hey everyone, just wanted to post on our team and how we look after 3 games into the season. I would love to here everyone's thoughts
Positives:
- Carkner has been a tremendous surprise, not flashy, but steady and poised
- Regin has looked good in his three games
- Getting strong play from our bottom lines and players like Neil, Donovan, Kelly.
- Volchenkov and Phillips look like the pairing we saw in 07 season
- Lucky bounces are going are away to win games thus far. Loving the 2-1 record.
Negatives:
- 0pts for Kovalev, Michalek, Foligno. Carkner has more pts than Picard+Campoli
- Not impressed with the lack of finishing from our grinders.
- Foligno looks out of postion alot in the offensive zone, looks lost a lot.
- Kovalev is really only trying 2 shifts a night
- Picard looks like an AHLer playing NHL mintues. Karlsson needs to mature, but hasn't been horrible.
- Top lines don't look to be clicking, chemistry is seriously lacking...but hey its only gm 3
Anyone think we are just missing something? Top 4 Dman? I don't think we can continue to play the way we are and win against Atlanta....my 2 cents
We're doing quite well for missing an important Defenseman like Kuba. Plays 20 minutes a night in all situations, we've actually done better without him than I would have anticipated.
We're doing quite well for missing an important Defenseman like Kuba. Plays 20 minutes a night in all situations, we've actually done better without him than I would have anticipated.
We've played the two worst teams in the East without him though. Hopefully we're better than those teams, as they don't exactly have any offense.
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And when you pray for an end to this
I do believe this is eternity
- Regin has shown he has big game potential. Already one of our fastest forwards and plays a smart, two-way game. Love this kid.
- Scoring chances are there and we're getting the shots in. It's just a matter of finishing, which we didn't do against the Rangers.
- Leclaire's been excellent, dare I say it but Pierre McGuire was right. Might just be the best goalie in Sens history.
- Defense looks bad on paper but is getting the job done on the ice. Carkner has emerged as a solid bottom pairing guy and I would be shocked if Karlsson gets sent down after the way he has played. We're missing arguably our best defenseman in Filip Kuba too.
Negatives
- Aren't capatilizing on our scoring chances. We need to do that if we are going to win games from now on.
- You could make a case we played 3 non-playoff teams so far, and we've barely came out with a win in only 2 games. Don't get too excited yet.
- Forwards haven't clicked yet but I can't blame them as it's been only 3 games.
The top line hasn't really gelled yet but I really like what Michalek brings to it; he's big, he's fast, and he's using that combination to retrieve the puck after a dump-in at least a few times each game.
Given time, I hope he can find chemistry with Spezza and Alfie. His skill-set compliments theres pretty nicely, I think.
Its going to get tougher as Atlanta and Pittsburgh roll into town...so far the only potential top 8 team in the east we have faced smoked us 5-2
Yeah, and it's been 3 games, LOL.
For me the biggest positive is:
-Peter Regin. The guy can flat out play, and I wouldn't be surprised if he put up 40+ points while being sound defensively.
And the biggest negative is:
-Our defense. We will give up plenty of goals this year because of it. It will be a big weakness for the next 2 seasons or so.
- Regin has shown he has big game potential. Already one of our fastest forwards and plays a smart, two-way game. Love this kid.
- Scoring chances are there and we're getting the shots in. It's just a matter of finishing, which we didn't do against the Rangers. - Leclaire's been excellent, dare I say it but Pierre McGuire was right. Might just be the best goalie in Sens history.
- Defense looks bad on paper but is getting the job done on the ice. Carkner has emerged as a solid bottom pairing guy and I would be shocked if Karlsson gets sent down after the way he has played. We're missing arguably our best defenseman in Filip Kuba too.
Negatives
- Aren't capatilizing on our scoring chances. We need to do that if we are going to win games from now on.
- You could make a case we played 3 non-playoff teams so far, and we've barely came out with a win in only 2 games. Don't get too excited yet.
- Forwards haven't clicked yet but I can't blame them as it's been only 3 games.
NO. NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
Jesus christ no.
Don't ever agree with that, one of the dumbest lines McGuire has ever come up with. Aside from the fact that Leclaire has done nothing in the post-season at any level of his career and aside from the fact that his current NHL numbers (career) are worse than Emery's, we had ****ing HASEK on this team not four years ago. And he was absolutely dominant during his time playing here - this team played with a swagger all over the ice because the goaltending wasn't even remotely a question mark. It didn't end well and Hasek brings all kinds of baggage with him, but there is absolutely no question who the best goalie to play for this team was, and there is zero chance that Leclaire is it.
Other stuff...
