Wow, another dominant Sens game, why am I not surprised. 3/3 on controlling the game.
When will the Sens ever win a grinding, low-scoring playoff game? Like the Leafs' series all over again. Dominate for 57 minutes and still lose by a nothing goal.
20 years, never won a game 7. How many 1-0 shutout wins? A couple vs lowly Philly in 2002. Sigh.
Accustomed to close playoff losses in Ottawa, I was assured the Sens would lose by the time O'Brien missed the open net 2 mins into 2nd (he shot it directly at the arm of Nichol, the hero, much like hero Tortellini's game 1 time-out that saved the team 9 seconds before a 2-minute commercial break.)
Ottawa dominates, and dominates, but no finish. It's a sadistic scene more repetitive than the ominous Titanic 100th anniversary.
Spezza was confused and frustrated after Prust and Boyle mauled him early in the 1st, smashed in the face a few times by each, helmet ripped off, no call. Maybe he played the game concussed, sure looked it.
Boyle had 11 goals in 82 games. 3 in 3 vs Ottawa. A playoff date with Ottawa turns career scrubs into 82-goal scorers, just look at Tucker, Friesen and a few other career duds.
We really missed Alfie tonight, he would have been the difference in an energetic building ready to explode. Post lockout we lose 80% of games with him out, and tonight we are reminded why.
Can you picture the RAT-FACED coach Tortellini: "Great work guys, we really outplayed them with the 40-23 shots against tonight, and we took out #11, their leading playoff scorer by 50 points. Boyle and Prust, get out there and concuss #19 as well so #65 has nobody to set up."
NYR Tried hard to follow the mantra of the human RAT tonight, perhaps by game 4 the deed will be done.
Foligno and O'Brien have already filled their offensive quotas for the next month, can't expect open nets to be hit for the rest of the playoffs from these guys.
CBC's brain-dead Bob Cole never picked up on the "AL-FIE" chants at the 11:00 mark each period. Why is Dean Brown doing the hated Bruins while we get reject Leaf commentators (Cole, Millen, Healy)? For years Vancouver has been rewarded with their loyal radio voice in Jim Hughson. Can you imagine Dave Schreiber on CBC? It would be nuts in favor of Ottawa. Dean Brown is an easy compromise, and a dash less biased than Hughson.
Anyone unfortunate enough to hear all the NY Arena Football and WNBA reporters saying Alfie faked the injury? Apparently the uncouth NYC loudmouths are now experts on hockey. Bad enough regular Team 1200 listeners must endure daily nonsensical rants from egotistical NYC resident JT the brick in the TEAM 1200s' obvious effort to save money from 12am-5am Mon-Fri and 72 hours on weekends. Nobody cares about high school football/basketball in Canada.
While it needs no defending, #11 has the highest integrity in the league. Ask any player. For him to miss 34 minutes of a crucial game with the team down 1-0 in the game and series, and be accused of faking an injury by high school b-ball commentators is laughable. Hag is a fringe NHLer who has done zero in the series, being on the top line is a testament of the inferiority in skill of the NYR, who scored 27 fewer goals in the weakest goalie division in the NHL (24 games against the disastrous NYI Montoya, Dipietro, Nabokov; NJ Hedberg, Brodeur; PIT Fleury, Johnson; PHI Bryzgalov, Bobrovsky). Easy 18-20 wins there. I'll take that over Ottawa's steady diet of Thomas, Miller, Price. And Lunqvist played 30+ straight against Ottawa.
Like any individual who has endured NYC, I've come to expect nothing less in the city where "*******-YOU" chants reign supreme. Went to a game in 2009 where Sid schooled them and fiercely aggressive "F-U-CROS-BY! Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap!" chants dominated. Parents love to get their kids into it, like a right of passage to adulthood in NYC.
Notice the "A**-HOLE" chants every time EK touched the puck, even in a 4-0 game they should be thrilled to be ahead in? Man, what a sad, pathetic world NYC represents. Easy to see why the global infrastructure supporting the U.S.A. loathes their profound lack of basic humanity. Though it could be a tad worse. Boston.
I thought the Sens played terrific tonight, especially without Alfie. Hank really just robbed one-- and great goalies will do that in the playoffs.
