Ryan says he'd definitely consider a long-term deal in Ottawa. "Treated great".
- Travis Yost

when? in what context? during his voice over during the game? i missed some of that.

Ryan says he'd definitely consider a long-term deal in Ottawa. "Treated great".
- Travis Yost

you just HAD to post this right after my post, using ryan leaving as an example........DAMN YOU TRAVIS.

Ryan says he'd definitely consider a long-term deal in Ottawa. "Treated great".
- Travis Yost

Opportunity to tell various unnamed posters to "suck it"? I think so

Opportunity to tell various unnamed posters to "suck it"? I think so
- Mr_Clean

i guess maybe our opinions differ on "rolling 4 lines".

i think some teams essentially play their 4th line only 2-3 minutes a night, and basically rely heavily on 3 lines. obviously that's not what maclean does.

that being said, rolling 4 lines doesn't necessarily mean that all 4 lines need to play like 15 minutes each........a line like neil-smith-greening should only be getting like 8-10 mins at most, and almost NONE of those minutes should be in the 3rd period, of must win games, down by a goal.

just cuz you roll 4 lines, doesn't mean you have to roll them completely evenly.

i think the frustration is exacerbated when maclean decides to lay all the blame on his players, while never seeming to take responsibility for his often baffling coaching decisions. instead he just spews out the stupid cliche (and obviously false) answers...."best players play", "i'm just coaching the team".

it's infuriating.
- sensarmy_11

I don't disagree. Mclean just does it the Mclean way though. It works maybe 2 out of 10 games this year, whereas last year it worked much more often. Amazing what a years difference can do.

Ryan says he'd definitely consider a long-term deal in Ottawa. "Treated great".
- Travis Yost

This is not surprising. We will most likely have to have a good start next season to seal the deal.

I don't disagree. Mclean just does it the Mclean way though. It works maybe 2 out of 10 games this year, whereas last year it worked much more often. Amazing what a years difference can do.
- Gord_Wilson_2.0

And i think THAT is the problem............a good coach should have realized in what, November, that it wasn't working, and made adjustments.

And i think THAT is the problem............a good coach should have realized in what, November, that it wasn't working, and made adjustments.
- sensarmy_11

In November, he had Spezza/Michalek/Karlsson still regaining themselves after off season issues and an injured Ryan ..... that's why it wasn't working

if you look at where this team was projected to be (realistically) - we would have been in about 6th place - with about 90 pts......we are at 78

so, given we have three stars coming off significant off-season issues, losing our captain and having Ryan get injured ..... we are going to fire our coach over 5 wins?

Ryan says he'd definitely consider a long-term deal in Ottawa. "Treated great".
- Travis Yost

Entire post was great. I think Zack Smith deserves a little longer leash because he's being dragged down by his linemates and not the other way around. Still so many coaching decisions that are just inexcusable.

That Bobby Ryan quote is making my day, where can I find the full interview? If at the start of the season you would have told me that he would extend long term but we'd miss playoffs, I'd be very happy still. Throw in Detroit making it and Toronto collapsing again.. Sens fans can't complain.

In November, he had Spezza/Michalek/Karlsson still regaining themselves after off season issues and an injured Ryan ..... that's why it wasn't working

if you look at where this team was projected to be (realistically) - we would have been in about 6th place - with about 90 pts......we are at 78

so, given we have three stars coming off significant off-season issues, losing our captain and having Ryan get injured ..... we are going to fire our coach over 5 wins?
- GadesnSens

woah woah, i never said fire him. i'm simply stating that he has to take some blame for what went down this season. i think his comments yesterday, basically putting the blame on his players, was a little hypocritical of him.

i think maclean should get just as much blame for how this season went down as anyone else.

not to poopoo this, but of course he would say that.. he has another year on his contract.. he doesnt want to be the guy who bails on two teams.. (heatley)

In November, he had Spezza/Michalek/Karlsson still regaining themselves after off season issues and an injured Ryan ..... that's why it wasn't working

if you look at where this team was projected to be (realistically) - we would have been in about 6th place - with about 90 pts......we are at 78

so, given we have three stars coming off significant off-season issues, losing our captain and having Ryan get injured ..... we are going to fire our coach over 5 wins?
- GadesnSens

Team was behind the 8-ball when the season began.

Big injury question marks with Karlsson and Spezza. Karlsson took about a month or two of playing before he looked great again. Spezza too close to four months before you saw his play improve due to improved health.

Alfie leaving is a dead topic, but the team and coaching staff went through an adjustment realizing they needed a new identity and follow new leaders (i.e. Spezza).

The ownership elephant in the room wasn't a nice summer backdrop.

This team, for the most part was, and still is young. Growing pains are bound to occur.

For these reasons, you have to give the coaching staff a little bit of leeway. They were given a pretty crappy hand last year, but thrived. They were given another crappy hand this year, but success hasn't come. Hopefully (I doubt it with the Eugene nonsense) a clean slate next year will get us going in the right direction.

i for one am not advocating we fire maclean. rather, i think he needs a swift kick in a$$ to smarten up or if not him, then whoever it is (management) that is making incredibly poor player management decisions.

as a fan, i don't think this is too much to ask

woah woah, i never said fire him..
- sensarmy_11

really??? that what I inferred from our exchanged on the previous post ....

you were as critical of him as you were of players you want to get rid of .....

really??? that what I inferred from our exchanged on the previous post ....

you were as critical of him as you were of players you want to get rid of .....
- GadesnSens

fair point....but i think the difference is that maclean, while i feel had a bad year, can make adjustments and be better next year.

greening, neil, and phillips.....who are the only 3 i'm adamant about getting rid of.......just plain suck, and i'd put the chances of them getting better somewhere near zero.

i'm on the fence with cowen cuz he's still young.....and COULD get better.

the only other player i've talked about getting rid of is spezza......and that's ONLY if his contract demands are too high.

