Addition by subtraction?

[Rals]

Does Ottawa play better without Spezza? I would have never expected the campaign that they are putting together, and then I started to thinking, over the past three years have out successes corresponded to Jason's absences?

No doubt he was a force in his prime.

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[Slow Hands]

We're 5-2-2. We could just as easily be 2-5-2. Happy we're grinding games out and winning them but I hardly think this young season counts as some sort of indication that Spezza was an anchor keeping us down. In fact, I expect us to struggle as our goaltending comes back to earth.

 

[Rals]

We're 5-2-2. We could just as easily be 2-5-2. Happy we're grinding games out and winning them but I hardly think this young season counts as some sort of indication that Spezza was an anchor keeping us down. In fact, I expect us to struggle as our goaltending comes back to earth.

Valid, but what about the past instances? He's certainly had his share of absences.

I was always rather indifferent to Spezza.

 

[starling]

Now we need to get rid of Karlsson and the Cup is ours

 

[HavlatMach9]

well we didn't just subtract though, we added a player from that trade, and we added Legwand

 

[Rals]

Now we need to get rid of Karlsson and the Cup is ours

Our defense would improve right?

 

[Slow Hands]

Valid, but what about the past instances? He's certainly had his share of absences.

I was always rather indifferent to Spezza.

I'm old enough to have seen him come up after we drafted him but young enough to be irrationally attached to him. I'm not sure I can really give a fair argument as I'm a huge homer for him.

With that said, I just don't think we have enough of a sample to really say it definitively. I think I recall seeing our record without him being decent, and if that's the case, hey, maybe it is in a way addition by subtraction. But like another poster said, there's other players, and there are also other variables. Maybe the net effect is that we're better off without him. I don't know. I still miss the guy though.

 

[Rals]

well we didn't just subtract though, we added a player from that trade, and we added Legwand

Isolating the elements of the equation is impossible, but with your best eyeball test...

 

[Rals]

I'm old enough to have seen him come up after we drafted him but young enough to be irrationally attached to him. I'm not sure I can really give a fair argument as I'm a huge homer for him.

With that said, I just don't think we have enough of a sample to really say it definitively. I think I recall seeing our record without him being decent, and if that's the case, hey, maybe it is in a way addition by subtraction. But like another poster said, there's other players, and there are also other variables. Maybe the net effect is that we're better off without him. I don't know. I still miss the guy though.

I think we all miss his laugh.

 

[Tap on the Ankle]

team's record when Spezzaless, last 3 yrs

12-13 season
21 - 13 - 6

13-14 season
5 - 1 - 1

14-15 season
5 - 2 - 2

 

[Slow Hands]

I think we all miss his laugh.

I dunno, I just miss seeing elite talent come up through the team. Being as young as I was when we drafted him, I had a sense that he was going to lead us to the promise land and then all sorts of terrible things happened and we never got our cup.

I'm very grateful for the talent we have now, but I don't think I'll ever have that same attachment as a fan I had with Spezza with any other players. Feels weird being attached to players when you're older than them.

 

[Rals]

My attachment was to Hossa. I can't believe we traded him over sore feelings from arbitration. I understand where your coming from.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

It's not always about talent. Personality and style of play also factors in.

Spezza is at his best when he isn't the main focus. Putting the weight of a team on his shoulders just isn't the way to be successful. And that's not a bad thing...a lot of guys work best and are happier (and more effective) outside the limelight and in a support role. Problem with Spezza is he has the pure talent to be in the spotlight, so that's where a lot of teams would want to use him.

And, a lot of players simply play best in certain team systems. Spezza works best in a free-flowing, pure offensive system. This team is transitioning into a 200-foot team with a quick transition game....which is not his forte.

Sometimes pieces just don't fit together.

 

[cage]

I dunno, I just miss seeing elite talent come up through the team. Being as young as I was when we drafted him, I had a sense that he was going to lead us to the promise land and then all sorts of terrible things happened and we never got our cup.

I'm very grateful for the talent we have now, but I don't think I'll ever have that same attachment as a fan I had with Spezza with any other players. Feels weird being attached to players when you're older than them.

Just wanted to say I feel the same way not being attached to young players. It just feels silly to care so much, one way or the other, about most players now. I like EK, Lehner, etc, but they'll just never mean what guys like Alfie, Hossa, Redden (ie. the guys I loved when I was younger) meant. Kind of sad when that magic wears off

 

[Sens Rule]

I like the Pesky Sens. I was upset that Spezza was moved (and Hemsky not resigned), because it seemed to me we were trying to shed salary and not really compete. However I did see the possibility of 4 "pesky" lines and how that did work, and especially when Spezza was absent the last 3 years.

