I love satire. This post was a joke, right?
- TreeSens

Tell me what is weircoch good at???We already know what cowen brings ,his first full season showed where his path lies ,yes it had a bump but he can get it back.

His skill that he brings to our top4 ,is something ek,ceci and above all WEIRCOCH cant bring like he does.Is how many forward he will crush,through open ice hits, clearing the crease and sometimes cracking a few heads .
Take him out and replace him with weircoch and we are the softest top 4 in the league
- top shelf 15

I think we set the bar too high for expectations for him. Most big Defensive D men take a lot longer to mature. Hell even Chara was slow to mature, and people were saying Cowen is further along at this age then Chara was. How ever I think he stood out more due to the fact the team as a whole played terrible last season.

His skill that he brings to our top4 ,is something ek,ceci and above all WEIRCOCH cant bring like he does.Is how many forward he will crush,through open ice hits, clearing the crease and sometimes cracking a few heads .
Take him out and replace him with weircoch and we are the softest top 4 in the league
- top shelf 15

......you're trolling right?

Like, I don't advocate giving up on Cowen yet, but he was a parking cone last year. He didn't do any open ice hitting, didn't clear the crease, didn't crack heads, he was atrocious.

Ottawa's game is supposed to be possession based. Successful teams do it. Wiercioch is quite good at it. At this point, I'd take him over Cowen in a heartbeat. If your argument is that you need a knuckle-dragger on your roster to throw hits and clear the net, then Ottawa should just go re-sign Andy Sutton, because he actually played better defensively than Cowen does at the moment and is far better at those other things you've identified.

Wiercoch is not better than cowen, gryba or ceci,so he goes .Him And EK in our top 4 would give us the softest top 4 in the league,puck posession and points arent everything here .Cowen,s physical presence is worth far more to the overall makeup as a unit than weircoch.
- top shelf 15

Gryba is a 5-6 pairing guy, so he shouldn't even be in the discussion.

Ceci is going to be better, but he's still too young to count on that much.

Cowen is a disaster, stop talking about his "physical presence", when he can't even stay close enough to the play to push anybody.

Really, if someone was going to be dumped this offseason it should have been Gryba or Phillips.

Would you do?

NYI: Cowen
Ott: Strome
- tuna99

Definitely.

Garrioch eats babies.

I hope they don't move Weir.

That is all.

I think we set the bar too high for expectations for him. Most big Defensive D men take a lot longer to mature. Hell even Chara was slow to mature, and people were saying Cowen is further along at this age then Chara was. How ever I think he stood out more due to the fact the team as a whole played terrible last season.
- Sensfanlifer

Bingo ,Cowen will never lead the defense in Corsi .his type of defender rarely do.But every championship top 4 needs what he can bring in the physicality department.So if we lose a guy like weircoch its not a big deal when you see guys like Ceci and Ek whom already have that dynamic taken care of

So we ditch Cowen and keep weircoch because he is better at handling the puck.So our top 4 goes like this

Methot/Ek

Wier/ceci

FFS montreal,s forwards are going to laugh at that,its vanilla soft.


So weircoch gets a pass on being bad and vanilla at defense becuse he is young .And cowen gets kicked to the curb at 158 games played ,because he struggled in his second full year this is beyond dumb
- top shelf 15

You have no idea what you're talking about. Of those four guys, Ceci is the smallest, and all of them are adding strength each season to get more physical. Weircioch is nearly as big as Cowen, FYI.

And why the (frank) do you keep talking about montreal's forwards? they're not that big a team.

Definitely.
- TommyDeVito

Go answer me in the old thread

Tell me what is weircoch good at???We already know what cowen brings ,his first full season showed where his path lies ,yes it had a bump but he can get it back.
- top shelf 15

What do you not understand about the 74 blogs Yost has written showing why weircioch has played very well, and Cowen has no idea what he's doing?

What do you not understand about the 74 blogs Yost has written showing why weircioch has played very well, and Cowen has no idea what he's doing?
- TommyDeVito

Cowen just seemed disinterested at times last season, after he got his big contract(for doing relatively nothing)... ok a lot of times. I think they need to get him mentally in check this off season.

Gryba is a 5-6 pairing guy, so he shouldn't even be in the discussion.

Ceci is going to be better, but he's still too young to count on that much.

Cowen is a disaster, stop talking about his "physical presence", when he can't even stay close enough to the play to push anybody.

Really, if someone was going to be dumped this offseason it should have been Gryba or Phillips.
- TommyDeVito

During that montreal series , i noticed Gryba and Cowen,didnt notice weircoch at all.Cowen,s first full season in the nhl at 21 i noticed Cowen,nobody was saying Weircoch was better then. But Weircoch gets a few points in a sheltered role and he is better all of a sudden while being almost 2 years older .Yeah iam not the one confused

Go answer me in the old thread
- Feeling Glucky?

re: the leafs staying mroe like they're second half record next season?

-I don't buy that 8 games of a goalie injured when your backup is also a good goaltender is a valid reason for getting pummelled lik ethat in the second half.

-I don't think Komarov, Santorelli and Frattin are an upgrade over what you had.

-The gunnarson trade for polak was terrible, Polak is going to look like Aki Berg come out of retirement.

-Franson is better than he is given credit for in TO, like many players who go on to success elsewhere. And you're going to deal him.

-Shooting percentages won't reach those levels consistently again.

Wiercoch is not better than cowen, gryba or ceci,so he goes .Him And EK in our top 4 would give us the softest top 4 in the league,puck posession and points arent everything here
- top shelf 15

Actually..it kind of is everything...

You have no idea what you're talking about. Of those four guys, Ceci is the smallest, and all of them are adding strength each season to get more physical. Weircioch is nearly as big as Cowen, FYI.

