Which area should recive the biggest focus in the Sens off season?

[PierresGabriels]

Get Greening off of the team. Then Mac will be forced to use real hockey players.

Get Luke up here as an assistant.

 

[Niv]

Fire BM and the coaching staff. Enough is enough. What a bunch of under performing bums.

I'm glad you're not running the team.

 

[guyzeur]

Defence and coaching.

Defence

Coaching/hockey system/special teams/players' focus/game preparation/shoot out/goaltending consistency

Improve speed :funny thing is we were not a fast team when we went to the SCF

toughness: merge Neil and Greening in one player

 

[PierresGabriels]

Ownership.

And merge Neil and Greening into one player. Agreed haha.

 

[Niv]

Is there any millionaire/billionaire who is a sens fan? if so, lets pressure him into buying the team

I'm sure there are plenty that would. The problem is that Melnyk wouldn't let them. He's been pretty adamant about that.

 

[Very Stable Genius]

But guys, management likes our Defense. We need a POWER FORWARD!

 

[Healfezza]

Fire BM and the coaching staff. Enough is enough. What a bunch of under performing bums.

This after two years of "overperforming" and circle jerks.

We shat the bucket this year but I can't really lay blame on a specific individual, and if I was I would say it is the philosophy being instilled by ownership. Ownership isn't changing.

Basically Melnyk gets the last two years as freebies and thinks that he can pull the reigns in and play with the big boys all of a sudden. He needs a reality check.

 

[Calorissi]

Is this sarcasm?

Absolutely not.

This is a weak draft year with little depth and 2nd tier top talent.
The yield for an early first will be much lower than has been previously the case.
Add to that the fact that Buffalo has numerous picks in this draft and will need to improve the talent on the team with young NHL ready players.

Tim Murray also needs to make this team his own and he knows the value of Prince and Claesson especially.

 

[QuietOnTheFront]

I've got a gut feeling, but wanted to have it validated here...

Validated just in case Sens management decides to take a gander at what HFboards wants? Or for own personal interest?


Our forward group with Hemsky looks really good now. So it's easy to say D as they just haven't cut it this year. Our defensive game overall needs to be improved and we need to get back to being a top 5 team on the PK.

 

[benjiv1]

The team needs to be restructured IMO.

We don't really have an identity, and I don't think the players have defined roles at this point, which is kind of laughable.

We are in desperate need of a pure shutdown line, and pure shutdown defensive pairing.

One of the other issues, is what do we with Mika?

He's most comfortable, and looks best at Centre, but won't develop playing 12 minutes a night. He's one of my favourite players on the team, but he might be the best tradeable piece we have to make the team better.

The other option, is you develop him as a shutdown 2B/3A centre. But if that's the case, you have to surround him with the right players, and be okay with burning a top 10 pick on that type of player.

OR, you trade Spezza, and see what the Turris/Zibanejad can do.

It's putting a lot of faith in 2 young players, but there is something fundamentally wrong with this team, and while I don't think Spezza is the cause, I think trading him could help with the solution.

We would get a Ryan like return for him, which could fix some glaring needs in our team.

Here is what I would like our team to look like next year, trying to be as realistic as possible.

MacArthur-Turris-Ryan
Boedker-Zibanejad-Hemsky
Hoffman-Vermette-Goc
Grant-Smith-Clutterbuck

Methot-Karlsson
Cowen-Ehrhoff
Borocop-Ceci
Phillips

Spezza for Boedker, Vermette and Stone.
Weircioch, Prince, Greening for Ehrhoff
Neil, Stone for Clutterbuck

 

[Holdurbreathe]

Our defense with Cowen, Gryba and Phillips is way too slow. They just can't keep up with faster guys and end up taking penalties.

Stats don't really support this notion, Methot 12, Karlsson 13, Phillips 14, Cowen 17, and Gryba 21. Ceci in 21 games has 5, so would probably be in the same ballpark as the rest has he played as many games.

Cowen and Gryba are the two biggest D, play a more physical game so it is probably to be expected they would draw more attention for their hits than the other D.

 

[blahblah3]

This after two years of "overperforming" and circle jerks.

We shat the bucket this year but I can't really lay blame on a specific individual, and if I was I would say it is the philosophy being instilled by ownership. Ownership isn't changing.

Basically Melnyk gets the last two years as freebies and thinks that he can pull the reigns in and play with the big boys all of a sudden. He needs a reality check.

Pinning this on ownership is crazy. This team severely underperformed all year. There is no reason this roaster should lose to Edmonton, Buff, Calgary etc; even with Spezza being inured.

Keep the bad GM and bad Coach, enjoy the same results next year. You guys are thick headed if you can't see what is wrong with this team after watching all year. Look at everything that happened after 2007. That is on BM.

 

[Benjamin]

The defense has out performed the coaching.

Owner > Coach > GM > defense > goaltending > offense

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

Need to work on extensions for:

Ryan - 8 years
MacArthur - 3-4 years...I see this guy as a future leader on this team.
Spezza - 5 years if possible
Anderson - 3 years, because it's clear that Lehner is nowhere ready to the be the starting goalie for this team right now.

If Spezza is part of the long term plans of this team, then you NEED to re-sign Hemsky.