I like how the team's playing in general. The new guys are doing well and the third / fourth line guys are playing hard. Bounces aren't going our way yet but that will come. It's game three, way too early to worry about that. Guys like Spezza and Kovalev will get their points come season's end. Getting none now just means they'll put more up down the road. This team has had some fairly significant turnover in the last year - it needs time for the guys to gel.
- Regin has shown he has big game potential. Already one of our fastest forwards and plays a smart, two-way game. Love this kid.
- Scoring chances are there and we're getting the shots in. It's just a matter of finishing, which we didn't do against the Rangers.
- Leclaire's been excellent, dare I say it but Pierre McGuire was right. Might just be the best goalie in Sens history.
- Defense looks bad on paper but is getting the job done on the ice. Carkner has emerged as a solid bottom pairing guy and I would be shocked if Karlsson gets sent down after the way he has played. We're missing arguably our best defenseman in Filip Kuba too.
Negatives
- Aren't capatilizing on our scoring chances. We need to do that if we are going to win games from now on.
- You could make a case we played 3 non-playoff teams so far, and we've barely came out with a win in only 2 games. Don't get too excited yet.
- Forwards haven't clicked yet but I can't blame them as it's been only 3 games.
Really good assessment here. One big plus is winning close games, which we could not do last year to save our lives.
Call me crazy, but Regin reminds me of Alfredssson. Plays a very smart 2-way game, with some good offensive instincts to boot.
It's not crazy, Regin is one of the most underrated players we've had in the organization in the longest time. He does have characteristics that are similar to Alfredsson, but he's probably going to top out as being a very solid 2nd liner.
It pisses me off so much that he was rated 68 in NHL 10. He's not even good enough to play in the Top 6 in Binghamton!
It's not crazy, Regin is one of the most underrated players we've had in the organization in the longest time. He does have characteristics that are similar to Alfredsson, but he's probably going to top out as being a very solid 2nd liner.
It pisses me off so much that he was rated 68 in NHL 10. He's not even good enough to play in the Top 6 in Binghamton!
Regin's progress as a player / prospect in the past 12 months has been astounding. He looks like a much better player than he did in his 10 game callup last year.
He has, to some extent, solved one of the organizations greatest needs... a young top-6 forward prospect.
I'd say the one remaining question mark on him is whether he can handle the physical / mental grind of an 82 game NHL sched. Considering his play got better in the AHL ast he season wore on, I don't think he'll have a problem here, but time will actually tell.
On the thread topic:
Positives
- Regin, Carkner Kelly and Neil are the biggest positives as they are all exceeding expectations (from my POV)
- overall forward depth and the resulting competition for ice time is very good
- I like that Clouston is more than willing to demote/bench guys in the 3rd when they don't play well in the 1st and 2nd
Negatives
- Spezza, Alfie and Michalek have not found any chemistry yet.
- Foligno does not look good to me
- Kovalev is Kovalev. People really should not be surprised.
We gave up 5 goals against a "decent" team, and beat the two worst teams in the East by 1 goal.
I'm glad we beat them, and appreciate the baby-steps, but let's keep things in perspective here. We have yet to show any signs of being a playoff-team (or not-a-playoff team).
Looking at what teams we have played against and what the scores were, I wouldn't be very hopeful for the playoffs; however the team is playing very well and once they get some chemistry (I certainly hope they get some chemistry), the scores will be different.
We gave up 5 goals against a "decent" team, and beat the two worst teams in the East by 1 goal.
I'm glad we beat them, and appreciate the baby-steps, but let's keep things in perspective here. We have yet to show any signs of being a playoff-team (or not-a-playoff team).
we have also changed half our top 6
chemistry will take time give it some time for god sakes.
I would be worried if we were getting beat by scrubs, IF our top 6 were firing on all cylinders. Wait till Alfie, Spezz, Kovalev, Michalek and even Foligno start producing
man ppl in here are starting to sound like leaf fans who jump on EVERYTHING negative no matter how small it is.
also another thing i am glad to see is that our defense isnt getting pushed around nor is Leclaire
We gave up 5 goals against a "decent" team, and beat the two worst teams in the East by 1 goal.
I'm glad we beat them, and appreciate the baby-steps, but let's keep things in perspective here. We have yet to show any signs of being a playoff-team (or not-a-playoff team).
You have to look how there playing not just the outcome.I was happy with the way they played aginst ny yes they lost but it was a good team game.
Regin is playing very well and Cheechoo is starting to click.
Neil has played very well but I wouldnt be surprised to see
Kovalev replace him on that line and Neil lining up with Foligno and Fisher.
as much to get Kovalev going as anything else.
