GDT: Ottawa Senators at Seattle Kraken - 10PM - TSN5/RDS - Kraken Green Eggs and Hamonic with and Ice-Cold Sens Coffee

[Micklebot]

Seattle capitalized on their chances as well. They play a structured game and roll 4 lines even though they don't have star players. There is something to be learned from them.

Kind of reminds me of the Wild back in the Gaborik days, they don't play the same trap game the wild did, rather they are supper aggressive on the forecheck, but it's the idea of that simplified game where everyone pulling in the same direction, minimizing mistakes can take you a long way, especially if you get solid (or in this case great) goaltending..

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

The best thing I did for myself was stop watching these games live. No getting your hopes up that they'll actually show up and win, much easier to be pleasantly surprised this way without any of the time commitment. I couldn't imagine having stayed up until 11:30 or whatever it was to watch the game get completely out of reach.

there is an NHL channel you can get if you have ROKU, and you can watch condensed Senator games the day after….. so enjoy a good night sleep, and watch how they lost in the morning

 

[Back in Black]

It was maddening watching Joey Daccord beat the SENS last night.

Dorion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[umma gumma]

It was maddening watching Joey Daccord beat the SENS last night.

Dorion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't protect him cause we protected Gus, then turned around and traded Gus. Makes sense right?

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Martin: We didn't stay the course

Sens interim head coach Jacques Martin addresses the media following the team's 4-1 loss to the Kraken.

www.tsn.ca

 

[BankStreetParade]

The 2nd goal all starts with Kubalik (who is not a kid) being extremely soft on the puck and turning it over instead of getting it in deep.

It's not all that different from the Stutzle 3rd goal, in that an unnecessary turnover leads to a counter attack and the defense being put in a tough position (and not handling that particularly well). In both cases there are multiple breakdowns, but the root cause is soft plays by the forwards.

I have slightly more sympathy for Stutzle, because unlike Kubalik, Stutzle taking a risk might actually lead to something positive. It's like the difference between Erik Karlsson taking a risk and Travis Hamonic. But with the way things have been going, and at that point in the game, Stutzle needs to just put that puck in the corner.

Turnovers at the blue lines are bad (I know, obviously) and this team is as guilty as it gets. I don't know what the hell it is about them making mistakes at those specific parts of the ice but it's honestly insane. Go back and look at how many goals against this year have started with a turnover at either blue line. I don't know if it's effort, decision-making, coaching, whatever...but there's clearly some HUGE issue at play here. And it's not just guys who are young and learning or have long-term contracts, it's also guys on short-term deals, guys with lots of league experience. It's a problem I genuinely can't understand how it keeps happening over and over again.

I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Teams who lack confidence in their goalies often end up playing worse as a result, they worry about every mistake ending up in the back of the net and start second guessing every decision. You can't play that way.

Meanwhile, goalies need to trust the team in front of them will cover their guy, otherwise they end up worrying about the backdoor plays, cheat, or play deep in the net.

How do you 'reset' and break the cycle. JM is trying to go back to basics. Maybe that ends up working, but so far all we've seen is 'here we go again ' moments.

I've been saying this for a while and it's why DJ should have been fired at the end of October, early November. The team's body language and confidence in their goaltending in the early part of the year was really negative and it has now become a full-on mental block. The talent is there but it's not synced to a healthy mental space so the results are what we see. This team was let down by waiting so long to relieve DJ, breathe some new life into the locker room and help them mentally reset for the rest of the season. There was more than enough runway with only 10-12 games played to hit the reset button and start seeing changes. Instead, the issue festered until it consumed them and now we're watching blow outs almost every night because everyone's confidence is 0.

 

[Flamingo]

Martin: We didn't stay the course

Sens interim head coach Jacques Martin addresses the media following the team's 4-1 loss to the Kraken.

www.tsn.ca

He's not wrong.

Ottawa had a better 1st period, so the score effect excuse for the advanced stats and deserve-to-win-o-meter aren't muddied by score effect. I found our offensive effort actually got more disjointed and less effective when we were trying to rally from behind.