And why the (frank) do you keep talking about montreal's forwards? they're not that big a team.
- TommyDeVito

Yet he is as soft as (frank)en diaz ,he gets muscled off the puck by guys half he size and has no battle in the corners when getting the puck back.Montreal,s smaller forwards would eat him up not only with speed but with physicality because he has none .Watch him play (frank)en guy is the softest defenseman on the team

Would you do?

NYI: Cowen
Ott: Strome
- tuna99

not even garth snow is that stupid....maybe if milbury was still there

Actually..it kind of is everything...
- Blackstrom2

When you have a blueline that cant phyically reposess the puck in the defensive zone which would be the case here then what??????

re: the leafs staying mroe like they're second half record next season?

-I don't buy that 8 games of a goalie injured when your backup is also a good goaltender is a valid reason for getting pummelled lik ethat in the second half.

-I don't think Komarov, Santorelli and Frattin are an upgrade over what you had.

-The gunnarson trade for polak was terrible, Polak is going to look like Aki Berg come out of retirement.

-Franson is better than he is given credit for in TO, like many players who go on to success elsewhere. And you're going to deal him.

-Shooting percentages won't reach those levels consistently again.
- TommyDeVito

When you have a blueline that cant phyically reposess the puck in the defensive zone which would be the case here then what??????
- top shelf 15

If Weircoch is posting a 56 on-ice goal %, he's obviously doing SOMETHING to regain the puck in his own zone.

Nope we need a cowen more than we need a strome

- top shelf 15

Cowen (frank)ing sucks.

Ottawa has a lot of OFD, and are lacking in the shut down D department. Cowen for what ever reason last season tried to play a role he is not ment for as a puck mover/playmaker, and got away from the basics of being just a shut down guy. Playing physical/and positionally sound.

I think Ottawa rolls the dice one more season on him and if he plays as bad as he did last season and the team plays well. You will see him shipped off.

After signing Lehner, the Sens will have a 23-man roster (13F, 8D, 2G) and be above the salary floor of $51 (assuming there's no way in hell Lehner signs for below $1M). That's not counting Prince, Puemple and Lazar, as I'm using the roster on CapGeek and they likely won't play much next year.

Personally, at forward I see one top line, one excellent 3rd line and two forth lines. I try not to get too focused on line-ups (since it's only July 4th), but I think this is a team could compete for 8th in the East - which isn't saying much. Also, I have no idea how Pageau fits into the roster next year, but I added him between Hoff/Chiasson. Maybe you can replace Pageau with Legwand.

Mac-Turris-Ryan
9MM-Zib-Stone
Hoffman-Pageau-Chiasson
Greening-Smith-Condra
Extra: Neil

On D, geez...

Methot / Karlsson
Cowen / Wiercioch
Phillips / Ceci
Extras: Gryba / Borowicki

I wouldn't say the team is directionless at this point, however I can see them trending that way in a hurry if they a) move Wiercioch b) bring in Chris 'Greening 2.0' Stewart. Here's hoping we can ride an out-of-this-world SV%/GAA for the whole season. I don't think management needs to do much, if anything at all, unless it's a clear win from our perspective. Although, I wouldn't be opposed to moving Phillips, Gryba, Boro, Pageau and Greening.

Also, I see Greening and Cowen both playing better this year (again, not saying much) and proving some of their worth. Cowen will hopefully improve on his timing/positioning and foot-speed, especially considering he had hip surgery and was rehabbing last summer (surgery in Nov 2012).

re: the leafs staying mroe like they're second half record next season?

-I don't buy that 8 games of a goalie injured when your backup is also a good goaltender is a valid reason for getting pummelled lik ethat in the second half.

-I don't think Komarov, Santorelli and Frattin are an upgrade over what you had.

-The gunnarson trade for polak was terrible, Polak is going to look like Aki Berg come out of retirement.

-Franson is better than he is given credit for in TO, like many players who go on to success elsewhere. And you're going to deal him.

-Shooting percentages won't reach those levels consistently again.
- TommyDeVito

Just because Franson can put up points doesn't make him good. He's so bad defensively

re: the leafs staying mroe like they're second half record next season?

-I don't buy that 8 games of a goalie injured when your backup is also a good goaltender is a valid reason for getting pummelled lik ethat in the second half.

-I don't think Komarov, Santorelli and Frattin are an upgrade over what you had.

-The gunnarson trade for polak was terrible, Polak is going to look like Aki Berg come out of retirement.

-Franson is better than he is given credit for in TO, like many players who go on to success elsewhere. And you're going to deal him.

-Shooting percentages won't reach those levels consistently again.
- TommyDeVito

Except when Reimer came in, he wasn't good near the end of the season. He straight-up sucked. We're talking letting soft wristers from the blue line in the first 5 minutes sucky.

Franson only did well in a sheltered 3rd pairing role, but despite that, the guy has the highest opinion of himself. Gets exposed on the point when facing top defenders, too. So many awful turnovers last year.

Gunnarson, I like, but he's also been bad the last two seasons with his bum hip.

And as for the shooting percentages, you can say some guys, like Bozak and Raymond over preformed, but at the same time, the 3 members of the 2nd line(or what was supposed to be) had pretty poor years last year, so while you look at some people regressing to the norm, you also need to consider the people that well move up towards the norm.


edit: I agree with the general idea that teams riding high PDOs won't do too well in the playoffs, when the competition gets tougher... I'm just hoping the extra defensive help, leadership, and energy injected to the lineup will be able to help fill in their other flaws.

Cowen (frank)ing sucked.
- ClarksonDavid

Last season yes ,his second full one went bad.No other defenseman or young player has ever shown promise in his rookie year ,only to follow it up with a bad year in his second