Will we be average for years to come? How about mediocre?

[YNWA14]

There is one player who would make a world of difference if he were to live up to his potential. That player is Jared Cowen.

Agreed. The problem is one of those tools/toolbox scenarios that is seen quite a bit with Zibanejad too (much more with Cowen this year). Zibanejad has at least shown spurts this year where he might be getting a better understanding, but man Cowen looks completely lost this year.

 

[The Fuhr*]

I think I read it takes D about 200 games to adjust to the NHL level... Lots if growing pains to go yet

 

[83DIZ65]

We should just go for it all before 2016, sadly that wont be possible due to money issues. I see 3 endings for the sens, they either keep an internal budget and just miss the playoffs for the next 1.5 years and Spezza, Ryan walks. Or they spend and go big or go home mentality before 2016. Or they can just trade Spezza, Ryan and go younger and really rebuild. The thing with this team is they will never become what the oilers are now, consistently # 30 or 29 in the league because guys like Lehner, Karlsson, Turris will win them games even if Spezza and Ryan walks. Spezza is 30 and I dont think he is the type who will play till 40, that means he has less than 10 years(I predict around 6) to win a cup, he would want to a team that seriously wants to win. The sens should really show Ryan/Spezza that they are willing to spend to win. Personally, Id go all in before 2016 just to show these players that I want to win, and Ryan/Spezza might sign.

then what if it fails were ****ed beyond belife......

Turris still can't carry a first line really. They've slowed down a lot once teams realized that Spezza isn't quite as dangerous with his linemates.

Turris seems to need a legitimate threat to play in the shadow of to b truly eeffective offensively.

Disagree entirely this line is the future here. and most games turris looks better then spezza.also far better in his own end.

I'm less concerned about the possibility of Spezza walking and more concerned that his play this year is an indication that he's in decline. With his injury issues over his career it's a legitimate possibility.

He is in decline......hes gotta be moved before his value drops off.

Now that this team is a budget team, the best we can hope for is to become a team like Phoenix, but in order to do that we need a coach that practices accountablity and a hardworking roster that wins games because of how hard we work, not how skilled some of our players are.

Kind of like how we were last season, except better on paper. If Melnyk wants to keep this team as one of the lowest salary teams in the league, we won't be able to win games with the limited amount of skill we can afford to put on the ice, we''ll have to put the nose to the grindstone and outwork those teams that can put out 3-4 more of those skilled guys because they can spend much more money than we can. To summarize: we need to get back to being an underdog team again.

We''ll never be a cup contender with the budget being set so pathetically low, but we could be a solid team that makes the playoffs most years with luck on our side. So to answer your question: yes we'll be average, expecting anything more is unreasonable.

Agreeable

There is one player who would make a world of difference if he were to live up to his potential. That player is Jared Cowen.

Your right........but hes turning into brian lee......

 

[VikingKarlsson]

Turris was never carrying the 2nd line either. That line just meshes very well together and the players on it complement eachother. Turris is the defensive anchor on the team while Bobby and Mac really carry it offensively.

Meanwhile Spezza has pretty much had to carry the load for his lines offensively by himself. If we were running MacArthur - Spezza - Ryan then Turris would have maybe half the points he does now and Spezza would be above a p/g. However that's hard to prove and is just speculation. You can still see that Spezza is our best forward watching the games though.

Bobby Ryan is our best forward.
Karlsson our best defensemen... and our best player.
Turris is our best two way forward.. MacArthur... in the mix as well.

Spezza is 3rd or 4th best on this team now. Get over it Cujomi... Spezza is dropping in the depth chart of this team. Check out his time on ice it has declined dramatically. The coach sees it that's why Spezza got demoted.

Turris will be the #1 center on this team when Spezza is gone. Turris plays a proper 2-way 200 foot center game, which Paul Mclean loves.

 

[YNWA14]

Spezza is 3rd or 4th best on this team now. Get over it Cujomi... Spezza is dropping in the depth chart of this team. Check out his time on ice it has declined dramatically. The coach sees it that's why Spezza got demoted.

Spezza played 19:55 a game in the year he was 6th in Hart voting, and he's playing 18:57 now. Not really 'dramatically' declining. Not to mention he is coming off of injury and has more secondary support (as in we don't necessarily need him on the ice as much now because of more scoring in the form of Mac, Turris and Ryan).

I don't see where Spezza was demoted though. He's getting his minutes regardless of his linemates. We can agree to disagree on where Spezza stands in terms of his ranking amongst our forwards though.

 

[YNWA14]

Also by your argument...if Ryan is our best forward why does he play almost 2 minutes less than Spezza per game?

 

[tony d]

I think we should be fine but I think we have to look at trading Anderson or Lehner for a 2014 1st round pick.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

I think we should be fine but I think we have to look at trading Anderson or Lehner for a 2014 1st round pick.

