Observations

[Pred303]

a few thoughts and observations on the morning after.

1)a good start to a new era. the team needed that, the fans needed that.
2)really liked the energy and effort and atmosphere. the shot totals reflected the effort.
3)be prepared to outshoot the opponent most nights, but with this all out commitment to o-zone pressure give up an equal number of quality scoring chances the other way as a result. it's why rinne has to be stellar.
4)a few too many 3 on 2's transitions given up, but that's gonna be the norm I think.
5)neal might well get 400 shots this season. if he stays healthy he will shatter team shot records. we've just never had a player this purely offensive oriented with the ability to also get shots.
6)we didn't generate enough net presence on most of our attempts.
7)a lot of forwards played very well. Forsberg, gaustad, neal, bourque all stood out
8)typical of new systems, people weren't always where they were supposed to be on offense, defense or the forecheck. that should get better.
9)strong man on man game with our d-men. virtually everything we gave up in half-ice was because of heavy traffic in front with shots from the point.

you have to be pleased with it all, the effort, the result. it's frigging hockey time

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[AtlantaWhaler]

Apologies. I thought this was just observations of last nights game, not an ongoing thread for the season. Carry on.

 

[triggrman]

Like I said in the GDT, it's good to see us pressuring to force mistakes instead of sitting back waiting for a mistake. You could see this in every zone last night and for me, it's a welcomed change.

 

[Dave is a killer]

Like I said in the GDT, it's good to see us pressuring to force mistakes instead of sitting back waiting for a mistake. You could see this in every zone last night and for me, it's a welcomed change.

Agreed, up tempo in your face hockey is the best

 

[Pred303]

in keeping with the changes theme, it was time for crispy to be replaced. his shtick with pete was beyond stale. pete can call a good game, when he's doesn't spend 50% of the game trying to make crisp laugh.

grimson is more a of tv guy than a radio guy, on radio he would always talk way, way to long and you would miss large portions of the game itself as he rambled on. on tv, it won't make near as much of a difference. now if grimson can actually learn to be critical of anything he might possibly be decent. every play is a 'great play' and 'he really likes everyone's game' all the time.

and the gal linsey, well she at least is a relief from mark. her questions were stupid and open ended but at least they weren't the too long leading questions mark would ask that drove me nuts, like "Shea When you were breaking in and saw the forward not pick you up and made that wraparound and flipped that little backhander into trafiic and surprised ottowa and anderson and the puck went in. was that what you hoped would happen?" shea, "uh, yeah".

and she's far better looking. maybe her and grimson will improve. and even if they don't, well it's still an improvement.

 

[Jonesey]

in keeping with the changes theme, it was time for crispy to be replaced. his shtick with pete was beyond stale. pete can call a good game, when he's doesn't spend 50% of the game trying to make crisp laugh.

grimson is more a of tv guy than a radio guy, on radio he would always talk way, way to long and you would miss large portions of the game itself as he rambled on. on tv, it won't make near as much of a difference. now if grimson can actually learn to be critical of anything he might possibly be decent. every play is a 'great play' and 'he really likes everyone's game' all the time.

and the gal linsey, well she at least is a relief from mark. her questions were stupid and open ended but at least they weren't the too long leading questions mark would ask that drove me nuts, like "Shea When you were breaking in and saw the forward not pick you up and made that wraparound and flipped that little backhander into trafiic and surprised ottowa and anderson and the puck went in. was that what you hoped would happen?" shea, "uh, yeah".

and she's far better looking. maybe her and grimson will improve. and even if they don't, well it's still an improvement.

Any time Mark Howard is not on my TV or Radio is a good time. I for one welcome our new Blonde overlord.

 

[Pred303]

and i agree trig. a more than welcome change. this team will try our nerves at times, because with this uptempo we will blow some leads, but we will also make comebacks that we wouldn't ever had before. it'll be fun.

 

[Byrddog]

Thanks for putting this thread back in.

