Matt Duchene Appreciation Thread

[Engineer]

Thanks for coming in and taking us from 11th in the league on Nov 5th, to 31st by the end of the season.

Your lacklustre play and 10 games without a point were a major factor.

 

[saskriders]

I think they said during the broadcast last night that he was the third fastest Senator to 100 points. Even if we are in an higher scoring era compared to most of our history it is impressive nonthelnone, especially considering how bad a team we are. I wonder who the first two were. Heatley and Yashin?

 

[SPF6ty9]

Has anyone read the piece from former NHLer Marc Savard.....he has the strongest impression that Matt is gone for now, but will be back as a UFA with Ottawa. He seems pretty convinced. I want to add that in the exit interviews last night, Matt also said that we will see what will change by summer with the stability of this franchise....maybe, and here is hoping, that there will be some addition of new partners and this will create stability and cash and Matt makes a ltd with us......fingers crossed.

I think Marc is just flying by the seat of his pants and he's given more of a forum to do so because he guessed right on Duchene going to Columbus. Reality is, there's about 50 reasons for him not to come back against 2 potential positives: maybe he likes the city and it's close to his family. If Dorion and Melnyk keep playing hardball with bonus structures that Duchene could easily get elsewhere then I'll say there's 0 chance he comes back.

 

[swiftwin]

Atleast he gave us this gem to remember him by:



That song is too perfect for our situation. It should have been the song used in his tribute video.

 

[Mark Stones Spleen]

Here's hoping Dorion's master plan was to convince Stone, Duchene, Karlsson and Dzingel to get traded but not extend, and then re-sign in Ottawa after the draft...

Sounds like something Eklund would dream up...

I had that dream a couple times too

 

[JungleBeat]

Best centre we ever had.

Spezza.

 

[billpo]

I always like Duchene .. Would have been fantastic to keep Karlsson, Hoffman, Stone, Dzingel and Duchene and tweak, improve the D with 1 acquisition, bring Chabot up maybe get a 1 physical bottom six player that could skate , get a coach that wouldn't play Pyatt ahead of everyone else and see what we could have done.

Just a terrible way to run a NHL team. Cannot be stressed enough.

Sorry to see him go.

you are sooo right...

 

[R2010]

Spezza.

It isn’t even close either. Spezza dragged Michalek and Greening around he ice

 

[Sensmileletsgo]

It isn’t even close either. Spezza dragged Michalek and Greening around he ice

And was 4th in league scoring that year to I believe. To bad for his back.

 

[ReginKarlssonLehner]

Hopefully he re-signs in CLB and gives us that 1st rounder next year.

 

[aragorn]

Very good offensive player, too bad it came to this but it is what it is & the rebuild is in full swing. Owner is a dickhead.

 

[JD1]

Hopefully he re-signs in CLB and gives us that 1st rounder next year.

hopefully lebreton and the ownership get sorted out and he re-signs here

 

[trentmccleary]

Best centre we ever had.

Put Duchene between Alfie and Heatley and who knows what could have happened with his speed. We had Duchene during two losing (horrible) seasons and look what he accomplished.

What happens if you put him between McEchern and Dackell? Does he put up 44 goals and 94 pts in a year where goal scoring was significantly less than it is today?

Look at Yashin and Spezza's production compared to their peers, Duchene is 35th in scoring, Yashin was 6th in 98-99, Spezza was 6th in 07-08. Heck, Spezza was 4th in scoring in 11-12 with Greening and Michalek as his linemates.

Here's a list of former Senators by era-adjusted 2 best consecutive years in Ottawa pro-rated to 82 games.
These aren't Spezza or Alfredsson's best seasons as Senators, but they were great seasons outside of the CASH line era.

