Post-Game Talk: In Soviet Ottawa, Goals Score You! Sens 6 Habs 3

[NyQuil]

I think it's pretty clear that Montreal had an off-night. Some of those mistakes were pretty uncharacteristic.

Blaming Price for the goal where Dadonov received a pass from Anisimov behind the net and basically one-timed it past the goalie with no defensive coverage whatsoever is pretty typical though.

Price doesn't seem to be great all the time against us, but I don't think Allen would have fared any better with the quality of some of those chances. Price made some pretty big stops to keep it close from time to time as well.

In any event, Toffoli and Anderson showed up and it was still almost enough.

The shots weren't necessarily flattering to Ottawa but the Habs spent more time on the PP in general and at some pretty key times in the game.

I think what the Montreal media and some fans struggled to understand in some of the pre-game coverage I listened to was that Ottawa had played one of its worst games since that horrendous start of the season in our match-up earlier this week. Maybe the Montreal players got caught napping as well because of how easy that game went.

Ultimately it was sort of an expected result with each team mailing it in for one of the games.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Gud got beat wide by Gallagher at one point in very traditional fashion but it didn't cost us.

Coburn cost us a PP goal with a penalty (make-up call?).

If the result were different, you might see the typical reaction.

In general though, I do agree with the general premise that fans spend a lot of time pointing fingers at 4th liners and 3rd pairing defencemen when they don't have the most significant impact on the final result of the game.

Gudbranson bothered me a lot more when he was playing a lot more minutes and with much better partners.

I find brown gets beat a little less than gudbranson

 

[NyQuil]

I find brown gets beat a little less than gudbranson

I'm going to try and pay a little more attention to the play of all of our d-men in the next few games.

 

[swiftwin]

Zub had one of his best games of the season

Zub had one of his worst games this season.

 

[Big Muddy]

I find brown gets beat a little less than gudbranson

I'm going to try and pay a little more attention to the play of all of our d-men in the next few games.

I was watching Gudbranson closely last night. When Montreal was on the rush, they frequently got behind him pretty quickly. He would realize he was getting beat and would pivot and turn (from skating backwards) and would get even further behind (& tripped once). He's good on the boards and clears the front of the net, and sticks up for his team mates, but skating and foot speed are an issue for him. He's a character guy, but if they decide to get a veteran defender as a stop gap again next year, hopefully they will find someone better.

 

[Bileur]

I was watching Gudbranson closely last night. When Montreal was on the rush, they frequently got behind him pretty quickly. He would realize he was getting beat and would pivot and turn (from skating backwards) and would get even further behind (& tripped once). He's good on the boards and clears the front of the net, and sticks up for his team mates, but skating and foot speed are an issue for him. He's a character guy, but if they decide to get a veteran defender as a stop gap again next year, hopefully they will find someone better.

The odd thing on the rush is that he doesn’t seem to change his angles to adjust to various oncoming forwards. Seems to always have a gap too big for him to close with his poor skating.

 

[Big Muddy]

The odd thing on the rush is that he doesn’t seem to change his angles to adjust to various oncoming forwards. Seems to always have a gap too big for him to close with his poor skating.

Ya, I was going to write about bad angles as well, but stopped short of that (kept the post shorter).

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Zub had one of his worst games this season.

With you on this one. Reilly-gud was scrambling

 

[Micklebot]

I'm going to try and pay a little more attention to the play of all of our d-men in the next few games.

Brown is a much better skater imo, but Gudbranson is more physical and seems to make better reads. When Gud gets beat it for some reason seems more obvious but I'm not so sure he gets beat more often. Worth keeping an eye out for it.

 

[Chabot84]

That was a big win. Too bad we couldn’t win both games against MTL. Hopefully the boys will be fired up now. Pretty tough stretch here with the next 6 games against WPG, EDM and TOR.

 

[Chabot84]

I really have a feeling MTL isn’t a lock for the playoffs. They are being propped up by OT losses and have a tougher schedule moving forward. They can’t be dropping points to Ottawa. Obviously Vancouver is a huge question mark right now with their situation. They would be my pick over Calgary under normal circumstances here.

If Ottawa could do some damage over the next 6 games against WPG, TOR and EDM (unlikely) the standings could start looking a lot different in a short amount of time.

as their next seven games would be against MTL, Calgary and Vancouver*

followed by another 2 games against MTL.

 

[albator71]

Wouldn't you rather see optimistic posts than negative ones for a change, or do people on here live just to shit on the team & management & hope they are bad every game to prove they know better.

Bingo! thats exactly what it is. Every damn time we win a game its because they other team had an off night, its never because we were the better team that night! It's getting exhausting, that I dont come here as often as I use too.

 

[NyQuil]

Every damn time we win a game its because they other team had an off night, its never because we were the better team that night!

It's usually some combination of both.