[quote=sensarmy_11]fair point....quote]

ala Homer Simpson .......nah na na... na na na ..... I win

and you suck

Blame the team, not the refs, eh?

It's a conspiracy y'all!!!!! We be shorthanded too much to do anything but lose, especially when we get called for penalties committed by the other team as well like that joke call on Zibanejad last night. TSN even made the point in their 2nd intermission panel that we are getting unfair treatment from the league and have been for a while.

I've been saying this on here for a while, we are like the Toronto Blue Jays of the NHL, stuck in a division where refs coddle teams like BOS, MON, and TML in their home barns and make up BS when we get screwed by their incompetence by telling us it was 'too loud' to justify not calling goalie interference penalties that they somehow couldn't hear (????????!!!!).

We have been one of the bottom 5 teams in the league for penalty differential since Jacques Martin was here (it can't be the players or coaches, then, there's been too much turnover in both those areas here to use that as an excuse) and it's not gonna change anytime soon.

Given we now have almost nothing left to play for this year, if this BS continues over the last five games I say if the penalty differential gets out of control druing a game (say this Friday, just watch...), just stage a walkout midway through a period and forfeit a game to make a point - we want equivalent treatment to other teams and won't play for the camera until we get it.

I'll take my award for most warped conspiracy theory post now, but there's is a track record here that is becoming harder and harder to deny, and it can't just be because we have been the most terrible and dirty/cheap hockey team in the NHL since 2005 on average.

Also Travis, with the penalty differential measurements on Neil, was curious if any of those calls were fighting majors or if it just includes minor penalties...

Conspiracy theory 9000 at it's best but what about this, Mac is running these lines to explicitly illicit a response or be a thorn in the side of Eugene. Think about how he feels as a coach as in he is trying to stimulate players who are getting lowballed (or see franchise players being lowballed) by a cheap ass owner who cries poor even after a blockbuster TV deal.

I am by no means letting Mac off the hook but with all the subtly dropped bombs by the coach you have to think something is definitely a lot more sour than what we are perceiving.

Travis Yost: On Paul MacLean and Penalties

the guys he's rewarding are always taking minor penalties
- Travis Yost

kind of hit it out of the park with this one travster

We pulled andy last night and guess who our extra attacker was? Chris Neil



Would be useful (i use that term liberally) if Neil actually went to the net, but it seems like the entire Neil-greening-smith line would rather play behind the net (all 3 of them at the same time) than in front of it

Bobby Ryan interview also answers questions on his future here.
Saying all the right things, sounds positive but who knows what he is really thinking.

http://senators.nhl.com/club/blogpost.htm?id=28016

Bobby Ryan interview also answers questions on his future here.
Saying all the right things, sounds positive but who knows what he is really thinking.

http://senators.nhl.com/club/blogpost.htm?id=28016
- gagneRoger

thanks for posting this. wondering where all this came from. much appreciated

Bobby Ryan interview also answers questions on his future here.
Saying all the right things, sounds positive but who knows what he is really thinking.

http://senators.nhl.com/club/blogpost.htm?id=28016
- gagneRoger

interesting read. he definitely does a good job at saying all the right things, as you mention. that being said, it sounds as though we have an opportunity (at least) to re-sign him. however, if bm low balls him bc he had an off year (bc of injury or whatever), i say he does his time and moves forward without us.

i really think re-signing ryan is more of a priority than re-signing spezz, given the depth of center in our organization. while this team is certainly stronger and clearly better with js19 in the short term, long term it imposes seriously restrictions on who, and what type of players, we can afford to extend and grow with. i'd invest some moola in top 6 guaranteed sniper like ryan and top 2 d, before considering long term contract extensions with spezza (on a budget team like ours). so long story short, i really hope we don't try to low-ball ryan. if we do, he surely walks, which may provoke a knee-jerk reaction in the organization where all of a sudden bm panics, and commits to 7 more years of j.spezza

Bobby Ryan interview also answers questions on his future here.
Saying all the right things, sounds positive but who knows what he is really thinking.

http://senators.nhl.com/club/blogpost.htm?id=28016
- gagneRoger

What he's really thinking goes no further than this. If he comes back next year and plays great, and the team has a much better year where they make the playoffs and the future looks good, and if they open up the bank account to bring him what he probably would get on the open market, then sure, he resigns.

If he has a rough year and the Senators have a rough year, then he's gone at the deadline. But I'm sure they'll be pulling hard for him to have a great year, because they paid a hefty price for him and they certainly won't let him walk without a fight, unless it seems like he's not worth fighting for. 65+ points next year on a playoff team should do it.

I pretty much spoke about this exact same thing in your last blog Trav

Stache seems to have a short leash for his top 6, reducing their minutes when they are penalized

But has a much longer leash for the bottom 6

Funny thing is, I feel like he's not penalizing the player..but penalizing the entire teams chance of winning a game with that system of his..

-How many games have we had where the topic of discussion is minutes given to players who don't deserve them?

-How many questionable goalie starts has this guy done this season? A lot.

-How much line juggling has he done? How are players supposed to get into any rhythm if they have a different line mate every game! The guy was still doing line changes after the Olympics! Ridiculous!

And while I do believe healthy scratches may have been controlled by upper management, the treatment weircioch has been given this year has been awful, especially with stache's comments about needing "physical presence" and putting cowen in the lineup instead.

Ya

That turned out great

Funny thing is, I feel like he's not penalizing the player..but penalizing the entire teams chance of winning a game with that system of his..
- Trilla

i agree. this is exactly why i think he needs to smarten up. how does this help our team? his "lessons" fall on deaf ears when in actuality, he hurts the teams chance of winning. hoping things are better next year.