I was at both Games 1 and 2 at the Garden and I was really jealous of your home crowd. Our crowds were decent, but you guys really showed up tonight and the place was rocking the entire game. Our games, especially playoff games, are unfortunately extremely expensive so it's always the corporate lame-o's and the rich d-bag bandwagoners that hog up the good seats.. kinda ruins the playoff atmosphere a bit.
Boyle had 11 goals in 82 games. 3 in 3 vs Ottawa. A playoff date with Ottawa turns career scrubs into 82-goal scorers, just look at Tucker, Friesen and a few other career duds.
To be fair, Boyle was playing outstanding hockey for the last few weeks. I think half of his regular season goal total came in the last 2 weeks of the regular season and he's been really lights out playing like a mad man.
Just got back from the game.. fantastic crowd tonight even if there were still a few debbie downers. One guy who was being a dany heatley all night left with 2 minutes left to go!
Hehe, were you sitting in section 306? This guy was right beside me.
Crowd was better I think then the last home PO game against Pens. Not many Rags fans, and their shy chants were quickly shut up with Go Sens Go! and Rangers Suck!
Need better 11min ALFIE chants though. Thought they were not bad but after watching replay back home found them not in sync. Probably the only way to make them in sync is to write ALFIE on a screen.
Will be there on game 4! Hope they can solve Lundquist.
All of you couch generals who constantly piss all over our fans can **** right off.
Hahaha right on. Haven't even read every posts, but some of the reactions made me sad to be a Sens fan.
I was at the game and had a blast. One of the best game I've had the chance to see live. The crowd was nuts, the goalies standing on their heads, and the guys playing hard and physical. And although he did have his bad moments, you saw that Spezza was trying to get things going. He actually had 2 good hits and was trying to get the other players off the puck by using his size. It was an awesome playoff game.
We already know what went wrong, but most of you forget what was behind that 1-0 loss. Look at the others stats. It sucks to lose by one but we dominated.
Side note: I saw two 'fights' tonight and I gotta say it made me sick to see that type of behaviour from our fan base . One guy went to a Rangers fan with a Hagelin jersey and punched him saying 'This if for Alfie'. Guy got ejected. Another incident after the game where a group of Sens fans bullied a lone Rangers fan and actually followed him outside and wanted to fight. All in front of a bunch of kids. Idiots to say the least.
There is one reason why we are likely to lose this series: Lundqvist. He doesn't make mistakes. When he's focused he'll make the save 99% of the time. I.e. look at the 3 goals from last game. All unexpected scenarios, one own goal by his teammate, two, a puck that went through 4 bodies and ended up on Folignos stick right in front of him, and three, a blocked shot by his teammate and a bat in by Neil.
You just have to get lucky with him. It's the only way to beat him.
I liked Richards tonight and last game. He's really leading out there and doing a lot. Gaborik really has been invisible this series though.
I thought Michalek has been playing stronger each game.
Spezza's been getting all of the attention. At this point, I think MacLean should just sacrifice him with low end wingers to draw attention from the Girardi - McDonough pairing. Just load up Foligno - Turris - Michalek until Alfie can come back and play Spezza with Dauggy & Condra if that will still draw Tort's attention.
I wasn't offering a critique of the Ranger players, just pointing out the top two for both clubs were having trouble generating offence. It was meant as a reference point for those fans making such harsh judgements on Spezza and Michalek.
Based on what MacLean was doing with his lines tonight, I think he is following your script!!!
The only thing I questioned was Konopka getting PP time, it just makes no sense. I appreciate ZK serves a role, but when the pace of the game picks up, like tonight, he really can't contribute any meaningful minutes. Additionally he possesses none of the skills required to make an effective contribution on the PP.
If tonight's game is an indication of how this series is going to play out, then one of Klink, Dawg, or Hoffman need to have ZK's spot.
The "Andy" chants from the crowd were awesome. Spontaneous too. In 20 years, I can't remember a goalie getting his name chanted in Ottawa that wasn't on the opposing team.
All in all, the crowd was electric and I was really proud of the team's efforts.
I wasn't offering a critique of the Ranger players, just pointing out the top two for both clubs were having trouble generating offence. It was meant as a reference point for those fans making such harsh judgements on Spezza and Michalek.
Based on what MacLean was doing with his lines tonight, I think he is following your script!!!
The only thing I questioned tonight was Konopka getting PP time, it just makes no sense. I appreciate ZK serves a role, but when the pace of the game picks up, like tonight, he really can't contribute any meaningful minutes. Additionally he possesses none of the skills required to make an effective contribution on the PP.
