Another one is having only 1 playmaking/pass-first center. Ottawa is not a puck possession team.

Turris' ankle does come in to play here. We're pushing people up the lineup - especially at center.

 

[topshelf15]

Turris' ankle does come in to play here. We're pushing people up the lineup - especially at center.

Big time ,and TBH if we had another exactly like him ,over Zibby .This team would be very close ,another center that could play with Stone

 

[tony d]

Coaching and a porous defense besides Karlsson and possibly Phaneuf.

 

[JonnyMacSen]

 

[2CHAINZ]

Spezza
Phillips
Gryba
Neil
Boro

Take your pick.

 

[Boud]

IMO it's a combination of a lot of things but all in all this team could be successful as is with everyone healthy. We've seen a lot of positive things from our bottom 6 players lately and guys like Smith, Pageau, Dzingel, Paul have played some very good hockey. I'd say we're lucky to have bottom 6 players that can contribute this way. Is the production of a guy like Smith sustainable? Of course it isn't.

However for a bottom 6 player, more specifically a 4rth line C, he's extremely valuable. How many 4rth line C in the league are better than Smith? I don't think there are many.

Our bottom 6 has been good this season, Our defense is getting betterm Andy is still saving our ass most of the time and Hammond has looked fine lately, top 6 very inconsistent.


The problem this season has been:

1) Injuries to key players such as Turris and MacArthur

That means two significantly worse players are in our lineup, and especially for Turris he's been missed a lot since his gumby incident. McArthur we tend to forget about him but not only would he bring stability but I think it would take significant pressure off of Hoffman to produce night in and night out.

2) Defensive issues

Our defense has been much better since the acquisition of Phaneuf, to be honest I personally think it's been night and day especially for Ceci for his offensive instincts to come out. All of our defensemen have had issues this season, Karlsson, Methot, Ceci, Cowen, Wiercioch, Boro ... All of them.

I don't know if Methot is injured but he hasn't been as good as usual, but he's still a good player and I'm not too worried about him. Having Phaneuf all year would have made us a lot more stable from game 1 to 82. Wideman and Ceci have looked better lately too. Looking forward, I like our defense. Of course it isn't a stellar defense but it's solid and it has room to grow in the future with Ceci, Wideman, Karlsson and potentially maybe event Chabot (who knows).

3) Key players have not stepped up to fill the void from Turris/Mac

Ryan, Zibanejad and Hoffman have been extremely inconsistent and since Turris went down they weren't able to fill the void and these are the guys we rely on to win games. When they don't produce it becomes a big problem. Hoffman has 3 goals in the last 16 games, Ryan has gone cold generally speaking and Zibanejad has been also very streaky but not good enough.

Is this inconsistency due to coaching or is it the players? Not sure it's hard to tell. It's a repeating theme for Ryan and Hoffman who have had very good start of their seasons last season too and went on to be awful towards the years end. For Ryan it's been for more than 2 years, it seems like it's this way every year.



Let's be clear here, we have to expect reasonable play from our best players and today these guys are Zibanejad, Ryan, Hoffman, Stone, Karlsson, Anderson, Phaneuf and Methot. I think only two or three of these guys have stepped up their play. We can't win when our best players are not giving us a chance to win. We can't expect Smith to score 20 goals and the same for Pageau. People here keep saying that Smith is shooting at an unsustainable rate which is true, but when he comes back to the norm who's going to step up to score some goals for us? Some guys need to be honest with themselves because they just have not been providing what they are supposed to provide. Without the Stone line in the last 10 games I really don't know if we'd have won even 1 game.

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

Cameron's scapegoat and whipping boy

Srsly Cameron sucks.. Last or near last in

shots allowed, goals allowed, pk, scoring chances allowed

all points back to coaching

its been like that since maclean became coach tho. The only time the defense improved was last year under Cameron

 

[Flamingo]

Anderson. For pulling us out of the one true tank season we had.

 

[Back in Black]

Coaching and a porous defense besides Karlsson and possibly Phaneuf.

So your saying it’s the Coaches fault for working with what he’s got!

This all goes back to the GM, sorry!