Player 2yr	GP	G	A	Pts	PPG
Heatley 06-07	82	51	53	104	1.27
Yashin 99-01	82	48	54	102	1.24
Alfie 03-04	82	37	58	95	1.16
Hossa 03-04	82	47	47	94	1.15
Spezza 11-12	82	36	54	90	1.10
Havlat 03-04	82	38	49	87	1.06
Stone 18-19	82	34	52	86	1.05
Bonk 01-02	82	28	47	75	0.91
McEachern 00-01	82	36	37	73	0.89
Hoffman 16-17	82	33	39	72	0.88
Duchene 18-19	82	33	36	69	0.84
Turris 14-15	82	28	40	68	0.83
White 02-03	82	26	37	63	0.77
Ryan 15-16	82	23	40	63	0.77
Fisher 07-08	82	27	29	56	0.68

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[OmniSens]

Here's a list of former Senators by era-adjusted 2 best consecutive years in Ottawa pro-rated to 82 games.
These aren't Spezza or Alfredsson's best seasons as Senators, but they were great seasons outside of the CASH line era.

Player 2yr	GP	G	A	Pts	PPG
Heatley 06-07	82	51	53	104	1.27
Yashin 99-01	82	48	54	102	1.24
Alfie 03-04	82	37	58	95	1.16
Hossa 03-04	82	47	47	94	1.15
Spezza 11-12	82	36	54	90	1.10
Havlat 03-04	82	38	49	87	1.06
Stone 18-19	82	34	52	86	1.05
Bonk 01-02	82	28	47	75	0.91
McEachern 00-01	82	36	37	73	0.89
Hoffman 16-17	82	33	39	72	0.88
Duchene 18-19	82	33	36	69	0.84
Turris 14-15	82	28	40	68	0.83
White 02-03	82	26	37	63	0.77
Ryan 15-16	82	23	40	63	0.77
Fisher 07-08	82	27	29	56	0.68

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Just about all of these are in a winning era while Duchene did it with a bottom 3 ranked team in the league. Whilst doing so after a very long 20~ game adjusting time period.

 

[NyQuil]

I would put him below Yashin and Spezza but above Bonk, White, Turris and Fisher in the hallowed halls of Senators centremen.

Fun to watch, great individual skills.

Godspeed Matt!

 

[GoGoSens]

I wish him luck but he never fit this team.

Time for us to move on

I cant wait to see Jack Hughes as a Sen!!

oh wait.

 

[Blotto71]

I was always torn on Duchene. Great player, fun to watch...but I always felt that the Sens had overpaid for him and that he disrupted the room. Given the state of the franchise I'm glad he got moved over getting a contract that we would all argue about in 5 years. Had others that were moved before him been retained I think he would have been a great Sen.

 

[R2010]

Duchene was a good player but didn't improve his linemates around him substantially. He would be below Spezza/Yashin but above Turris/Fisher/White/Bonk.

His individual skills were high end but other teams weren't needing to develop game plans to try and contain him like they were with Spezza. I also don't seem him as a defensive upgrade over Spezza - similar D-skills.

 

[Guns n Roses]

Spezza.

Spezza was a turnover machine playing with much better players. No.

 

[Sun God Nika]

Spezza was a turnover machine playing with much better players. No.

lol

 

[Boud]

Look at his numbers back then, he was always a league turnover leader amongst centers. Big doofus loved partying in the Kanata pubs, loved his nose candy.

League turnover leaders amongst Centers are always very good players...

This season:
Matt Barzal
Dylan Larkin
Evgeni Malkin
Ryan Getzlaf

Look through the seasons and the turnover leaders are for the most part elite players because they're the only ones who play enough and have the puck on their stick enough that they obviously give it away more often.

And the second part has nothing to do with Spezza being better than Duchene.... That's just you showing that you're biased

 

[Guns n Roses]

League turnover leaders amongst Centers are always very good players...

This season:
Matt Barzal
Dylan Larkin
Evgeni Malkin
Ryan Getzlaf

Look through the seasons and the turnover leaders are for the most part elite players because they're the only ones who play enough and have the puck on their stick enough that they obviously give it away more often.

And the second part has nothing to do with Spezza being better than Duchene.... That's just you showing that you're biased

Spezza was a guy that you would expect to cough up the puck constantly and he did. His risky passing style was brutal at times. All and all he was a very good centerman but I prefer Duchene’s playing style.