Pre-Game Talk: Flyers @ Sens 10/10 7:30

[coladin]

Too early to say.

He was much improved last night but we still got crushed.

I wouldn't call it "crushed". it was back and forth going into the 3rd, and some unlucky plays cost the team in the 3rd. Some bad calls too.

 

[Ice-Tray]

White had under 10 minutes ,, Formenton had under 9

I did not see the gaame but I do not agree with the icetime. There are 1000 plugs you can play in there under 10 minutes.
Send these guys down

It's 4 games in though. They are getting sheltered minutes because that's what they need right now. Once they show that they can handle those minutes they will get more. Chabot was the same deal last year and it looks to have been positive for him.

The kids need to not only earn more ice time, but play confident in the reduced ice time the start with. Sheltering them isn't a negative, like you would shelter a player that lacks skill, it's a positive where you're protecting a young player's confidence and making sure that they aren't on the hook for blame as much as possible.

Formy had his best and most aggressive game last night and it was nice to see. He's got a lot more to offer than his on ice skills for sure now. Did you see that small.... He's going to be a pest who plays on the edge, that Ruutu look man!

White has not shown much, I remember hearing his name for the first time in the second period and thinking 'oh yeah, he's playing'. It's actually helpful when you have two other rookies in BT and ML that are on fire to start. Tierney is looking like a real good NHLer, as is Boedker so we can afford to shelter the kids just a little.

DeMelo is such a nice surprise, he's steady on the back end, and a battler. He won't be our most skilled D man, but he's a middle pair guy right now playing a solid Methot-like game. The trade is looking better than first glance at least, which is a small consolation.

Overall that game was friggin' fun to watch until it got out of reach in the third, and even then the guys were pressing. We play hyper aggressive now and it's making games fun to watch. We need our defensive game to settle in, and we definitely need better goaltending. That scrum and new era 'line brawl' was great to see, the guys have heart and they have pride... 4 games in and they are playing like cornered beasts.

The guys are looking to prove everyone wrong, and it's my favourite way to have my team play. Even when they lose, teams are leaving the ring thinking that they need to watch out for this team, we can score and we can smash mouths, half way there!

 

[Multigrain]

Power Play Unit 1 was awful. Hoping they get that unit going. I think Duchene and Stone are struggling.
Not sure if its mental or physical but I think most are confident that they will settle in.
The group on Unit 2 was a bright spot I would keep that Unit together.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[Ice-Tray]

What’s also happening is that we are getting wrecked by teams with elite #1 lines.

We just don’t have an answer for them defensively.

I know that the pain will be continuing with Dallas and Boston in two of our next four games.

Oh well, different bar for success this year.

Frustrating to know that any one goal lead will be held for about two minutes.

We'll be able to hang with the bottom half of the league I'd think, we'll see. Man, every time the announcers mentioned a Philly player I was like 'he plays for Philly too?!?'

Voracek, Giroux, Couturier, Simmonds, Patrick, JVR, Ghostberry, Provorov, Konecny, Laughton, that's a good looking mix of solid vets and exciting young talent. Winning the lottery and getting Patrick was insane!

This is what I'd like us to look like in a couple of seasons... Real up and coming squad...

 

[swiftwin]

Only three players did not allow a goal against 5-on-5 last night:

Tkachuk, Ceci and Smith.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Trades justified!

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

McGoal! The Sens scored first last night against the Flyers so you get a FREE McDonald's Canada medium fries today. Only with the My McD’s app. #GoaldenFries

 

[Multigrain]

Why is Colin White playing 9 minutes a night when you re supposed to be in a rebuilding year .....?

You would almost think the coach has something against White.

 

[Multigrain]

So how many games before the rookies hit the wall? We all know its going to happen hoping not ALL at the same time. Tkachuk comes off a college season of 34 games max. Love the way he plays and at this point I hope coaching manages his minutes. Against a strong goalie like Bishop or athletic like Campbell he it is going to get tossed around a little bit due to where he likes to play. Love his game.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

So how many games before the rookies hit the wall? We all know its going to happen hoping not ALL at the same time. Tkachuk comes off a college season of 34 games max. Love the way he plays and at this point I hope coaching manages his minutes. Against a strong goalie like Bishop or athletic like Campbell he it is going to get tossed around a little bit due to where he likes to play. Love his game.

Around game 15-20 is when I think we should expect everything to come crashing down rather severely.

