GDT: Game 19 | Senators vs Flyers | Who's Bad? Edition Part 2 | 7:30pm TSN5, RDS2

[Burrowsaurus]

Will our PP continue to be THE WORST PP IVe EVER SEEN??

The answer was yes

 

[Back in Black]

Another fine Win by the mighty SENS.

Bring on the slugs tonight!

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

White fail to clear the zone about 3 times yikes

True but on the bright side he did battle to regain possession 3 times in that long shift in their end. Should have had it out though.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Great PK to close out the game.

 

[GCK]

I am getting a little concerned about the lack of forecheck once the team got the lead. Almost felt a little Boucher-ish

 

[Alex1234]

True but on the bright side he did battle to regain possession 3 times in that long shift in their end. Should have had it out though.

He’s still learning
Needs a little bit more strength for puck battle on the boards but Im confident it will come with time

 

[tardigrade81]

So let me get this straight. 7-3 in our last 10. Beat a damn decent Flyers team and Nilsson was spectacular again.

I don’t know what to think anymore. I WANT THE CUP!!!!!

sorry. I got way too excited. But still it’s cool to see.

 

[Xspyrit]

.958 in front of that roster is just miraculous

Nilsson has 0.925% and Anderson 0.893%

People talk a lot about that "roster" but it's actually maybe not as bad as they'd like to think... If it was, they wouldn't have a 8-10-1 record

Thankfully, there's a lot of parity in this league and most teams will be in a race all year and hopefully will remain in front of Ottawa in the 0.500-0.600 P% range.

Let us be honest now, we still kinda suck.

I'd say we are trending towards average which is really not ideal when you need a Lafreniere or Byfield. I mean, they really need it. There's a ton of quality forwards/prospects already but they will really need at the very least one elite forward if the plan is to become a contender and win a freaking Cup. But if you want to just to become a playoffs contender, then in the end it's much cheaper, so the ownership is happy.

Long way to go yet.

But it's really good for us long-term to have a team culture of working hard all game. It's still in the early stages of getting it down every night, but we'll need it down the road if we want to do anything in the playoffs.

I know, you're right but "grinding" wins doesn't accomplish much. It's like the 2012-13 lock-out team when some of the best players were injured (Spezza, Karlsson, Michalek). IIRC the only proven talent left were Gonchar and Alfredsson who were 38 y/o and 40 y/o. PROBLEM IS, there's no Spezza, Karlsson, Michalek coming back from injury this time....

Still a lot of hockey to be played but imagine : totally sucking for 2-3 years, trading all your best established players for futures, and all you end up with is Tkachuk, Thomson and a ~10th OA. That would really suck.

What are you talking about? It's actually turning into the best case scenario where we squeeze into playoffs, win Stanley cup and draft Lafreniere with SJ pick.

lol win the Stanley Cup...Blue collar teams don't win Stanley Cups. Reminds me of the Habs a few years ago, big lack of talent but always the hardest working team on the ice. Even today, often less talent than the other team but can outwork them easily. It's great, I mean they have more talent than before, but I'm not really excited if our destiny is to become the Habs 2.0

There was hope that SJ would have a bad season but they are already turning it around. Hertl and Meier are very good young players. Burns doesn't want to decline, Karlsson wants to turn his career around, Evander Kane looks like he wants to have a career season... Pavelski is gone, Thornton, Marleau and Vlasic have declined but it won't be enough for them to end bottom-5

Getting a little ahead of yourself there bud.

You mean there's still a lot of hockey to be played? Sure, but they are 8-10-1 and there's a few games they could have won too, so it kinda makes me nervous because they really need a killer 2020 draft if they want to "complete" that rebuild. And with SJ turning their season around, getting two 10-20th OA pick is great but isn't any really different than the ton of prospects we already have. They'd have to hit major homeruns ala Karlsson/Chabot/Stone but those were during the Murray era.

