Are the Ottawa Senators not as bad as people expected them to be?

[General Zodd]

Ive maintained for a long time that I dont think that Karlsson is one the better players in the league on the PP.

Who's Erik Karlsson again?

 

[SpezDispenser]

Man young players can be fun to watch. It's so much more exciting than late 20s, early 30s players. We draft well, but for some reason it feels like a long time since we had kids contributing so much. Great!

 

[SpezDispenser]

Teams adding a lot of youth sometimes play well for stretches. Ottawa also has the benefit of playing with a chip on their shoulders since most people counted them out.

Once the grind sets in, I suspect Sens will drop off.

Or with youth, they might say what is a grind? Especially guys like tkachuk that could have hit a wall and suddenly are taking time off now.

I mean...playoffs are unlikely, but it's fun right now.

 

[Alex1234]

Only 3 points behind the best team in sport history.


With 2 games in hand...

 

[pown]

2nd in the league in goals per game only behind washington, pretty crazy start for a team that was suposed to finish last

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Ive maintained for a long time that I dont think that Karlsson is one the better players in the league on the PP.

Everything that makes him special tends to come off the rush at ES. When he's running the PP he always tends to hang on to the puck longer than he should, and it always slowed things down to a crawl as every player on the ice was watching him to see what happened next.

Now we see short quick passes all over the zone constantly, and its the best looking PP that we have seen in Ottawa since the pizza line days. Hopefully it can last..

Absolutely.

EK65 is a beast, one of the best players in the league. But his true strength is ES - rushing the puck up the ice, seeing the entire ice develop.

On the PP, his biggest strength is getting the puck on net which he does really well. Creates screens/deflections. But the team also constantly fed him the puck too much and made the PP way too predictable.

 

[schnapshot]

By that point some of the 4 big prospects in Belleville (Batherson, Brown, Balcers, Chlapik - all ripping it up except the injured brown) should be ready to step in, along with the return of Pageau that will all hopefully help them if anyone is struggling or hurt.

Then there is Jaros and Wolanin also looking and playing like NHL ready Dmen, and 7 other capable Dmen in the NH already.

Ottawa's depth has become surprisingly good all of a sudden.

All players that have a combined 15 NHL games between them. I don’t really call that good depth, more like alright call-up options.

Out of that group, the only player that has gamebreaking potential is Batherson.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Man young players can be fun to watch. It's so much more exciting than late 20s, early 30s players. We draft well, but for some reason it feels like a long time since we had kids contributing so much. Great!

It's because we've been peddling being a bubble team for so long

 

[Ivan13]

2nd in the league in goals per game only behind washington, pretty crazy start for a team that was suposed to finish last

Good to see, very fun team to watch. Still gutted about what happened to Brady and Formenton.

 

[GoJetsGo55]

Going in, I thought they had enough talent to not be in the bottom 3rd. I also thought that talent would be completely disrupted by everything that's been going on.

Surprised to say I was wrong on that second point.

 

[Korpse]

One thing I’ve been pretty surprised by is the power play. I expected it to be a lot worse since Karlsson is gone but it actually looks a lot better. The movement is a lot more fluid than it was last year and has genuinely good chances pretty consistently. I think their old coaching style was to drive play through Karlsson so maybe it was a little too predictable. Conversely, I think Kalrsson might not be having the kind of season we all expected him to have now that he plays in a system where there’s more than one cook.

Ever since spezza left and EK became the guy on the PP it’s been the worst in the league. Seriously, the worst. Over a four year span they had the worst PP percentage.

 

[JianYang]

Going in, I thought they had enough talent to not be in the bottom 3rd. I also thought that talent would be completely disrupted by everything that's been going on.

Surprised to say I was wrong on that second point.

The players have a chip on their shoulder. Nobody wants to be the butt end of jokes.

I'm still pessimistic that they can continue picking up points like this and fight for a playoff spot, but good for sens fans so far.

The alternative of being a lottery team with no lottery ticket is a far worse scenario, and they have avoided it, at least for now.

 

[Samsquanch]

All players that have a combined 15 NHL games between them. I don’t really call that good depth, more like alright call-up options.

Out of that group, the only player that has gamebreaking potential is Batherson.

I guess that's your humble opinion dude..

We are more optimistic though. People said that same crap about Tkachuk.

 

[Taluss]

To answer the OP they were suppose to be last coming from most here. Anything above last would be better then people thought haha

 

[Korpse]

All players that have a combined 15 NHL games between them. I don’t really call that good depth, more like alright call-up options.

Out of that group, the only player that has gamebreaking potential is Batherson.

Brown absolutely has game breaking potential, still alot to prove and it's far from certain that he will reach that potential but his skill set is tremendous. Wouldn't rule out Chalpik either, very strong on the puck and has great vision, the potential is there and he probably should be in the NHL right now.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Ever since spezza left and EK became the guy on the PP it’s been the worst in the league. Seriously, the worst. Over a four year span they had the worst PP percentage.

It was so bloody predictable with Karlsson. Always had to touch the puck, no matter what, he'd touch the puck and the movement on the pp was terrible.

 

[SpezDispenser]

It's because we've been peddling being a bubble team for so long

We've drafted well for a while and now it's starting to show. Lajoie, formenton, batherston, balcers via trade, chlapik, jaros. Chabot is a star, white is fun. Finally the old man's club is turning to youth. Hooray!

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

It was so bloody predictable with Karlsson. Always had to touch the puck, no matter what, he'd touch the puck and the movement on the pp was terrible.

The Karlsson slap pass on the power play drove me nuts

 

[Deen]

Ottawa has won me a lot of money so far betting on the underdog. Vegas went on a run, maybe they just have the right chemistry this year.

 

[SpezDispenser]

The Karlsson slap pass on the power play drove me nuts

Ugh...

 

[The Winter Soldier]

I think they are benefitting from less drama this year. I mean that is like saying water is wet I know. But with the EK/Hoffman no longer a distraction. Looks like it may have been internal termoil rather than a lack of talent for Ottawa. They certainly don't play like an untalented team.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

One word....parity....

 

[wej20]

Kind of bonkers that Lajoie has scored 4 goals in 7 NHL games when he scored 1 in 56 AHL games last year, heck even his best season in junior he only scored 8 goals.

 

[topshelf15]

Kind of bonkers that Lajoie has scored 4 goals in 7 NHL games when he scored 1 in 56 AHL games last year, heck even his best season in junior he only scored 8 goals.

The points have been nice but it his play in the D zone that has surprised many,kid is calm and makes great reads...Think he may just be our of a best defensive guy

 

[General Disarray]

While I'm a Leaf fan, I don't hate any of the other Canadian teams, in fact, I want what's best for them.

So for Ottawa, I want them to finish 9th. They should not make the playoffs because Melnyk doesn't deserve the revenue. They should continue to suck and fans should continue to tune out until an owner change. But they cannot tank this year because they don't have the draft pick. So 9th place finish is the ideal. Hopefully they keep the hot start and then slowly fade down to 9th.