Spezza is a brilliant player. We could be better without him in some ways because his style is better for a big line like the Pizza one, not for a team rolling 4 lines.

Our PP has seemed ok without him this year. We struggled without him at times on the PP in his absence in the past.

If we can have a true line of kids Hoffman - Lazar - Stone play like they did tonight we are in for a very strong season.

 

[jbeck5]

My attachment was to Hossa. I can't believe we traded him over sore feelings from arbitration. I understand where your coming from.

Me too. Since hossa, I haven't had a favorite player.

 

[Sens Rule]

We're 5-2-2. We could just as easily be 2-5-2. Happy we're grinding games out and winning them but I hardly think this young season counts as some sort of indication that Spezza was an anchor keeping us down. In fact, I expect us to struggle as our goaltending comes back to earth.

We lost the 2 games by one goal. We have been a good team. We earned all our points.

We went chance for chance with Chicago and looked just as dangerous as they did tonight. Either team could have got 6 or 7 goals easy tonight, and not due to shoddy defence on either team. This was talent vs talent with good goaltending on each side. Best game the Sens played all season. 65 minutes of strong hockey from every line and every player. Shootout loss to a great elite team that also played well. If we played like we did tonight in most games the rest of the year we will make the playoffs and be in position to do some damage when we get there. Can this team play like they did tonight frequently? Sure hope so.

 

[coladin]

This has to be a confidence builder in many ways. I think we are better without Spezza of last year, not the Spezza of 05-06. I like our team and there is no denying that our four centers do not cheat anywhere near as much as Spezza did. It has made a huge difference to the team makeup.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

team's record when Spezzaless, last 3 yrs

12-13 season
21 - 13 - 6

13-14 season
5 - 1 - 1

14-15 season
5 - 2 - 2

The stats speak for themselves.

We are 101 point pace without Spezza past 3 years.

Let it be known though that I'm talking about recent Spezza not the Spezza of 3-4 years ago.

A lot of it has to do with structure of the team too. The structure that the Sens are playing now which is overly successful doesn't match Spezza's style of play. Even then, he has never been the best go-to-option on forward to lead a team far. He's a great player who's time here was done prematurely due to injuries and inability to play the style the rest of the team was playing.

 

[HockeySens]

We're 5-2-2. We could just as easily be 2-5-2. Happy we're grinding games out and winning them but I hardly think this young season counts as some sort of indication that Spezza was an anchor keeping us down. In fact, I expect us to struggle as our goaltending comes back to earth.

Well, we are missing Methot, Karlsson hasnt looked like a top 10 dman so far, ryan is playing ok, zibanejad only got his first point. I think this year the scoring chances have gone down even if the shots against are about the same. The sens play a game where they wud have the goalie one vs. one the shooter rather than block the shot and risk injury or screening our own goalie

 

[HSF]

We won't win a cup without more game breaking talent

Spezza imo was that will some of these players develop into legit top line players? We will see

 

[StefanW]

team's record when Spezzaless, last 3 yrs

12-13 season
21 - 13 - 6

13-14 season
5 - 1 - 1

14-15 season
5 - 2 - 2

Too bad we lost Kassian. By the logic of this post we would be planning the Cup Parade route due to our record with him in the lineup.

You really can't use wins and losses in this way. There are 20 players on the team on a given night. I can see it if we are talking about a goaltender, but pinning longer term team record on a forward playing maybe 1/3 of a game on a given night? Nonsensical.

 

[Iamok]

Too bad we lost Kassian. By the logic of this post we would be planning the Cup Parade route due to our record with him in the lineup.

You really can't use wins and losses in this way. There are 20 players on the team on a given night. I can see it if we are talking about a goaltender, but pinning longer term team record on a forward playing maybe 1/3 of a game on a given night? Nonsensical.

That 1/3 of the game including pretty much every key situation of the game. Spezza's play on any given night pretty much always had direct effect on the outcome of the game, whether good or bad.

I've always been pretty positive about Spezza over his career, but over these past few seasons the team has played noticeably better when he wasn't playing.

 

[BK201]

Our goaltending has been top notch.

 

[DrEasy]

I only really miss Spezza on the PP and the shoot out.