If tonight's game is an indication of how this series is going to play out, then one of Klink, Dawg, or Hoffman need to have ZK's spot.
ZK found himself alone in front of the net and JUST tipped one over the net on one of the PPs. It almost worked. They needed traffic in front of Lundqvist and he provided that.
Sorry, I didn't mean I saw a lot of people leaving, just one dbag "fan" in my section (224)
To be fair though, he probably had about 10 drinks so I guess I'm kind of glad he was on the road well ahead of me.
Hehe so I guess it was a different "fan". Both had Heatley jerseys, coincidence.
The "Andy" chants from the crowd were awesome. Spontaneous too. In 20 years, I can't remember a goalie getting his name chanted in Ottawa that wasn't on the opposing team.
All in all, the crowd was electric and I was really proud of the team's efforts.
Agreed! The Andy chants were LOUD!! Nutso.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IloveChrisNeil
Konoka was fantastic tonight. He even created a few offensive chances.
I liked Richards tonight and last game. He's really leading out there and doing a lot. Gaborik really has been invisible this series though.
I thought Michalek has been playing stronger each game.
Spezza's been getting all of the attention. At this point, I think MacLean should just sacrifice him with low end wingers to draw attention from the Girardi - McDonough pairing. Just load up Foligno - Turris - Michalek until Alfie can come back and play Spezza with Dauggy & Condra if that will still draw Tort's attention.
I was thinking the same thing actually RE Spezza. Assuming Alfie is back something like:
Greening-Spezza-JOB
Foligno-Turris-Butler
Michalek-Smith-Alfie
Winnie-Konopka-Neil
If The 2nd line plays like it did tonight then they might draw attention and the smith line should command some respect.
I wasn't offering a critique of the Ranger players, just pointing out the top two for both clubs were having trouble generating offence. It was meant as a reference point for those fans making such harsh judgements on Spezza and Michalek.
Based on what MacLean was doing with his lines tonight, I think he is following your script!!!
The only thing I questioned was Konopka getting PP time, it just makes no sense. I appreciate ZK serves a role, but when the pace of the game picks up, like tonight, he really can't contribute any meaningful minutes. Additionally he possesses none of the skills required to make an effective contribution on the PP.
If tonight's game is an indication of how this series is going to play out, then one of Klink, Dawg, or Hoffman need to have ZK's spot.
I think the PP thing was because he's been decent on the faceoff, and is a pretty big presence in front of the net. I agree though that he's not obviously a guy you'd expect to see though, but with Spezza in the box I thought it was an interesting move to shake things up anyways. I actually thought he played really well tonight.
The "Andy" chants from the crowd were awesome. Spontaneous too. In 20 years, I can't remember a goalie getting his name chanted in Ottawa that wasn't on the opposing team.
All in all, the crowd was electric and I was really proud of the team's efforts.
This post deserves to be stickied. Awesome doesn't even begin to describe the crowd.
I think the PP thing was because he's been decent on the faceoff, and is a pretty big presence in front of the net. I agree though that he's not obviously a guy you'd expect to see though, but with Spezza in the box I thought it was an interesting move to shake things up anyways. I actually thought he played really well tonight.
I figured it was because he's known as a good faceoff guy and MacStache wanted to reward him for a solid game to that point.
Call me crazy, but I'm more confident that we can win this series now than I was before the game. I felt we were a bit lucky in game 2, but tonight we dominated more than either team has so far this series... without Alfie.
Most exciting 1-0 loss I've ever attended. The crowd was hot...loved every second.
Spezza is back to over-thinking...which happens when thinks he has to take on the world. If he gets back to his game, he along with MM will start producing.
Kyle Turris impresses me more and more every day. Yes, I'd like to see more pucks go in, but his dedication to 2-way hockey is phenominal considering his age. He literally plays behind both nets. Some players take 10 years to get it, if ever at all. I can't wait to see him grow as a player.
Foligno is in 100% beast mode, and has been our most consistent player so far. He's working so hard, so impressed by his leadership.
Andy almost stole the game for us. I don't care what the shot count was. He was easily the better of the two. Not taking anything away from Hendrik.
I figured it was because he's known as a good faceoff guy and MacStache wanted to reward him for a solid game to that point.
Honestly I think the past two games are the best I've seen Konopka play. I always liked him but man, he has an extra gear. Crazy that this is his first NHL playoff hockey.
