Pre-Game Talk: SENS in Tampa tonight, 7:30 pm on TSN

[Lenny the Lynx]

do any of you guys actually hope for losses in Game? like yeah if I fall into a deep sleep tomorrow and wake at the draft then I hope we lost every game and finished last but when im watching losing Is still as infuriating as it always is regardless of whats on the line. scoring is fun winning is fun

I dont watch - the #melnykout guys told me I'm not supposed to

 

[Sensinitis]

well what else would come out of training camp? that's our team.

You really think what you saw last night will be our team next season?

 

[BatherSeason]

Will they keep players like Burrows, Gaborik and Condon and get rid of players like Karlsson and Hoffman instead?

Yes they will. They will also keep Cody Ceci, and Tom Pyatt in an effort to, as Euge put it, to become "faster and more skilled"

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

do any of you guys actually hope for losses in Game? like yeah if I fall into a deep sleep tomorrow and wake at the draft then I hope we lost every game and finished last but when im watching losing Is still as infuriating as it always is regardless of whats on the line. scoring is fun winning is fun

Nah I just watch the games and let the chips fall where they lie. Who knows with the way the lottery is now anyway? Some wins could actually put us in the spot that lands the #1 pick, we have no clue.

 

[branch]

do any of you guys actually hope for losses in Game? like yeah if I fall into a deep sleep tomorrow and wake at the draft then I hope we lost every game and finished last but when im watching losing Is still as infuriating as it always is regardless of whats on the line. scoring is fun winning is fun

No. Losing right now could literally make or break the team going forward. The way I look at it.

Lose as much as possible = draft Dahlin = Karlsson wants to play with Dahlin = Competitive d corps = not handing Jack Hughes to Joe Sakic in 2019

 

[Burrowsaurus]

You really think what you saw last night will be our team next season?

subtracting burrows and Obrien and replacing with chlapik white. yeah I think that's our forward corps. pretty similar to what the guy posted

 

[Sensinitis]

subtracting burrows and Obrien and replacing with chlapik white. yeah I think that's our forward corps. pretty similar to what the guy posted

I highly doubt it, but we’ll see.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

Unless some major piece (Karlsson) gets traded and we get some forwards back, I expect this to be the linup.

Hoffman- Duchene - White
Ryan - Pageau - Stone
Dzingel - Chlapik - Pyatt
Paarvi - Paul/Brown - McCormick
Burrows if no buyout.
Gaborik buyout
Ryan stays if Karlsson stays, or he gets traded somehow with salary retention. Who knows.

This team has so many question marks regarding its roster, there could be so much turnover, its really hard to speculate the lineups for next season.

 

[Ray Kinsella]

Pajaarvi's looking for a contract extension on this road trip, apparently.

No kidding. He’s done well so far.

 

[Ray Kinsella]

Dzingel on fire this evening.

I love the Zinger!! He’s fast and totally devoted!

 

[Ray Kinsella]

Vasilevsky.

Is he always this bad? Or just against us?

I felt bad for him that Cooper didn’t pull him out after 6 goals. Not sure what message Coop was attempting to send him there.

 

[Beville]

Was meant to go to this game, went to Fort Lauderdale instead, and now I’m gutted. Fml.

 

[BonkTastic]

I felt bad for him that Cooper didn’t pull him out after 6 goals. Not sure what message Coop was attempting to send him there.

He did pull him shortly thereafter, though. We scored that 6th, and there was only a few minutes left in the period. They sent out Budja to start the 3rd.

I read somewhere that Cooper wanted to be sure Budaj was ready to go, seeing as how they had just recalled him from a conditioning stint after a long injury. Budaj has seen like 2 games worth of action in the last 3 months, he's probably not 100% yet from a timing and comfort perspective. If true, it makes sense why he'd wait to end the wind period and have the discussion before committing.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

If we're locked into the bottom-3 with nowhere to go with 5 games left, win 'em all.

I meant as we go along

 

[Karl Prime]

Nope, even with the scoring lead, sort of hard to give the “best defenseman” award to a guy who is -27 +/-. And I love the player but no Norris this year.

Wonder if Hedman will get any consideration?

Hedman is my frontrunner.

 

[Sensung]

Since Jan 1 Karlsson is #1 in the NHL in D scoring with 29p in 32gp.

Over that stretch he is -6.

He is rounding back to form.

