Game 69 (hahaha) @ Panthers

[thedaigle1]

Oh look, Puempel and Wiercioch are back in--at the expense of Paul and Wideman. NOT WHAT WE MEANT DAVE.

Andy starts in the state he calls home even though he's from the midwest and his employer is in Canada, whatever you guys just deal with it.

[thedaigle1]

For clarification's sake i think Chiasson and Kostka should be scratched. And by scratched I mean they should be in Bingo cos they're not NHL players. Not that Puempel has done anything to win us over and has already fallen below Paul and Dzingel (Puempel does have the pedigree though). PW I realize has generated no offense this season but I like that he can move the puck if nothing else.

[Alfie11]

It's going to be funny to see some team sign Chiasson next year. Like, I don't think any NHL scout could watch him and come away thinking that's an NHL player.

[Alfie11]

2-2 midway through the 1st

Smith got the Sens first goal, his 20th (!!) of the year.

Karlsson got the Sens second goal. His 70th point. In the last 7 seasons, only three times has a dman ever gotten 70 points. Karlsson, Karlsson, and Karlsson.

[Alfie11]

And things just fell apart for the Sens.

4-2 Panthers in 14 seconds

[Josh]

Well that one all but seals the deal for the Sens Playoff hopes. The only things left to hope for are a coaching change, a good draft pick, and player development - but let's play Gomez and Kostka instead of Paul/Puempel and Wiercioch/Wideman.

[Alfie11]

Pretty much. Let's hope for some change in the off-season, including coaching, management, and players.

I'd keep Zack Smith. It seems like a lot of bloggers are pushing for him to get traded, and thinking this is just a hot streak. Ok, he won't be a 40 goal guy. But he looks pretty good on the left wing playing with some skilled players. Although I've complained about him on the power play a lot, he has skill and I like some of the other dimensions to his game.

We have some talented guys, we just need more consistency. Stone is a keeper. Bobby Ryan will win us games over stretches. Hoffman is a legit offensive threat, albeit inconsistent. We have a good #1 centre in Turris. Zibanejad needs improvement and consistency. Ceci needs consistency but took steps.

[thedaigle1]

Ottawa's record in road games against Eastern conference teams:

7-13-3 (17/46 possible points .370 points percentage)
54 GF and 82 GA (-28 goal differential)
Outshot in 19/23 games

If anyone wants to check the numbers on special teams, possession, etc. be my guest but I think you get the picture.

Ottawa is a .500 team at home and against the west so maybe this is something they should look into.*

*Ottawa's possession numbers are just as bad at home and against the west so they may just be getting lucky in those situations but my point remains the same.

[thedaigle1]

At home, Ottawa hasn't lost in regulation when giving up 35+ shots against. I can't make sense of any of this.

[Josh]

I wonder what the shot quality on those is. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'd hazard a guess that Ottawa may be giving up disproportionately fewer scoring chances than shots against.

[thedaigle1]

A lot of the literature on shot quality seems to disqualify it as a meaningful statistic. I was surprised to read that.

Ottawa was 14-12 up until Turris got injured (he had 22 points in 25 games before the injury and only 8 points in 32 games after), 11-17 after the Turris injury/before the Phaneuf trade, and 7-9 since. I like to think that Ottawa is a .500 team (21-21) with either one of those guys and therefore would play above .500 if we had both at the same time. I have no evidence to support this claim but I need something to believe in for next season damnit cos the roster is going to be the exact same.*

*Please god tell me Chiasson will be on a new team next year and that Hoffman and Ceci will be here on contracts less crippling than we've come to expect.