Pre-Game Talk: Monday Dec. 15 Ottawa vs Buffalo. (Murray vs Murray) make up game

[Sun God Nika]

Reporter: Did you buy Karl(sson) a beer or anything for that safe last night?
Lehner: No, No, he owed me one.

Shots Fired.

 

[MiscBrah]

Legwand was our only center able to keep up with Bruins on faceoffs. Others were blown out of the water.

Ya he was ok yesterday. Game before he was brutal against LA with home ice advantage.

he also takes most of his draws in the defensive zone which i believe are easier to win.

 

[MiscBrah]

As happy as I am with Phillips being scratched and MM hopefully being scratched. I can't help but think that Murray/Melynk aren't going to be happy with Cameron for scratching players they were just resigned.

Like isn't Melynk going to look and say, if our team is better without those players in the line-up, then why did Murray resign them? It's either the coach is an idiot for scratching players that are good enough to help us win, or the GM is an idiot for resigning players that shouldn't be in the NHL.

Is there maybe a double standard here that wasn't fair to Maclean, but Melynk will let slide with Cameron?

Or is this just evidence of Murray being pushed to sideline?

 

[MiscBrah]

Another point I just noticed...

Ottawa has only played 9/30 games against the ATL division so far this year!

If we can actually start to turn things around this a huge advantage for us. I'm so glad we weren't playing crucial divisional games during our slump.

edit: 3 posts in a row.. i need to get back to studying

 

[Fandlauer]

I'll be at this one, 3 rows behind the players bench. Look for the guy wearing an old school Denny Lambert jersey. Desperately need a win here. Go sens go

 

[Boud]

Enroth is playing Anderson-esque lately! Suprisingly Buffalo's 7-3-0 in the last 10 combined with Ottawa's 3-6-1 run has put them 3 point from us.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Buffalo actually has been playing well and Enroth is on a hot streak.

Will be a tough game.

They're playing for pride, and brought in high character vets in the summer. They're building their team properly around the youngsters. Unlike Edmonton.

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

Reporter: Did you buy Karl(sson) a beer or anything for that safe last night?
Lehner: No, No, he owed me one.

Shots Fired.

I think it's awesome. They're close to the same age, growing up together on the team. I don't know if theyre bff's or not, but the two will be big components of the team in the coming years, and it sounds like lehner's just having fun with the captain.

 

[thesensguy]

I think it's awesome. They're close to the same age, growing up together on the team. I don't know if theyre bff's or not, but the two will be big components of the team in the coming years, and it sounds like lehner's just having fun with the captain.

They are also both Swedish

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Hoff-Zibby-Bobby
MacA-Turris-Stone
Greening-Pageau-Chia
Michalek-Legwand-Lazar-Condra

Best lineup I could come up with. Not sure if MM9 will be back or not.

 

[DrEasy]

Hoff-Zibby-Bobby
MacA-Turris-Stone
Greening-Pageau-Chia
Michalek-Legwand-Lazar-Condra

Best lineup I could come up with. Not sure if MM9 will be back or not.

I could see Clouston coming up with a line like this!

 

[L'Aveuglette]

I could see Clouston coming up with a line like this!

Just covering all my bases!

 

[DylanSensFan]

That worked really well with the Gerber Elliot tandom

Last I looked, both of our current goalies are better than Gerber + Elliott by a long shot.

 

[Micklebot]

Ya he was ok yesterday. Game before he was brutal against LA with home ice advantage.

he also takes most of his draws in the defensive zone which i believe are easier to win.

Why would d zone faceoffs be any easier?

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

Why would d zone faceoffs be any easier?

Because that's what it feels like in NHL15

 

[pepty]

I wonder if the Murray's have a little extra skin in this game,like a player going against his old team.

 

[MiscBrah]

Why would d zone faceoffs be any easier?

Because that's what it feels like in NHL15

Hilarious.

The linesman holds the puck facing the defensive team, offering them an advantage because they can see the puck.

 

[Sun God Nika]

Because that's what it feels like in NHL15

OMG I thought it was just me, also does it seem impossible to get the puck when you are on the 5 on 3 powerplay?

 

[ZeroPT*]

Zadorov is injured, is he a big part of their team?

He's not hurt. Gorges,Meszaros and Weber are though. . Wouldn't be shock me if they called someone up. Probably Pysyk.

Strachan-Myers
Zads-Ristolainen
Benoit-Pysyk

 

[Burrowsaurus]

ristolainen is crazy good

 

[Micklebot]

Hilarious.

The linesman holds the puck facing the defensive team, offering them an advantage because they can see the puck.

Really? Do you mean they hold it with the hand closest to the offensive center?

What do they do for a neutral zone faceoff at center ice?

Anyhow, out of curiosity, I ran some numbers for all centers from 2009-present at ES, and the results are on average, a defensive zone faceoff is won about 51.8% of the time while OZ faceoffs are won about 48.9% of the time. There's some noise in the data though, because sometimes more than one center is on the ice for the same faceoff, so this isn't by any means perfect (if it was, we'd add up to 100% instead of 100.7) but it does seem to lend some credibility to your feeling that DZ faceoffs are easier to win.

It could also be that defensive specialists are more likely to be faceoff specialists, and tend to get more DZ faceoffs though, so the results are inconclusive.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

Tonight is a battle of face-off titans - 26th place Ottawa (47.1%) vs 30th place Buffalo (43.4%).
I expect a lot of scrum draws.

 

[Micklebot]

Tonight is a battle of face-off titans - 26th place Ottawa (47.1%) vs 30th place Buffalo (43.4%).
I expect a lot of scrum draws.

With Smith out we may improve. For some reason he's been pretty bad at the dot this year. Really strange given he's been so good at it in the past with a career 52%.

 

[Lenny the Lynx]

With Smith out we may improve. For some reason he's been pretty bad at the dot this year. Really strange given he's been so good at it in the past with a career 52%.

Legwand is our only guy >50% which kind of sucks.

I'm surprised Turris is so bad this year too. I think there's a pretty strong correlation with faceoff % and age.

 

[Micklebot]

Legwand is our only guy >50% which kind of sucks.

I'm surprised Turris is so bad this year too. I think there's a pretty strong correlation with faceoff % and age.

Yeah, age is definately a factor, but I don't think Turris has been that bad this year. Part of it is we've played more road games where you're at a disadvantage. I think once we even up the R/H games, we'll have a better idea of where we stand. For whatever reason, Turris really hasn't been good on the road this year, it might be another effect of losing Spezza.

Buffalo has played far more home games so far; they've played 57% of their games at home, where as we've played 45% of ours. Sadly, that means they may see their numbers drop...