 

[Multigrain]

You would almost think the coach has something against White.

the Ottawa system and he is not local

 

[Multigrain]

[/QUOT
Interesting.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Around game 15-20 is when I think we should expect everything to come crashing down rather severely.

Also once other teams players familiarize themselves with our players. Knowing tendencies is a thing.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Also once other teams players familiarize themselves with our players. Knowing tendencies is a thing.

Yup game planning for a game against the Senators

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Also once other teams players familiarize themselves with our players. Knowing tendencies is a thing.

Especially when the key tendency we have is we tend to suck

 

[Xspyrit]

Notes :

Like some have suggested, that penalty to Dzingel gave the momentum away. Sens looked like the better team 5 on 5 but the Flyers were able to build momentum with their dangerous PP

We need better goaltending and better team defense. People tend to focus on D-men but team defense is a commitment from all 5 skaters on the ice. Stupid penalties, lack of attention to details, softness at defending... all things that are avoidable. Sens beat themselves last night (outside of that stupid momentum changer penalty to Dzingel)

That being said, at ES :

SF/SA : 21-21
CF/CA : 43-43
SCF/SCA : 23-22
HDSCF/HDSCA : 10-8

All strengths :

SF/SA : 35-45
CF/CA : 64-71
SCF/SCA : 33-32
HDSCF/HDSCA : 19-14

It suggests that despite losing the score, shots count and even the corsi battle, the Sens still had the better scoring chances. They could have won that game with better goaltending and more attention to details on the defensive side of the puck.

Speaking of goaltending, our goalies have been outplayed 3 times in 4 games so far (I'll keep track of it this season)

Lajoie has consistently looked like our best defenceman in this first week and a bit of the season, IMO.

It's him and Chabot in the top tier... and DeMelo with the shocker of all shockers looking like a real 2nd pairing D so far... and them whoo boy, it gets real bad.

I thought Ceci had a really strong game. Funny how he looks much more competent playing "only" 19:33 and with a good partner (Lajoie). Like Micklebot mentioned, at Even Strength, he had the 3rd best CF% on the team, 5th best SF%, 5th best SCF% and 7th best HDSCF%

Boro and Wideman have been really bad so far this season. DeMelo did well but as you can see tonight, a really bad penalty and a really bad pinch that created a goal against (the 3rd one). I think he'd be fine on the 3rd pair but might be another guy played outside of his capacities.

Ideally :

1st pair : Chabot, Casper the ghost.
2nd pair : Lajoie, Ceci
3rd pair : DeMelo, Wideman, Harpur, Borowiecki

If we could get a top pairing RHD, then we might have a decent defense. Wish we had the willingness to spend money. If you're going to trade EK, Subban would have been perfect. But no, we had to "rebuild"

There's no excuse to not have at least one decent vet D on this team with the current money they're spending. It would go such a long way.

Losing EK is one thing, but not getting one real top-4 guy with experience to patch things up well, that's plain stupid.

We'll never know but San Jose could have been offering Braun in the Karlsson return, but Melnyk didn't "like it"

We need to stop putting bbby Ryan out there when we need a goal. He’s simply not that guy for us.

Even though the sample size makes it so hard to talk about anything really, among the 12 Sens forwards (not counting Carey and McCormick who barely played) Ryan is :

- 6th in TOI/GP
- 5th in Pts/60 at ES
- 4th in primary Pts/60 at ES
- 6th in Individual Expected Goals For per 60
- 7th in SF/60
- 5th in GF/60
- 7th in xGF/60

Not a spectacular start of the season by any means but Ryan hasn't been the worst, nothing indicates that he has been a blackhole offensively like you seem to suggest. Duchene and Stone have been even less effective.
The Formenton-Tierney-Ryan line is really bad though, probably the worst combination the coaching staff could come up with outside of including any of Pyatt, Paajarvi and unfortunately White.