 

[tardigrade81]

Last year should show though that making playoffs anything can happen. Are we cup contenders. No absolutely not. But who picked
The Blue Jackets to sweep Tampa, and they were up 2-0 at one point against the Bruins. Carolina made it to the conf finals. I’m not saying Ottawa has a chance at beating the Bruins, but if they keep producing offensively and Nilsson keeps up this play we could steal a series. I know we are all for the tank, but honestly making playoffs again and even making it to the second round would be fun as hell to watch.

Granted if it means we suck again next year then I don’t want it. This team is looking like an average team with good goaltending but it’s still very early in the season. They already look way better than the first couple weeks of the season. Maybe they will keep getting better as the season goes?

 

[Ice-Tray]

Year another sweet game. Conor Brown is one heck of a hockey player. I can’t believe that we got him and Zaitsev, AND got rid of Ceci, all for nothing!

 

[Samsquanch]

lol win the Stanley Cup...Blue collar teams don't win Stanley Cups.

.....

 

[krapsik]

Wild card spot is 6 points away. 3/4 season to go. Scrue the tank.

 

[Cosmix]

I do like Connor Brown

He has risen in my view to the level of decent bottom 6 player, good third liner. I like his hustle and speed.

 

[Cosmix]

Wtf is wrong with chabot

Over-confident, lacking in judgement, risky play-making, playing beyond his capabilities at this time and level.

Hopefully he learns from his mistakes as there have been quite a few of them.

 

[Cosmix]

Which player is 81? He is pretty slow.

He is one of the GM's prize UFA acquisitions this summer!

 

[Cosmix]

Yes, he isn't all that great of a player. Mediocre at best. But he doesnt deserve the hate he gets.

Yes, Ennis is a good 5th line player.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Say what you will about Ennis, but the guy is a relentless forchecker and is constantly creating chances out of nothing but hard work and net drive.

 

[Cosmix]

Bad shift by White.

I am hoping to see a very good one some day soon.

 

[Cosmix]

Say what you will about Ennis, but the guy is a relentless forchecker and is constantly creating chances out of nothing but hard work and net drive.

I like his speed and hustle but it pretty well ends there.

 

[Ice-Tray]

I like his speed and hustle but it pretty well ends there.

Well he does creat a lot of chances, he just tends not to be able to finish. Of course he does lead us in PP goals which is pretty clutch for this team at the moment! Haha.

Honestly though, I think one of our strengths this year is that we’re on the puck so fast and relentlessly that opposing teams struggle to make plays, especially on opposition zone exits. He does a very good job at this.

This team gems other teams in like we haven’t been able to do in years, and at this stage it’s all due to hard work. At some point we’ll replace Ennis with a player that has the same relentlessness, but with more skill, and we’ll reap the benefits.

 

[Cosmix]

Well he does creat a lot of chances, he just tends not to be able to finish. Of course he does lead us in PP goals which is pretty clutch for this team at the moment! Haha.

Honestly though, I think one of our strengths this year is that we’re on the puck so fast and relentlessly that opposing teams struggle to make plays, especially on opposition zone exits. He does a very good job at this.

This team gems other teams in like we haven’t been able to do in years, and at this stage it’s all due to hard work. At some point we’ll replace Ennis with a player that has the same relentlessness, but with more skill, and we’ll reap the benefits.

I like the fact that Smith encourages if not demands a strong O-Zone forecheck as that helps reduce D-Zone time and cuts down on shots against and resulting goals against. Fire wagon style hockey is a lot more fun to watch than the neutral zone nap we had to watch under Boucher.

 

[SpezDispenser]

Philly doesn't look good either. Perpetual tweener it looks like.

 

[Ice-Tray]

I like the fact that Smith encourages if not demands a strong O-Zone forecheck as that helps reduce D-Zone time and cuts down on shots against and resulting goals against. Fire wagon style hockey is a lot more fun to watch than the neutral zone nap we had to watch under Boucher.

Absolutely, funny being able to even enjoy watching the team lose games, well, you know what I mean...