 

[Sensinitis]

Hedman is my frontrunner.

Yeah me too, I hope he wins.

 

[Viletho]

Since Jan 1 Karlsson is #1 in the NHL in D scoring with 29p in 32gp.

Over that stretch he is -6.

He is rounding back to form.

Karlsson is always very good when the 2nd half of the season start. I'm not that surprise that his plays with the puck has progress.

I'm still looking for some progress withtout the puck, but he will.

 

[bert]

NHL teams are required to arrive at least the day before "game day" while on the road, so they went straight to the Charter Jet and flew to Tampa last night after the game.

This is not true. You just made it up. Teams travel on the same day all the time.

 

[Punchbowl]

do any of you guys actually hope for losses in Game? like yeah if I fall into a deep sleep tomorrow and wake at the draft then I hope we lost every game and finished last but when im watching losing Is still as infuriating as it always is regardless of whats on the line. scoring is fun winning is fun

Even if losing guaranteed us the #1 overall pick, I'm not sure I could actually sit down an cheer through a loss. Intellectually I know it's the logical move, but emotionally I simply can't watch the puck go in our net and feel anything but disappointment.

We lose often enough as it is that I feel no shame in cheering for a win when I'm watching.


Edit: On a completely different note, I have no doubt EK will be back to elite form (offensively and defensively) next season. I'm just not sure if he'll be lining up for us or against us.

The guy has too much pride and too much desire to win to settle for anything less. It may sound backward, but I suspect that's part of why he looks like he's checked out mentally at times. If I were him, I'd already have my mind on training for next season and the future. This year is a lost cause, unfortunately.

 

[DrEasy]

At the intermission interview Karlsson was saying he is closer to 100%, and it shows. For the +/- he could use some help from a good defensive partner too... Methot always seemed to be a big factor in improving the +/- (before you guys yell at me, I do realize +/- is a terrible stat).

 

[Ray Kinsella]

He did pull him shortly thereafter, though. We scored that 6th, and there was only a few minutes left in the period. They sent out Budja to start the 3rd.

I read somewhere that Cooper wanted to be sure Budaj was ready to go, seeing as how they had just recalled him from a conditioning stint after a long injury. Budaj has seen like 2 games worth of action in the last 3 months, he's probably not 100% yet from a timing and comfort perspective. If true, it makes sense why he'd wait to end the wind period and have the discussion before committing.

Yes, that would make sense. I’m not fully informed on Tampa’s tenders. But Tampa fans were saying that he had expressed tiredness to the media, and they felt that Coop may have shot his confidence by leaving him in the net that long after even 3 close goals against. The fellow is only 23.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

This is not true. You just made it up. Teams travel on the same day all the time.

Sorry but you're wrong on that. I've heard this discussed many times on pregame shows and other shows on TSN 1200.

There are a couple of exceptions, like the Christmas break and maybe the all star break ........... but teams arrive, the day before, when on the road, as per the CBA.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

If someone has time I really would like to see Karlssons stats since Oduya got traded and the games where he wasn't paired with him.

 

[SAK11]

No. Losing right now could literally make or break the team going forward. The way I look at it.

Lose as much as possible = draft Dahlin = Karlsson wants to play with Dahlin = Competitive d corps = not handing Jack Hughes to Joe Sakic in 2019

Losing as much as possible does not equal Dahlin, just like losing as much as possible doesn't equal handing Colorado Jack Hughes. This isn't 1993. The worst team in the league now has a better chance of picking 4th than they do picking 1st, 2nd or 3rd [happened to Colorado last season].

The worse you finish, the better odds you get, but the odds are at least 80% for every team to not get the 1st overall pick.
Now, there's the argument that since you can't drop more than 3 spots, the lower you finish, the better since you'll at least get a top 4 pick if you're the worst, or a top 5 pick if you're 2nd worst. That I understand. But too often people will comment on how we need to tank to ensure Dahlin, or how stupid the Duchene trade was because we might've handed Colorado Jack Hughes [never does anyone mention anyone else in that draft that Colorado might get, even though they will have, at best, a 20% chance at Hughes].
I'm sure you understand how it all works and maybe you were just oversimplifying things, but inevitably with these draft lottery rules, it's partially about being a bad team, but so much more about getting lucky. I've focussed on Ottawa getting every top prospects not named Dahlin and Svechnikov, just because the odds are so far against us, even if we do finish dead last.