For what it's worth, I thought -we- had an off-night in our loss against the Habs earlier this week after that second goal early in the 2nd. 1st period was pretty decent.

I mean, isn't that being positive about a loss?

 

[aragorn]

I was watching Gudbranson closely last night. When Montreal was on the rush, they frequently got behind him pretty quickly. He would realize he was getting beat and would pivot and turn (from skating backwards) and would get even further behind (& tripped once). He's good on the boards and clears the front of the net, and sticks up for his team mates, but skating and foot speed are an issue for him. He's a character guy, but if they decide to get a veteran defender as a stop gap again next year, hopefully they will find someone better.

Wait until you see J. Brown on a regular basis next yr & then we can see how people feel about him. He has another yr on his contract so I imagine he will be in the lineup to start the yr, but I doubt that will last very long. This team needs the young guys to mature quickly & I'm not sure they have enough depth on defence to do much better than this yr unless they add a couple of UFA defencemen. The guys available & that would come here for only a yr are not going to be that much better than what we have now IMO, we'll see of course.

 

[Big Muddy]

Wait until you see J. Brown on a regular basis next yr & then we can see how people feel about him. He has another yr on his contract so I imagine he will be in the lineup to start the yr, but I doubt that will last very long. This team needs the young guys to mature quickly & I'm not sure they have enough depth on defence to do much better than this yr unless they add a couple of UFA defencemen. The guys available & that would come here for only a yr are not going to be that much better than what we have now IMO, we'll see of course.

I'm hoping we don't see Josh Brown on a regular basis next year actually. I'd put Brown & Gudbranson in the same boat.

No idea what Ottawa will do this offseason to address the blueline next year. Their young prospects are the future no doubt, but I can see where a stop gap could be necessary in the meantime.

You are right in that one-year contracts aren't going to motivate the better free agent defenders that are typically available (in a typical year). The last offseason I would say was an outlier or exception though given the league-wide COVID economics. Not sure how quickly most owners will start spending again given that revenue has been significantly reduced over the last 2 years. So, maybe that provides some more potential upside for the Senators again.

They might have to bite the bullet and offer a longer (versus a "long") contract.

 

[Micklebot]

Bingo! thats exactly what it is. Every damn time we win a game its because they other team had an off night, its never because we were the better team that night! It's getting exhausting, that I dont come here as often as I use too.

Isn't them having an off night and us winning as a result basically a subset of us being the better team that night?

I feel like in the Venn diagram of reasons for us winning, there'd be a lot of overlap here...

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Isn't them having an off night and us winning as a result basically a subset of us being the better team that night?

I feel like in the Venn diagram of reasons for us winning, there'd be a lot of overlap here...

I don't think a Venn diagram helps here.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Brown is worse than Gudbranson.

Which is rather distressing.

However he'll likely be here next year and will probably play a bit more regularly with Gudranson gone (let's hope another team makes a good offer for him) and that might help his confidence. With the being, hopefully, better; he might not be so bad.

 

[aragorn]

I find brown gets beat a little less than gudbranson

Could that be because Gudbranson has played 20 more games than J. Brown?

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Could that be because Gudbranson has played 20 more games than J. Brown?

It could be that both are bad and we should have to pick one or the other

 

[aragorn]

It could be that both are bad and we should have to pick one or the other

I think they did that when they gave J. Brown a second yr on his contract whether that is the correct move remains to be seen, but I expect him to be the scapegoat on here next yr, if he plays much.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

I think they did that when they gave J. Brown a second yr on his contract whether that is the correct move remains to be seen, but I expect him to be the scapegoat on here next yr, if he plays much.

Sorry I meant we shouldn’t have to pick on or the other. The fact we have both is pretty insane

 

[JD1]

I think they'll sign Zub, roll with Zaitsev and Zub in the top 4 and look to rotate JBD in for 40ish games, starting out in the A

 

[Micklebot]

I think they'll sign Zub, roll with Zaitsev and Zub in the top 4 and look to rotate JBD in for 40ish games, starting out in the A

It will be interesting to see what we do, a right side of Zaitsev, Zub, JBD doesn't offer much in terms of size and physicality, something DJ seems to like and i think we targetted this offseason. Couple that with Chabot and Brannstrom on the left, i can't see us not looking to insert a big guy somewhere in the lineup. That guy might be J.Brown as he is under contract, maybe we trade or sign a big bodied LHD.

 

[GCK]

Brown is a much better skater imo, but Gudbranson is more physical and seems to make better reads. When Gud gets beat it for some reason seems more obvious but I'm not so sure he gets beat more often. Worth keeping an eye out for it.

Brown has far better mobility and is better than Gudbranson with the puck, low bar. Brown only has 107 NHL games and the lack of experience shows. Brown is a good 7/8 D to have on the roster but he does get lost sometimes in coverage.