The Ottawa Senators head into the 2010-2011 season with some incontrovertible truths about their make-up. Offensively, they're going to be deadly, with an electric top-six and scoring depth on the back two lines. They'll get a tremendous amount of help from their defensive units, too, as Erik Karlsson, Sergei Gonchar, and to a lesser extent Filip Kuba and Chris Campoli should offer the kind of puck movement a team needs to be a consistent threat in the offensive zone.

In the defensive end, this team is about as "average" as it gets. The team will send to the ice only two true stay-at-home defensemen in Chris Phillips and Matt Carkner, with the other four players penciled in as your prototypical OFD. As a collective six, the defense should score a ton of points, but they're not going to play the shutdown style of defense that many Senators fans have come accustomed to over the past few years.

What we're left with, of course, is the perennial goaltending enigma that's plagued the Senators over the past few seasons. It's expected that Pascal Leclaire will win the starting job from Brian Elliott, but a lot of doubt remains as to whether he'll be able to stay healthy, and furthermore whether he'll be able to hold onto the job.

Leclaire was brought in after an incredible run with Columbus during the 2007-2008 season, in which he compiled an impressive 24-17-6 record on a quite mediocre Blue Jackets team, posting a 2.25 GAA and .919 save percentage.

After a twelve game stint in Columbus during the '08-'09 season, Leclaire was acquired by Ottawa, but had about as disastrous of a first year as one could possibly have. To make matters worse, Leclaire cost a pretty penny, and abysmal numbers (.867 save percentage, 3.20 GAA) made him quite the whipping boy in Ottawa. He battled through freak injuries all season long, and managed to show some of the impressive talent many believe he possesses during the first round of the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs against Pittsburgh. The Senators were ousted in six games, but Leclaire's play against a superior Penguins attack made the Sens fans and front office optimistic about this season.

Of course, it's a complete unknown as to whether or not Leclaire will return back to his '07-'08 form. Was that season a true indication of his talent, or just an aberration of sorts? If he does win the starting job out of camp as expected, it'll be quite the baptism by fire, as Senators goaltending may face an extremely high number of shots all season long.

Clouston's done an impressive job preaching a defensive first system, but as I've alluded to all off-season long, I fully expect this team to play to their strengths by the end of the season, and as long as they stay healthy, their winning recipe will be to try and outscore the competition. Simply put, the defense is going to have some rough patches, and it'll be up to Pascal Leclaire to keep the scoring as low as possible.

Obviously, the most burning question Senators fans have as the season approaches is whether or not Leclaire is a true number one goaltender. Is he entirely capable of commandeering the starting role and posting impressive splits, or will he fall into a platoon (or worse, lose the job outright) to Brian Elliott, a solid yet unspectacular back-up that isn't really cut out for a starting job?

What say you, Sens fans? Does Leclaire right the ship, or does Ottawa's cup hopes sink again because of problems between the pipes?

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It's been officially announced by Gary Bettman and the National Hockey League that the Ottawa Senators have won the rights to the 2012 All-Star game, a big victory for the city. Ottawa's growth as a Canadian city, and more specifically as a hockey town has been quite impressive over the years, and hopefully they do the league right during the ASB next season.

The game will be played on January 29th at Scotiabank Place, with the festivities beginning on January 26th.
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Eklund's reporting that the Senators and Kings are talking a potential trade that may or may not involve Jason Spezza. Haven't heard anything of the sort, and furthermore have two outright denials by sources in the Senators organization. I'll continue to dig and see what I can come up with, but for now it doesn't seem likely.

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