Can they adapt the way JM wants them to? No let-up? Because this is where we've been for the last two seasons.

 

[Dionysus]

The more the losses pile up, the clearer it is that the individual players, as well as the team as a whole are just not as good as we thought.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Did anyone else notice twice last night Tkachuk made his way deep into the Dzone and recovered the puck below the goal line. Twice he started to move the puck behind the net and twice without looking or at least assessing reversed the puck on his back hand directly to a Seattle forechecker.

I mean I was happy to see Tkachuk work to support the defense to recover the puck but .. twice he made the exact same mistake once he did.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

I feel like this game they played pretty good overall but Seattle played a perfect game at home. They play the way Jacques Martin is trying to make this team play. Relentless forecheck and pressure offensively and defensively. That's how they win, their players bought into this system and while they don't have any stars on their team they have great depth and everyone plays hard and fast. Their D kept us to the outside. We took a lot of perimeter shots because of it and we weren't able to attack the middle of the ice. Daccord played an perfect game.

We played 55 minutes tonight and it's a pretty big improvement over 20-40 which has been the case for this season. Korpisalo had a great game. I thought the team overall was more aggressive defensively and closing gaps quicker.

We need more for sure, especially from the leaders of this team, but that was a step in the right direction towards how this team needs to play. It's not there yet but it's better than it was. Joseph and Pinto should also make things interesting and give Martin a lot more options. I'm curious to see how things line up when the roster is full.

If stu shoots two feet higher and Norris’s shot trickles in it’s not the perfect Seattle home game anymore.

I always trash this team. But last night was a game of inches. We lost fair a square. We played ok defensively but every team has lapses defensively. We had 2. 2 goals directly from our forwards refusing to do the right thing. A couple shifts Seattle also completely lost our players in coverage. We didn’t score

 

[Cosmix]

I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

Teams who lack confidence in their goalies often end up playing worse as a result, they worry about every mistake ending up in the back of the net and start second guessing every decision. You can't play that way.

Meanwhile, goalies need to trust the team in front of them will cover their guy, otherwise they end up worrying about the backdoor plays, cheat, or play deep in the net.

How do you 'reset' and break the cycle. JM is trying to go back to basics. Maybe that ends up working, but so far all we've seen is 'here we go again ' moments.

I think the continuous losing is a case of too many players not playing the right way individually. The right way means playing a strong defensive game without the puck, making no high risk plays in your own D zone & N zone, covering your man in the D and N zones, effective line changes on the fly, etc. A lot of one-on-one coaching is required to correct bad behaviours.

Chabot's reaching to deflect a pass at the blue line, thus taking him out of the play and allowing a breakaway and goal, was not an intelligent play. He should have played it as a 2 on 1. However, the forwards were clearly behind the play. I am not sure why they were so far back. Was it a late line change caused by Fs being slow to get to the bench, or just sloppy N zone play?

 

[Big Muddy]

Turnovers at the blue lines are bad (I know, obviously) and this team is as guilty as it gets. I don't know what the hell it is about them making mistakes at those specific parts of the ice but it's honestly insane. Go back and look at how many goals against this year have started with a turnover at either blue line. I don't know if it's effort, decision-making, coaching, whatever...but there's clearly some HUGE issue at play here. And it's not just guys who are young and learning or have long-term contracts, it's also guys on short-term deals, guys with lots of league experience. It's a problem I genuinely can't understand how it keeps happening over and over again.

I've been saying this for a while and it's why DJ should have been fired at the end of October, early November. The team's body language and confidence in their goaltending in the early part of the year was really negative and it has now become a full-on mental block. The talent is there but it's not synced to a healthy mental space so the results are what we see. This team was let down by waiting so long to relieve DJ, breathe some new life into the locker room and help them mentally reset for the rest of the season. There was more than enough runway with only 10-12 games played to hit the reset button and start seeing changes. Instead, the issue festered until it consumed them and now we're watching blow outs almost every night because everyone's confidence is 0.