I'd try and swing a trade for Wiercoch for a solid 3-4 d-man. I think Wiercoch is overrated by some here and his skillset can be replaced by Ceci and Clausson.

I'd see if I can convince Phillips to retire.

 

[blahblah3]

Need to work on extensions for:

Ryan - 8 years
MacArthur - 3-4 years...I see this guy as a future leader on this team.
Spezza - 5 years if possible
Anderson - 3 years, because it's clear that Lehner is nowhere ready to the be the starting goalie for this team right now.

If Spezza is part of the long term plans of this team, then you NEED to re-sign Hemsky.

I'd try and swing a trade for Wiercoch for a solid 3-4 d-man. I think Wiercoch is overrated by some here and his skillset can be replaced by Ceci and Clausson.

I'd see if I can convince Phillips to retire.

Phillips will be milking that contract and BM until BM retires.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Absolutely not.

This is a weak draft year with little depth and 2nd tier top talent.
The yield for an early first will be much lower than has been previously the case.
Add to that the fact that Buffalo has numerous picks in this draft and will need to improve the talent on the team with young NHL ready players.

Tim Murray also needs to make this team his own and he knows the value of Prince and Claesson especially.

Which is nothing close to a top 3 pick, even in a weak draft.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

Pinning this on ownership is crazy. This team severely underperformed all year. There is no reason this roaster should lose to Edmonton, Buff, Calgary etc; even with Spezza being inured.

Keep the bad GM and bad Coach, enjoy the same results next year. You guys are thick headed if you can't see what is wrong with this team after watching all year. Look at everything that happened after 2007. That is on BM.

That was a thin ass team that rode the strength of one line. A thnird of that line demanded a trade, the top defemseman crumbled, and the goalie decided he was bigger then the game.

THose three things are Murray's fault? Ok.

 

[blahblah3]

That was a thin ass team that rode the strength of one line. A thnird of that line demanded a trade, the top defemseman crumbled, and the goalie decided he was bigger then the game.

THose three things are Murray's fault? Ok.

Ya what did he do to make the team better in 2008? ****ing nothing positive, he made the team totally inept. This team needs to move past BM and all his bad ideas, and veteran players who have amotivational syndrome and/or are talentless liabilities.

 

[Benjamin]

Nothing will change. Melnyk and Murray like the current team.

 

[blahblah3]

Nothing will change. Melnyk and Murray like the current team.

Exactly. I won't even bother with this team next year until BM is gone. Good guy, but the problems begin and end with him.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

We need two top 4 dmen

If Ryan doesn't want to say, and who can blame him, I hope they get some dmen in return

 

[Margaret Trudeau*]

Get a goalie like Bishop, then improve the D. Also trade spezza and get a second line centre with the money you saved.

 

[Calorissi]

Which is nothing close to a top 3 pick, even in a weak draft.

I hear what you are saying but it would appear that Prince and Claesson are Tim type players and that was the point I was trying to make. It would likely take more but I can see the players I mentioned being the key pieces in a deal between Ottawa and Buffalo.

I doubt the actual return would be much higher for Buffalo but you never know as Tim hasn't been in this position before and nothing at the trade deadline makes that case.

 

[arglebargle]

Well, the same coaching staff was able to get things done defensively last year (although goaltending was a crucial factor as well) with a different team, and so it seems that some personnel change could help. And it's not only defensemen, but also forwards who know their defensive assignments and stick to them (looking at you, Michalek and Greening!).

The two worst defensive forwards are Michalek and Spezza because they're both terrible backcheckers. Michalek is awful at checking in general and Spezza doesn't bother with it at all.

I think they should part ways with Michalek and replace him with a player who's got decent speed, is good at winning board battles and can stickcheck well.

Murray has already screwed up the defence for next year. He'll trade Wiercioch and we'll get the same group with Boro as the 7th D-man. Let's hope Cowen can get his **** together in time for next year.

 

[Hale The Villain]

Phillips re-signing screws up any chance to improve the defense.

We need a seasoned top 4 defenseman that is strong defensively and can produce on the powerplay. Those are hard to come by, and made even harder by the fact that we've got more than enough defensemen on the left side now. We could look at a top 4 RD, but those are extremely hard to come by, and I do not know of any currently available. Also our right side does not need much in the way of improvement in comparison to our left side. Considering we have Karlsson and Ceci, we don't need another offensive RD, and acquiring a 2nd pairing shutdown RD is redundant, considering he would be playing with Cowen or Phillips. Look at our left side:

Methot
Cowen
Phillips
Wiercioch
Borowiecki

All signed for next season at LD. Not one of those players (besides Wier) is offensively talented and a legitimate scoring threat from the blueline. A LD like Ehrhoff or Edler would have been perfect for this team, as it would push Cowen to the 3rd pairing where he belongs, and given this team an element of offense from the left side.

Instead we now have either Phillips or Cowen in the 2nd pairing LD position, which they clearly do not belong in, and we have no offensive production coming from the left D position. Unless we're willing to trade Methot (a huge backwards move) or Cowen (unlikely considering management's opinion of him, and illogical considering his current value) we'll go into next season with largely the same defense as this season.

All because we decided to re-sign Phillips