Ottawa vs Montreal next season
- Thread starter Kamiccolo
- Start date
Micklebot
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- Apr 27, 2010
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Technically, the reports are still, Karlsson might not be ready for opening night.
Wrt whether or not Ottawa is better or worse than last year; they've upgraded up front compared to the start of last year:
- MacArthur is expected to play the whole season (within reason) as opposed to just the final 4 games
- Neil's roster spot has been essentially filled with Burrows.
- Kelly, who was arguably the worst regular player in the league last year, has been replaced with Thompson.
Dzingel will have a year of experience under his belt, but if he, or anyone else for that matter, falters, White is likely the first in line, which is much better than last year when our first callup was the likes of Varone, McCormick, or Bailey.
Ottawa has a couple other factors that could see them improve;
- Ryan had numerous injures to his hands that he played through, which for a player like him is a big issue. He's gotten some new gloves that are supposed to protect his fingers better, and will hopefully drastically reduce the chances of him having hand injuries this year.
- Brassard had one of the worst years of his career in terms of production, but his underlying numbers were actually pretty good. Looks like a good candidate for a bounce back, and while he's currently on the shelf from offseason surgery, he's said he believes he is ahead of schedule.
- Ottawa implemented a drastic change in it's system under Boucher, and it took about till the new year before they were up to speed. This year, there shouldn't be any learning curve to start the year.
The only loss is Methot, and whatever the difference in games played by Karlsson turns out to be (he played all 82 the prior three years, so it wouldn't be unheard of for him to miss say 5 games to start the year and not miss another one all year, in which case the net difference from last year to this one would be nil).
Methot's loss is mitigated by the additions of Chabot and Oduya; Neither will provide the same shutdown physical presence that Methot did, but Chabot provides a lot more offense, and Oduya could work out well if his skating holds up (he was hampered all year with an ankle issue that really affected his skating).
Personally, I see Ottawa as well set up to perform at least as well as last year, though they may have to perform better to get the same results in the standings because of how badly teams like Florida and Tbay underperformed. If Chabot excels, Ottawa could be a very strong team.
Xspyrit
DJ Dorion
Luckily for Ottawa, they have never been as rich in D-men prospects...
Chabot, Harpur, Claesson, Jaros, Englund are all ready or close and all have top-4 potential, even star potential in Chabot's case. Chabot, Harpur and Jaros are going to be the best of the bunch IMO.
Claesson and Karlsson played together last year and they have been dynamite so far. You can feel the swedish connection