You missed the sentence right underneath the one you quoted. When goalies have no confidence in the positioning or actions of the players in front of them, they won't have confidence in their reads and won't move confidently to be in position to stop the puck.

Our problems are much deeper and not just isolated to "bad goalies". The games might be closer score wise, but I think we'd still end up losing lots, and doubt if we could make noise in the playoffs without being better in many facets of the game versus just goaltending. Last night was a good example of having decent goaltending but losing the game because of costly errors and mistakes and not being able to score more than just one goal.

There was a great article in a thread in here from a guy that looks at 32 stats and has a specialized focus on goaltending. His conclusion at the end of the interview was "the environment matters". Looks like people didn't see that article or read it.

 

[DrEasy]

We get outmuscled for the puck and lose board battles way too often. Didn't see many players finishing their checks. Norris is timid. Greig doesn't have the same bounce in his steps as earlier in the season.

We really need some injection of muscle and energy into this team. Joseph and Pinto should help. Formenton would be great, but alas.

 

[HSF]

We get outmuscled for the puck and lose board battles way too often. Didn't see many players finishing their checks. Norris is timid. Greig doesn't have the same bounce in his steps as earlier in the season.

We really need some injection of muscle and energy into this team. Joseph and Pinto should help. Formenton would be great, but alas.

might need to add some older guys who have that strength and experience

 

[Icelevel]

Keep in mind we still don’t have a long term coach in place. Jacques may be in over his head but fine as an interim coach.
Im not expecting too much till next season.

 

[HSF]

Keep in mind we still don’t have a long term coach in place. Jacques may be in over his head but fine as an interim coach.
Im not expecting too much till next season.

hoping we land Berube

 

[SensHulk]

That Colorado game was the best game the sens have played 5on5, gave me so much hope for the future, I haven’t been able to stop watching. But it might be time for me to throw in the towel….can’t take more of this :-(

 

[L'Aveuglette]

When you got a team full of $4-5M players with 1-3 years left on their deals going up against a team that has $8M players on 8 year deals. One is hungry and had to fight for their current and future contracts, whilw one has nothing to play for and already set up for their rest of their lives.

Oversimplification much?

Most good teams have similar contracts as we do and manage to succeed regularly. Some of them even win the cup. This is deeper than just a bunch of young guys not competing for contracts.

 

[NyQuil]

Seattle capitalized on their chances as well. They play a structured game and roll 4 lines even though they don't have star players. There is something to be learned from them.

We’re so concerned as to whether our core measures up but it really is incidental.

 

[LiseL]

How can every single mistake end up in our net. And the other teams mistakes never end up there

You're comparing our mistakes to their mistakes? lol.

 

[LiseL]

The more I watch their games, the more I think their combined hockey IQ is -10. How can they not know what to do with the puck or how to make the safe play? Where did they learn how to play? I know every team has at least 1 player who's like this, but we are littered with them and we're a cap team with many contracts other teams would not be interested in. The near future does not look bright.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

You're comparing our mistakes to their mistakes? lol.

They left Norris wide open on the backcheck. Stutzle they completely lost in coverage

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

hoping we land Berube

Now that Steve Staios has been named the new GM, he could decide to bring in a new Head Coach at anytime….. and perhaps he has already asked Berube or others if they’d be interested…..perhaps he’s waiting to see if J Martin can get to the bottom of the issues and turn the ship around…. Perhaps anyone, if asked, are waiting for better opportunities…..who knows?

The only thing for certain is that this season has been written off, and the new Owner(s) and management are gearing up for next season, and the remainder of the season is now just auditions and training camp for 2024/25

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

That Colorado game was the best game the sens have played 5on5, gave me so much hope for the future, I haven’t been able to stop watching. But it might be time for me to throw in the towel….can’t take more of this :-(

The new majority Owner, and GM have thrown in their towels….as have a lot of fans I suspect…. Another lottery pick, and let’s see how next season goes.