Post-Game Talk: Kings @ Sens Dec. 11. Phillips Falls A Lot Edition

[MtRundle]

Doughty made the same mistakes as Karlsson tonight. Ferraro has a bone to pick with Karlsson for whatever reason. LA's second goal sure Karlsson tried to jump up and missed the puck but he was back to make a play, Ceci should have been on his guy, but Ferraro just blasts Karlsson.

Karlsson still pinches at inopportune times, and it does burn him. Room for improvement thats all

 

[pepty]

Christopher Neil is week to week. Injured knee.

Tragic.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

But why do we keep doing it. It clearly isn't working; he's just not top 4 material anymore. Wiercioch or Boro are upgrades the way he's playing.

Maybe playing 14 mins a night, he wouldn't get fatigued and make the mental mistakes, but 20+ mins just doesn't work.

I honestly have no idea why we do it.

 

[BonkTastic]

The Bad:
-Every defenceman not named Cowen, Boro and Ceci

Didn't like Ceci's game much at all tonight. Made a lot of bad decisions, IMO.

He's a young defenceman, so I expect him to have up and down games, but I thought tonight was a down for him. Still displayed good skill, but he had 4 or 5 bad brainfarts that were pretty obvious.

 

[Alex1234]

Christopher Neil is week to week. Injured knee.

what about christopher phillips?

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Oh ya, Greening. Guy was decent tonight.

Greening is a smart dude. Play hard in a contract year, then go on cruise control. New coach? Play hard for a few games to re-secure spot on the roster, then go back to cruise control. There seems to be quite a few guys around the league like that.

 

[Benjamin]

It would be interesting to see the coach challenge Karlsson to play one game playing low risk and mostly defensive hockey.

 

[Sun God Nika]

what about christopher phillips?

Keep him, we need a top draft pick badly.

 

[Derivation]

Everyone boycott Big Rig Bar and Grill until Phillips is off the team.

 

[Baby Ryan]

Didn't like Ceci's game much at all tonight. Made a lot of bad decisions, IMO.

He's a young defenceman, so I expect him to have up and down games, but I thought tonight was a down for him. Still displayed good skill, but he had 4 or 5 bad brainfarts that were pretty obvious.

I thought he was alright, but it might have been in contrast to our other RH Defencemen who were god awful tonight.

 

[Micklebot]

I honestly have no idea why we do it.

 

[Alex1234]

Ryan is special

bust his ash off every single shift

 

[Quo]

Phillips was bad tonight. No lie. I thought I saw him bumped from the top pairing relatively early again in favour of Boro though.

 

[h2]

Actually I bet if Phillips went to LA he would play on the third pairing and be pretty decent, it's not like LA actually needs him though. I mean 20+ minutes a night for Phillips? I feel bad for him to be put in such a position actually.

I disagree with everything you said. Phillips just isn't good anymore. His problems would persist on any defensive pairing. He has no place in the NHL right now. Absolutely none.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Phillips was bad tonight. No lie. I thought I saw him bumped from the top pairing relatively early again in favour of Boro though.

I think it was because he just got off the PK

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I disagree with everything you said. Phillips just isn't good anymore. His problems would persist on any defensive pairing. He has no place in the NHL right now. Absolutely none.

Fair enough. I think he'd be fine playing Mcnabb's minutes.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

The unfortunate part about Phillips is that the majority of his turn overs are uncontested

 

[HavlatMach9]

i believe Regehr was playing poorly with the Sabres, then fared better with LA, i suppose the same thing would happen with Phillips

 

[h2]

Fair enough. I think he'd be fine playing Mcnabb's minutes.

Possibly, I'm not too familiar with MacNabb but he seemed like the one guy on LA's backend that we could single out and hope to capitalize with when he was on the ice.

 

[StefanW]

Didn't like Ceci's game much at all tonight. Made a lot of bad decisions, IMO.

He's a young defenceman, so I expect him to have up and down games, but I thought tonight was a down for him. Still displayed good skill, but he had 4 or 5 bad brainfarts that were pretty obvious.

I've noticed this in other recent games as well. He started the season off very well, but the last 10 games or so have been tough for him.

He's still a year or two ahead of where I figured he'd be.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Possibly, I'm not too familiar with MacNabb but he seemed like the one guy on LA's backend that we could single out and hope to capitalize with when he was on the ice.

It would be a nice experiment. Fans get their wish of having Phillips gone, and we get to see how he would fare as a bottom pairing D on a good team.

 

[Senscore]

Almost 8 years of Bryan Murray and this is the team we have.

 

[h2]

It would be a nice experiment. Fans get their wish of having Phillips gone, and we get to see how he would fare as a bottom pairing D on a good team.

Agreed. The thing with MacNabb, even if he sucks like Phillips, at least he goes out and hits people so he contributes in some regard.

 

[BonkTastic]

I'm sad Phillips couldn't keep up his early-season streak of good play.

I don't even think it's a skill thing anymore - the guy looks terrified to make even simple plays. Over-thinking even basic things like poke-checks. He's in his own head so deep, I'm not sure he can get out of it.

It's even more perplexing, because Phillips often makes some really good plays in the course of a game. He's a positive on the ice for like 70% of his shifts... but then those other 30%? Whoo boy. They are absolute DOOZIES. Totally overshadows the good he brings, because what are you going to remember more: the couple of times he makes crisp passes up two lines to a streaking forward, or the time he falls in his own zone to create a 3-on-1? Are you going to remember him standing up a winger coming into our zone and isolating him to let his partner collect a free puck, or the time he trips over his skates on our powerplay at the blueline and allows a shorthanded breakaway?

He still has the skill to be a decent 4-5-6 defenceman in the league, but the guy just kills himself on what should be the easy stuff. The EASY stuff. You never really see him make bad decisions in tough, pressure situations, but he ALWAYS turns harmless plays into back-breakers against us.

I think a change of scenery actually could really be useful for him. Send him somewhere where he has no history and can fade into the background of a dressing room and just be a support veteran guy. Get him away from Ottawa, and he can probably salvage the back end of his career into something more respectful than the way it probably plays itself out here.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

Almost 8 years of Bryan Murray and this is the team we have.

Looks like a team that's 30th in spending to me. I've criticized him in the past but it's like there is much flexibility for him to do anything.