TSN: Can Sens Improve On Last Season?

[DrEasy]

Well, we'll be rocking more or less the same team that went on that beautiful run at the end of the season: a sane coach, a healthy Methot, a good goalie tandem, and ice time to players who deserve it rather than for just being a veteran. Now add the fact that everyone will have more experience and yet everyone (who plays) is still young: Stone, Ziba, Hoff, Karlsson, Pageau, Wiercioch, Cowen, Turris, Ceci, Boro, Lazar, Puempel should be even better than they were this year! Scary! Only possibly Anderson could decline purely due to age.

The only three players lost from our run are Condra, Gryba and Legwand, right? It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to expect Cowen-BoroCop to match BoroCop-Gryba and for Smith to do more or less what Legwand did. Losing Condra stings a little.

As usual, much will depend on health and depth. But as it stands, we should be able to match or surpass last year in regular season points. As for the playoffs, it's always a crapshoot and anything can happen.

I'd still feel more comfortable if we could add one top 6 forward and one top 4 D, if only to push everyone else down a notch and provide even more depth in case of injury.

 

[Novak Djokovic]

Lack of a Top 4 D will always stand out as the sore spot on this team.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Lack of a Top 4 D will always stand out as the sore spot on this team.

UNless Cowen or Wier or both show they can play like one. Which is clearly what the Sens are banking on.

I don't mind the team taking its time with these guys. Find out what they have for sure before giving up on a young defenseman, or committing to a guy like Hoffman.

THey're being prudent. Hopefully if this year neither COwen or Wier take the ball they make a move though

 

[Benjamin]

We're at best a wild card again. The east is filled with too many teams on the same level as us and the Atlantic has two definitely better teams.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

We're at best a wild card again. The east is filled with too many teams on the same level as us and the Atlantic has two definitely better teams.

I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility that the Senators can finish just about anywhere in the conference shy of wining the division. The division is weak as hell aside from the Habs, so thats a lot of gimme points for both teams. ANd then even the Habs aren't exactly some kind of juggernaut.

Im honestly not sure what to expect from the Sens next season. I think they're a playoff team, a lot has to go wrong for them to miss out on the top 8. To me its more of where they finish in the top 8 with an outside shot of missing.

If the young guns continue to improve, the Sens have two incredibly dangerous lines. If cowcioche can find their games te defense looks a whole lot better, and Andy is Andy.

Im rather hopeful to be honest.

 

[Benjamin]

I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility that the Senators can finish just about anywhere in the conference shy of wining the division. The division is weak as hell aside from the Habs, so thats a lot of gimme points for both teams. ANd then even the Habs aren't exactly some kind of juggernaut.

Im honestly not sure what to expect from the Sens next season. I think they're a playoff team, a lot has to go wrong for them to miss out on the top 8. To me its more of where they finish in the top 8 with an outside shot of missing.

If the young guns continue to improve, the Sens have two incredibly dangerous lines. If cowcioche can find their games te defense looks a whole lot better, and Andy is Andy.

Im rather hopeful to be honest.

If we're healthy I definitely think we make the playoffs. Overall I'd say the odds favour us making the playoffs. There's atleast 12 teams in the playoff race of 8 spots.

I have more confidence in this team going into the season then the two previous seasons.

 

[Samsquanch]

I dont think its beyond the realm of possibility that the Senators can finish just about anywhere in the conference shy of wining the division. The division is weak as hell aside from the Habs, so thats a lot of gimme points for both teams. ANd then even the Habs aren't exactly some kind of juggernaut.

Im honestly not sure what to expect from the Sens next season. I think they're a playoff team, a lot has to go wrong for them to miss out on the top 8. To me its more of where they finish in the top 8 with an outside shot of missing.

If the young guns continue to improve, the Sens have two incredibly dangerous lines. If cowcioche can find their games te defense looks a whole lot better, and Andy is Andy.

Im rather hopeful to be honest.

Agree with just about everything, but I think that your forgetting about Tampa Bay.

Montreal is definitely beatable. It would be a big leap to say we could eclipse TB this year though.

 

[DylanSensFan]

IE will play the sound but no video. i had to disable the pepper flash in chrome otherwise nhl videos wouldn't play. but then tsn videos would work (but no nhl.com and some other sites), so i chose senstv
it was working everywhere at one point. not sure if i did something wrong. probably. anyway, it may be just me, but there is definitely something going on that makes it difficult to get all videos from different sites playing properly in all browsers.