Lehner could be this team's starter for the next 15 years. It makes no sense to trade him.

THe way Anderson has played this year, im not sure he could get a first round pick.

 

[Stylizer1]

this is looking like a reality now.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

this is looking like a reality now.

Maybe.

But look at the Rangers. They're an average team with only 2 elite players, and they went all the way to the finals.

We have just as much talent as they do. It's just about getting enough points to secure a wildcard, and hope you get favorable matchups.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

Maybe.

But look at the Rangers. They're an average team with only 2 elite players, and they went all the way to the finals.

We have just as much talent as they do. It's just about getting enough points to secure a wildcard, and hope you get favorable matchups.

Yeah its not like they have the best goalie in the world.

 

[Baby Ryan]

Yeah its not like they have the best goalie in the world.

Goalies can't score.

They can keep your team in the game, but at the end of the day they need their team in front of them to score and the Rangers had great depth that allowed them to roll 4 lines capable of scoring.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Yeah its not like they have the best goalie in the world.

Yes, Hank and McDonaugh were the 2 elite players I was referring to

Still, we have a Norris defenseman, Ryan is a 30-goal guy, Andy/Lehner (despite last season) are an elite combo in nets. Overall, our talent level is the same as NY.

 

[HavlatMach9]

our top end talent was batter than the Rangers, but our D depth was poor and our depth generally is poor

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

our top end talent was batter than the Rangers, but our D depth was poor and our depth generally is poor

Time will solve that. We have some good kids.

 

[PaGEEsBack]

We've been bad to average for 25 years now - what exactly are we afraid of here? What's so new and different about this particular year that I'm missing?

 

[StefanW]

When didn't his board become so emo? There are like 5 different threads all detailing the worst case scenarios TWO summers away...

Hahahaha! I was just thinking the same thing.

 

[StefanW]

Also by your argument...if Ryan is our best forward why does he play almost 2 minutes less than Spezza per game?

Ryan's injury was clearly a factor in his ice time this past season. If the Ryan of the first part oft he season last year is the one that we have next season an argument can be made that he is our best forward.

Not exactly sure why it matters though, because whether one player or another is the best forward makes no difference in the grand scheme of things. We have to be able to roll 4 lines to have a shot of accomplishing anything in this league.

 

[Rumcajs]

Isn't about 15-20 teams average a year? Lets not get carrie away.

Look at LA 10 years ago, take a look again.

Somewhere in our cupboard we hopefully have a Kopitar,Brown, Quick etc

The rest are just smart trades.

 

[The Fuhr*]

Maybe.

But look at the Rangers. They're an average team with only 2 elite players, and they went all the way to the finals.

The Rangers also have a crazy good Blueline

 

[Scrub*]

Below average for years to come. Melnyk has really ****ed this team up.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I don't think so

Going over the thread on the playoffs board where a Boston fan accused the Kings of tanking to get to where they are someone made a pretty detailed post about the changes the Kings have gone through since Lombardi took over in 2012

As long as Melnyk keeps his word and does spend once the team is ready we'll be fine

We have a decent foundation set and it's not going as smoothly as we might have hoped but that's just the way she goes sometimes

I'm still very, very skeptical about the team's short-term future (I expect the team to finish in the bottom 10 again) but there's no reason to despair over the long-term potential: we have a very young team with some great players and we have a decent prospect pool

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

The Rangers also have a crazy good Blueline

Not really. It was more of Torts' 6-goalie system that did that. They were exposed badly in the finals.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

We've been bad to average for 25 years now - what exactly are we afraid of here? What's so new and different about this particular year that I'm missing?

We were a powerhouse from 2001 to 2007

We were on the upswing going into 2013-2014

The budget has taken front stage due to Alfie leaving

 

[SenatorArmy*]

The problem is Melnyk period. People are asking what we need to do to improve the team, when we should really be worried about more players we have wanting to leave. It started with the Alfredsson fiasco, a huge black eye for the organization for people on the outside looking in. Bobby Ryan was a nice solution but that could end up costing us more in the long run if he bolts. It's nice we have some great players locked in to great contracts but it's got to be demoralizing for these guys to know that no matter how good they play, it will never be good enough to compensate for an owner who's not willing to spend. I wouldn't be surprised if Karlsson already wanted out. It's almost as if you don't even have a team really, just a bunch of guys playing here because that's their job. I want a team of players who WANT to play here, players who are honored to play here & a team where free agents want to play. Ottawa right now is more than just a few moves away from having that sort of winning culture. Right now we look more like a team about to flush out what's left of our veterans & starting a youth movement. So if anyone had any expectations of us contending in the next couple of years should probably lower the bar a bit & get ready for a nice long stretch of growing pains.