Sportsnet: Senators' year-end award winners: Tkachuk the MVP, Norris top rookie

[Pierre from Orleans]

Mostly agree with this list.

Brown is getting the shaft on many of these lists. He's 2nd on the team in TOI among forwards, leads the team in goals (despite not being on the PP), is a phenom on the PK, and is overall an outstanding vet and mentor for the kids. I'd even put Brown as the #2, clearly ahead of Tkachuk.

He averages 1.20 toi of pp/game

 

[Xspyrit]

None of this changes my opinion, the team got better when the goaltending got better, it's blatantly obvious. Once they stopped allowing weak goals that deflated the team, it gave the team the opportunity to win. All of what you said regarding the coaches goes without saying, as they got more & more practices in they were able to improve on the system details, but none of it would have mattered without first keeping the puck out of their net & giving the team a chance to win every game.

They were better at home than away, next yr it could be the reverse, the goalies that helped this team win was not the two NHL goalies that started the yr, isn't that obvious? They eventually won some later mostly Murray but he still wasn't playing up to his contract & what they expected which is why he won't be protected.

Regarding Tkachuk, I know he is not the kind of player people on here like, but without him this team would be much worse. Chabot is a great player, but I would take Tkachuk over Chabot any day & why I think he deserves to be captain over Chabot. Stutzle is going to be a great player, again not exactly the type of player I like, I prefer the way Batherson & Norris play, they are both going to improve too, not just Stutzle. Elite I reserve more for guys like Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, Lidstrom, Bourque, Crosby, OV, McDavid, I think Stutzle has a way to go before calling him elite.

Yes but do you realize that you're saying that Murray and Hogberg went from "absolute trash" to "superstar/good" just like that, by turning on some kind of magical switch? Goalies don't suddenly save 0.53/0.74 more shots for no reason... I mean, maybe one of them could have "turned his game around" but both, and by THAT MUCH (do you realize how much 0.53/0.74 for a goalie SV% is?), at the SAME TIME (after April)? lol what a coincidence!

And when you add those facts to the other road vs home stats for EVERY SENS GOALIE (all + 0.24 to 0.44 at home), it's not very complicated to put the puzzle pieces together...

This site has all the condensed highlights :

Don't Tell Me The Score

I mean, I can't re-watch them for you. If you look at earlier games (on the road), you can see a NIGHT AND DAY difference in the way we defend the zone then vs now (April+), how much time and space we were giving up, how slow our defense was, how many deadly turnovers we were giving up in prime scoring areas, how many blown defensive coverage, etc. The overall team has improved a lot since (experience, speed, execution, etc) so we are not as caved in as much as we did early on. We were literally GIFT WRAPPING several goals against per game. Goalies have been much better since we have largely cut on that. It gave them a chance to do the job. When you're starting a game and the other team will get an automatic 3-4 goals, good luck.

Anyway, looks like you already made up your opinion. I have always liked you and even defended you when people were on your case with your (sometimes ridiculous) size bias, but regarding goaltending and "team defense", you are basically confirming me that I have to be very careful before granting you credibility on the subject. Sure, like the whole team, goalies weren't playing great to start the season and yes, they gave up some bad goals (all goalies do, look at the awful goals Hellebuyck gave up this season), but we weren't BLEEDING goals against simply because they were bad, it's a very simplistic and erroneous way to look at it.

But it's ok, anyone has the right to be "entitled" to their opinion... I'm not as surprised when I see people refuting cold straight facts, this pandemic kinda made me realize that some people see what they want to see, 2 + 2 = 4 doesn't matter.

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Regarding Murray's contract, yes it was risky because too expensive/too long right away. Dorion is pretty much a hit or miss GM, but it's another subject. All the contracts he gave to goalies were misses so far. But this has nothing to do with what we were discussing.

Regarding Tkachuk, never said the opposite, like I said he will have as much impact as the best players on the team. Both Tkachuk and Chabot are extemly hard to find. Tkachuk is an unicorn because he can play a power forward game within today's rules. But a smooth skating #1 D-man horse like Chabot is extremely valuable. A guy like Stutzle will also be extremely valuable. I love Tkachuk, it has nothing to do with that, but I can't see how he is going to be the "best player on the team by far" when there is Chabot and Stutzle. Yes he might be the best leader and captain but not sure why that would mean "best player". On this subject, it's more a matter of opinion at least. EDIT : I forgot Sanderson, another player that might be extremely good.

Finally, the players you named are generational, not just elite. It's semantics but if you need to be among the best of all time to be considered elite, then there's very little elite players. Pretty much everyone in the hockey world refer to them as generational, not elite. In my hockey dictionnary, elite would be the best players at each position. Tkachuk could also be elite and one of the most impactful NHL players, kinda depends how far his offensive game goes. I consider guys like Mark Stone and Kyle Connor elite for example

 

[Tuna99]

One day Thomas Chabatmight not be the best defenceman on the team and Zub might be the 6th best.

 

[SpezDispenser]

One day Thomas Chabatmight not be the best defenceman on the team and Zub might be the 6th best.

Zub the 6th best? So...we're winning it all?