One word: Firefox.

 

[DylanSensFan]

We're at best a wild card again. The east is filled with too many teams on the same level as us and the Atlantic has two definitely better teams.

Montreal is not that good. Tampa, yes. Montreal no. Montreal is Price + Subban and that is about it. Our depth is much better than theirs.

 

[Sens Rule]

Montreal is not that good. Tampa, yes. Montreal no. Montreal is Price + Subban and that is about it. Our depth is much better than theirs.

Patches is all world too. He is good for 2 or 3 breakaways against us every game we play.

 

[Benjamin]

Montreal is not that good. Tampa, yes. Montreal no. Montreal is Price + Subban and that is about it. Our depth is much better than theirs.

Theres no denying they are a good season team.

 

[Baby Ryan]

Patches is all world too. He is good for 2 or 3 breakaways against us every game we play.

My brain bleeds after every Habs game because of this.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Agree with just about everything, but I think that your forgetting about Tampa Bay.

Montreal is definitely beatable. It would be a big leap to say we could eclipse TB this year though.

Whoops my bad, i do that often. Still seems weird to me that the florida teams are in the division.

Of course if Semin decides to be a 60 or 70 point player for the habs this year that makes them very scary too. BUt still, Tampa and Montreal plus very very beatable teams like the panthers, bruins, sabres and leafs.

Lots of points that are Ottawa;s to lose in the division.

 

[playasRus]

We can easily do better than our record prior to the Hammond run. That might not be enough for a playoff but thats why we're a bubble team.

Whether we can do better than the whole season combined is to be seen - I don't think we can.

 

[PatrickMcC]

IMO we are a top 4 lhd improvement away from really taking off and going pas the first round and making deep playoff runs. But for now were a bubble playoff team, lots to like but their are also a lot of if's

 

[aragorn]

How well Ottawa does & how far they go will likely come down to how Anderson is playing & if he can stay healthy all yr. While it was a hell of a ride last yr I'm not sure what we will have in Hammond this coming season but then again we never knew what we were going to get from Lehner either. Hopefully, he can be a steady consistent backup who wins more games than he loses, otherwise Ottawa could be in big trouble.

 

[Sens Rule]

How well Ottawa does & how far they go will likely come down to how Anderson is playing & if he can stay healthy all yr. While it was a hell of a ride last yr I'm not sure what we will have in Hammond this coming season but then again we never knew what we were going to get from Lehner either. Hopefully, he can be a steady consistent backup who wins more games than he loses, otherwise Ottawa could be in big trouble.

If both goalies are really on... Like Anderson in the playoffs and Hammond on his run... We could be a great, great team.

 

[DylanSensFan]

Patches is all world too. He is good for 2 or 3 breakaways against us every game we play.

Okay, so three players? We are going to have a much more stable core this season. Zibanejad made huge strides last season, as did Stone and many others.

 

[Icelevel]

Team is so full of potential now. Expecting a big year this season. Soon I'll be able to say comfortably, 'best sens lineup ever'.
Think I'll wait till some of the next group of Paul, Prince/puempel, white, etc make the jump, but that could be just months away.

 

[Ttracer*]

Patches is all world too. He is good for 2 or 3 breakaways against us every game we play.

Ottawa doesn't even play Montreal 8 times a season, so quit fluffing Paccioretti so hard. Players will score against us, all year long, every game. So what? Only thing that matters is we do it 5-6% more often, and it's looking quite good for Ottawa in 15/16

 

[FlyingJ]

Montreal is not that good. Tampa, yes. Montreal no. Montreal is Price + Subban and that is about it. Our depth is much better than theirs.

As much as I hate the Habs, too many on this board sell them short.

The forward corps has Pacioretty, as others have pointed out, and Galchenyuk, if Therrien ever wakes up and starts giving him a chance at centre, has continued to improve. High ceiling on him. Gallgher is a little weasel, but effective and will notch 20 goals. Eller and Plekanec are also quite good. Therrien is what is holding them back from being a better scoring team with refusing to give Galchenyuk a chance at centre and shakling Pacioretty, his best forward, to David Desharnais (essentially the francophone equivalent of Tyler Bozak).