Not wishing to be negative after a win but there are real concerns. Truthfully had to go over and read the Sens board to confirm what I thought I saw. The Sens fans pretty much across the board confirm how poorly they played. Ryan and Karlsson invisible and those two are critical to any success. For about 40 minutes we made Anderson look like Johnathan Quick 5 on 5.

I am not taking anything away from the effort of our guys but the transition is going to be a struggle. We tend to see things from rose colored glasses, especially when we have been so starved for offense for so long. But my biggest concern about the transition was apparent last night. They looked less than stellar the entire middle of the game inability to transition thru the neutral zone a number of times and giveaways creating odd man rushes that would have cost us dearly against a Chicago, St Louis, Anaheim ect caliber offense. While the defense pinching in created offense last night this is going to bite them often.

We had trouble finishing for sure yet again. They should have scored at least two more goals. And considering this was a Sens team that was not playing well its a concern.

This was a much needed win however no matter how it came. Sat night will be a challenge a much better offense could well burn us. Lavi does have today to make some adjustments some how they need to give Neal better chances the guy is sure not afraid of putting the puck on net. If he was the one on the other end of two of Wilsons passes he would have buried them as well as one feed to the high slot by Roy where Smith missed the net by 10 feet in the first.

I do not expect them to overnight be as beastly as Pittsburgh but they will need to finish more chances because there going to give up more goals than we are used to against better teams.

 

[Jonesey]

Another observation:

Pekka was only beaten on shots that hit the post.

 

[PredsV82]

Apologies. I thought this was just observations of last nights game, not an ongoing thread for the season. Carry on.

Respectfully request that this thread be stickied... and in fact since "General Preds Talk V" is right at 1000 posts, i would suggest this thread can replace that thread series...

 

[Adz]

it was time for crispy to be replaced.
...
grimson is more a of tv guy than a radio guy.
...

the too long leading questions mark would ask that drove me nuts, like "Shea When you were breaking in and saw the forward not pick you up and made that wraparound and flipped that little backhander into trafiic and surprised ottowa and anderson and the puck went in. was that what you hoped would happen?" shea, "uh, yeah".

Agreed. He served us well but he will be better suited in his new role.

I have been impressed with his blog on the NP site. Even after many years of watching the game I don't really get a lot of the little details. His blog answered questions I didn't know to ask.

Brent Peterson sort of took up the slack with the long winded detailed question...but he was going to ask Coach Laviolette "some day" not right then.

 

[Pred303]

Another observation:

Pekka was only beaten on shots that hit the post.

speaking of which, we were exceptionally lucky on that late deflection that hit the inside of the post and rolled thru the crease.

 

[Pred303]

you know, no matter how many seasons one lives and dies with each game, over the summer it always fades how intensely nerve-wrecking it is to try to protect a one goal lead in a hockey game inside the last 5 minutes.. lol

 

[MrJoshua]

Great to see you posting again, 303. Your thread on the old NP forum was the main reason I kept visiting.

Loved the game. Plenty of details need to be cleaned up but I was expecting that with the massive transition in system and personnel. The guys seemed to struggle getting the puck out of the defensive zone at times. But they didn't give up many shots because of it so maybe I'm being overly critical.

It's going to be very interesting watching this team come together. Plenty of questions remain. Will the young defense continue to improve and come together as a unit? Is Pekka completely back to form? Will all the new offensive pieces gel? Will the team get the details down in the new system quickly? Who gets sent waived or traded when players start getting healthy?

It's going to be an exciting season one way or another.

 

[triggrman]

On the flip side, our offensive zone time had to be higher than it has been in awhile.

And how many turnovers did we create last night on the offensive blueline because of an aggressive forecheck?

 

[JR303]

Actually, you know what? The thing that I appreciate the most is the fact that with all these changes, I'm actually eager to read this site, and a few others that I just just been skimming for the last few years. It's nice to look at our team and not go "well, here comes the same old **** again".