As for the game last night against the Flyers, Natural Stat trick reveals that Ryan (ES) was on the ice for 7 SCF and 7 SCA, but 5 HDSCF and 2 HDSCA and another 2 high danger chances and 2 regular scoring chances on the PP (where Ryan was the most effective last night)

His game will never be perfect and he will never play the way that some people would like because he is a pure skill/finesse guy, which is hard to play in this league nowadays. You need speed, strength, aggressiveness, etc so pure finesse guys like Ryan and Spezza will be way less effective.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Notes :

Like some have suggested, that penalty to Dzingel gave the momentum away. Sens looked like the better team 5 on 5 but the Flyers were able to build momentum with their dangerous PP

We need better goaltending and better team defense. People tend to focus on D-men but team defense is a commitment from all 5 skaters on the ice. Stupid penalties, lack of attention to details, softness at defending... all things that are avoidable. Sens beat themselves last night (outside of that stupid momentum changer penalty to Dzingel)

That being said, at ES :

SF/SA : 21-21
CF/CA : 43-43
SCF/SCA : 23-22
HDSCF/HDSCA : 10-8

All strengths :

SF/SA : 35-45
CF/CA : 64-71
SCF/SCA : 33-32
HDSCF/HDSCA : 19-14

It suggests that despite losing the score, shots count and even the corsi battle, the Sens still had the better scoring chances. They could have won that game with better goaltending and more attention to details on the defensive side of the puck.

Speaking of goaltending, our goalies have been outplayed 3 times in 4 games so far (I'll keep track of it this season)



I thought Ceci had a really strong game. Funny how he looks much more competent playing "only" 19:33 and with a good partner (Lajoie). Like Micklebot mentioned, at Even Strength, he had the 3rd best CF% on the team, 5th best SF%, 5th best SCF% and 7th best HDSCF%

Boro and Wideman have been really bad so far this season. DeMelo did well but as you can see tonight, a really bad penalty and a really bad pinch that created a goal against (the 3rd one). I think he'd be fine on the 3rd pair but might be another guy played outside of his capacities.

Ideally :

1st pair : Chabot, Casper the ghost.
2nd pair : Lajoie, Ceci
3rd pair : DeMelo, Wideman, Harpur, Borowiecki

If we could get a top pairing RHD, then we might have a decent defense. Wish we had the willingness to spend money. If you're going to trade EK, Subban would have been perfect. But no, we had to "rebuild"



We'll never know but San Jose could have been offering Braun in the Karlsson return, but Melnyk didn't "like it"



Even though the sample size makes it so hard to talk about anything really, among the 12 Sens forwards (not counting Carey and McCormick who barely played) Ryan is :

- 6th in TOI/GP
- 5th in Pts/60 at ES
- 4th in primary Pts/60 at ES
- 6th in Individual Expected Goals For per 60
- 7th in SF/60
- 5th in GF/60
- 7th in xGF/60

Not a spectacular start of the season by any means but Ryan hasn't been the worst, nothing indicates that he has been a blackhole offensively like you seem to suggest. Duchene and Stone have been even less effective.
The Formenton-Tierney-Ryan line is really bad though, probably the worst combination the coaching staff could come up with outside of including any of Pyatt, Paajarvi and unfortunately White.

As for the game last night against the Flyers, Natural Stat trick reveals that Ryan (ES) was on the ice for 7 SCF and 7 SCA, but 5 HDSCF and 2 HDSCA and another 2 high danger chances and 2 regular scoring chances on the PP (where Ryan was the most effective last night)

His game will never be perfect and he will never play the way that some people would like because he is a pure skill/finesse guy, which is hard to play in this league nowadays. You need speed, strength, aggressiveness, etc so pure finesse guys like Ryan and Spezza will be way less effective.

well ok.. I still don't think he should out there when we need a goal.. no jump no urgency. yeah during the duration of a hockey game or a couple games he will create some things.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Ceci has taken a huge step forward so far.

dude, when

 

[swiftwin]

dude, when

In the 4 games so far this season.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

In the 4 games so far this season.

heres the thing... ill hate... but in my head im like " look lets give him a little more than 4 games here to take the step" but don't tell me hes been good first four games here lmao.

 

[swiftwin]

heres the thing... ill hate... but in my head im like " look lets give him a little more than 4 games here to take the step" but don't tell me hes been good first four games here lmao.

Last night, unblocked shots at EV were 17-9 in his favor despite being matched up against Philly's top line. He was also the only defenseman that didn't allow a goal against at EV, again, in spite of being matched up against their top line.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Formenton left the game 15 mins into the 2nd.

Dis not realize at the time of my post .. thanks

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

In the 4 games so far this season.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Last night, unblocked shots at EV were 17-9 in his favor despite being matched up against Philly's top line. He was also the only defenseman that didn't allow a goal against at EV, again, in spite of being matched up against their top line.

so its been one game. not four .. why are you willing to say hes taken a step forward after 1 game. im saying he sucks based on 5 YEARS>