Their D is not just Subban. They have Gilbert and now will have Petry, who is underrated from playing on a poor Oilers team, for the entire season. Throw in Beaulieu and an aging but still capable Markov, and their D is very mobile and dangerous. (Admittedly, Markov is starting to show signs of decline, so how long he'll be effective remains to be seen) Once again, Therrien's insistance on just chipping the puck out so often, allowing the opposing teams to get it back immediately and go back on the attack, thus requiring a Vezina-winning performance from Price for the Habs to win, instead of utilizing such a mobile D to control the puck and move it up to the forwards, is asinine.

Oh, and then they have Price too. But yeah, clearly our depth, especially on D, is just miles ahead of them

 

[Ttracer*]

As much as I hate the Habs, too many on this board sell them short.

The forward corps has Pacioretty, as others have pointed out, and Galchenyuk, if Therrien ever wakes up and starts giving him a chance at centre, has continued to improve. High ceiling on him. Gallgher is a little weasel, but effective and will notch 20 goals. Eller and Plekanec are also quite good. Therrien is what is holding them back from being a better scoring team with refusing to give Galchenyuk a chance at centre and shakling Pacioretty, his best forward, to David Desharnais (essentially the francophone equivalent of Tyler Bozak).

Their D is not just Subban. They have Gilbert and now will have Petry, who is underrated from playing on a poor Oilers team, for the entire season. Throw in Beaulieu and an aging but still capable Markov, and their D is very mobile and dangerous. (Admittedly, Markov is starting to show signs of decline, so how long he'll be effective remains to be seen) Once again, Therrien's insistance on just chipping the puck out so often, allowing the opposing teams to get it back immediately and go back on the attack, thus requiring a Vezina-winning performance from Price for the Habs to win, instead of utilizing such a mobile D to control the puck and move it up to the forwards, is asinine.

Oh, and then they have Price too. But yeah, clearly our depth, especially on D, is just miles ahead of them

Don't forget in Montreal the fans call the penalties. They had the highest penalty differential in the league, not because of their "amazing team." Habs dive all game long, never get called for it, and end up 5 on 3 vs some poor 2nd year Buffalo goalie. Ottawa is 1 of the least popular teams in the North East, and I've seen it for a decade we always get hosed. Grybas hit on Eller was a game, % + suspension, it wasn't even a penalty. Montreal needs to get babied all season just to get a high seed so they can blow it with home ice...

Toronto on the other hand only seems to play well against Ottawa, we can't afford to keep giving games away to those Blue and Whites. It's night and day Toronto vs us and Toronto vs any other team. They are a thorn in our side we have to deal with NOW

 

[BigBush*]

Don't forget in Montreal the fans call the penalties. They had the highest penalty differential in the league, not because of their "amazing team." Habs dive all game long, never get called for it, and end up 5 on 3 vs some poor 2nd year Buffalo goalie. Ottawa is 1 of the least popular teams in the North East, and I've seen it for a decade we always get hosed. Grybas hit on Eller was a game, % + suspension, it wasn't even a penalty. Montreal needs to get babied all season just to get a high seed so they can blow it with home ice...

Toronto on the other hand only seems to play well against Ottawa, we can't afford to keep giving games away to those Blue and Whites. It's night and day Toronto vs us and Toronto vs any other team. They are a thorn in our side we have to deal with NOW

Nice. Every fan base needs a crazy guy who blames stuff on the refs and makes up excuse as to why everyone's out to get our team. Glad that's you man! It's always good for a laugh

 

[Ttracer*]

Nice. Every fan base needs a crazy guy who blames stuff on the refs and makes up excuse as to why everyone's out to get our team. Glad that's you man! It's always good for a laugh

Ottawa has been closer to the cup than Montreal in the last decade, if we can learn something from MTL it's don't be the Habs. I wish Sens "fans" would stop parading MTL like they still have Maurice Richard. They have Therrien who is a complete dunce and a revolving door of French Canadian players just to keep fans interested

 

[BigBush*]

Ottawa has been closer to the cup than Montreal in the last decade, if we can learn something from MTL it's don't be the Habs. I wish Sens "fans" would stop parading MTL like they still have Maurice Richard. They have Therrien who is a complete dunce and a revolving door of French Canadian players just to keep fans interested

Most Sens fans believe Montreal is a good regular season team but not built for the playoffs.

However at the time being they did eliminate us last year so we still owe them respect