 

[Xspyrit]

Factors to consider :

- Very young team, not a lot of experience
- poor coaching, passive defensive system
- Injuries to vets
- your leader and most played player is Erik Karlsson, means you'll be trading chances and try to "outscore the opposition". Will work on some nights but can result in inconsistency
- defense instability (Wiercioch and Cowen failing to reach potential)
- decent but average goaltending

 

[topshelf15]

Factors to consider :

- Very young team, not a lot of experience
- poor coaching, passive defensive system
- Injuries to vets
- your leader and most played player is Erik Karlsson, means you'll be trading chances and try to "outscore the opposition". Will work on some nights but can result in inconsistency
- defense instability (Wiercioch and Cowen failing to reach potential)
- decent but average goaltending

Biggest reason ,and best answer really.Young player go a million miles an hour ,either good or bad

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Factors to consider :

- Very young team, not a lot of experience
- poor coaching, passive defensive system
- Injuries to vets
- your leader and most played player is Erik Karlsson, means you'll be trading chances and try to "outscore the opposition". Will work on some nights but can result in inconsistency
- defense instability (Wiercioch and Cowen failing to reach potential)
- decent but average goaltending

Agree with all of this, but I wouldn't put as much blame on Anderson. He's done a decent enough job given the sheer volume of quality scoring chances against, and the resulting cluster**** of defenseman running around him like chickens with their heads cut off.

That being said, he can be better for sure. And since Andy always seems to go, one amazing year, then one soso year, he's do for a good one next!

 

[topshelf15]

So your saying it’s the Coaches fault for working with what he’s got!

This all goes back to the GM, sorry!

For what playing his youth??

 

[Liliaceae]

Mr.Nachos... that's who.

 

[Alex1234]

Impossible for every player individually to be as bad defensevely .

There got to be something with the system

The way they work as a unit

Thats on the coach

 

[Alex1234]

Biggest reason ,and best answer really.Young player go a million miles an hour ,either good or bad

7th in the league at 26.607

Not THAT young

 

[topshelf15]

7th in the league at 26.607

Not THAT young

Yep ,cherry picked stat .Truth of the matter we are very young in key areas whether you choose to see this or not

 

[Micklebot]

7th in the league at 26.607

Not THAT young

The team is pretty young where it matters, and when Chris Neil is bringing the average age of the team up half a year on his own while providing little in the way of ensuring the team plays a consistent defensive game...

There's also the issue that MacArthur (probably the most steadying forward) has been out all year, and he brings the team avg age up about a third of a year himself too.

Here's what we could very easily look like starting next season

Name | Birthdate | Age
Mark Stone | 1992-05-13 | 23
Bobby Ryan | 1987-03-17 | 28
Mike Hoffman | 1989-11-24 | 25
Mika Zibanejad | 1993-04-18 | 22
Jean-Gabriel Pageau | 1992-11-11 | 22
Kyle Turris | 1989-08-14 | 26
Zack Smith | 1988-04-05 | 27
Curtis Lazar | 1995-02-02 | 20
Alex Chiasson | 1990-10-01 | 24
Chris Neil | 1979-06-18 | 36
Ryan Dzingel | 1992-03-09 | 23
Matt Puempel | 1993-01-24 | 22
Clarke MacArthur | 1985-04-06 | 30
Nick Paul | 1995-03-20 | 21
Erik Karlsson | 1990-05-31 | 25
Cody Ceci | 1993-12-21 | 21
Marc Methot | 1985-06-21 | 30
Chris Wideman | 1990-01-07 | 25
Dion Phaneuf | 1985-04-10 | 30
Fredrik Claesson | 1992-11-24 | 22
Mark Borowiecki | 1989-07-12 | 26
Team avg | N/A | 26.23

That is a pretty young team, might be younger if a guy like Chabot or White gets rushed (or earns a spot, I suppose).

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

7th in the league at 26.607

Not THAT young

Where did you get this value? What is the league average?

 

[Alex1234]

Where did you get this value? What is the league average?

http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/teams clic on age up and down
League average Ill let you calculate that one as Im better at root canals then maths

Its a young team no doubt

But you have to be blind to not see its mainly the coaching staff that is the problem

Not only problem

Mainly problem

 

[Micklebot]

Where did you get this value? What is the league average?

Likely from http://stats.nhlnumbers.com/teams, though I have no idea how they calculate it (goalies? traded players? is it now, beginging of the year, or what).

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The Question is Who is to blame?

Not What are the factors contributing to?

or

Who are to blame?

 

[Langdon Alger]

Anderson. For pulling us out of the one true tank season we had.

And for giving us solid goaltending the entire team he's been here save for the 13-14 season. We don't make the playoffs in 2012 or 2013 if not for him.

 

[Langdon Alger]

This is a drafting and developing team. We drafted horribly from 2002-2007. When did we start becoming average? 2007-2008 thereabouts? Maybe because we drafted like **** for 6 straight years under Muckler has something to do with it. Losing Chara for nothing and trading Havlat for one year of Tom Preissing didn't help us either.