And don't get me wrong, I was happy with Trotz and the organization, but after Suter left, the wheels sorta fell off, and Trotz seemed to lose his capacity to change with the needs of our team.

But, I'm actually looking forward to this season, even with all of the inevitable growing pains. It's refreshing to see a defenseman stand someone up at the blue line instead of giving them room and ALWAYS making the safe play.

Gotta give Turris credit on his goal last night, though. Made Weber/Josi look like rookies, and that shot was a laser.

 

[triggrman]

Gotta give Turris credit on his goal last night, though. Made Weber/Josi look like rookies, and that shot was a laser.

I won't blame that much on either, it was a weakness in the system. Weber steps up to try to force that play but the play is made, it was a 3-2 from the beginning but now Weber is chasing.

This is going to happen a lot this season with this type of system. In fact we did see the other side of this when Jones did pick off that pass and walks it in for a great scoring chance.

 

[ThirdManIn]

Apologies. I thought this was just observations of last nights game, not an ongoing thread for the season. Carry on.

Come on, Rook. The Observations threads are tradition (or at least used to be over on another site )

Good to see ya, Pred303. I was sitting here, watching the game for a third time while I procrastinate, thinking, "should I do an observations write-up?"

Then I actually checked the main page.

 

[Pred303]

yeah, a long time ago i was taught by an old hockey coach that almost every goal has three distinct failures that led to the goal.

on the turris goal, first ribeiro cleanly loses a faceoff, neal makes the first real mistake, stepping forward when the puck goes up the halfwall instead of breaking back to prevent a 3 on 2, weber gets caught leaving turris and pinching toward the blueline against the puck carrier and then josi is late getting his stick in to try to block turris shot when he is caught between the 2 guys. all understandable, forgivable things, minor mistakes that lead to the opportunity. great shot, just hand it to the sens, it was a goal well earned (sometimes it's easy to forget that the other team will just beat you with good plays)

 

[Persona5]

Once we get the d-zone system figured out this team could really be good. The good new when it comes to that is they played better as the gane went along. Really enjoyed watching the new style of play and that isnt just because we won.

 

[ThirdManIn]

Respectfully request that this thread be stickied... and in fact since "General Preds Talk V" is right at 1000 posts, i would suggest this thread can replace that thread series...

As you wish, fine sir.

 

[triggrman]

yeah, a long time ago i was taught by an old hockey coach that almost every goal has three distinct failures that led to the goal.

on the turris goal, first ribeiro cleanly loses a faceoff, neal makes the first real mistake, stepping forward when the puck goes up the halfwall instead of breaking back to prevent a 3 on 2, weber gets caught leaving turris and pinching toward the blueline against the puck carrier and then josi is late getting his stick in to try to block turris shot when he is caught between the 2 guys. all understandable, forgivable things, minor mistakes that lead to the opportunity. great shot, just hand it to the sens, it was a goal well earned (sometimes it's easy to forget that the other team will just beat you with good plays)

And that shot was pinpoint...... Hats off to Turris for that one.

 

[ThirdManIn]

One thing I expect to happen this season is to see the team taking more penalties compared to what we are accustomed. Trotz teams, especially recently, have been pretty good about not taking penalties. A lot of that comes from not taking too many chances. This team, with its aggressive style of play, is going to see an up tick at least in obstruction penalties. With Neal and Volchenkov I wouldn't be surprised to see a decent rise in hitting penalties as well.

Our penalty kill is going to need to be solid, and that is another area in which Rinne needs to be outstanding. Not only that, but our PP needs to be productive to offset.

 

[Pred303]

just glad to be back talking hockey with knowledgable fans. good to see all you old-timers and meet new ones

 

[ThirdManIn]

Oh and props to Ellis for that play in the second last night (I think... maybe it was the third). With that new rule change, even if you get the puck first, tripping a player is going to be a minor penalty. He broke up that chances perfectly, and even caught an elbow to the face for his trouble (it went uncalled).