So the Sens lost their third straight pre-season game. Big deal. There were so many newbies on the Ottawa blue line you could almost hear the opposition's "Mmmmm, fresh meat!" So it's no surprise that, although the Senators started strong, the defense folded when the Canadiens started pushing. This affected both sides, mind you. You can see it when outflanked defensemen resort to drawing penalties. And there were a lot of penalties last night. Six in the first period alone. Chalk it up to inexperienced players trying to impress the coach and land a berth in The Bigs.

The upside

On the upside, the Sens goalies were solid. Leclaire was impressive robbing the Canadiens on a break-away, then making a gorgeous toe save on a slapshot from the slot. Even though Ben Maxwell finally managed to breach the wall, it was a close thing. Leclaire followed Maxwell through his many moves and, had his stick come down on the ice a fraction of a second earlier, would have robbed him as well. Also impressive was 18-year-old Robin Lehner who showed a lot of poise between the pipes, turning away 12 of 13 shots, a lot of which were good scoring opportunities. In the end, both goalies performed admirably as the Canadiens benefitted from a redirect by the ref on Maxwell's goal and a weird flukey bounce on Gionta's goal.

The first line is a lock. Spezza, Alfredsson and newcomer Michalek were threatening throughout the game. Michalek is a physical presence on the line, and Alfredsson seems to have benefitted from the departure of Heatley, finessing the puck along the board as almost no one else can. Pucks from the first line kept ringing off the Halak and Sanford's posts.

The downside

Christoph Schubert. That boy either has to wake up or go. While he did place a few good shots on goal, he seemed to be out of his element throughout the game, and drew an unnecessary penalty late in the third, virtually locking in the Habs victory with it. In his 5th season in the NHL, Schubert has to step up and return to prior form, or be dealt. What would we get in return? A friend of mine likes to say: "A bag of pucks would be nice...".

Also missing last night were such Sens staples as Chris Philips, Anton Volchenkov on the blue line, as well as most of the scoring depth. Without Kovalev, Fisher, Cheechoo, and Foligno the Canadiens were only really threatened by the Sens' top line. Even the absence of Donovan and Ruutu, who bring a physical forechecking style, was missed.

While the pre-season results seem dismal for the Senators, in the end, it is much ado about nothing. Coach Clouston has to see his young'uns in real game situations in order to fix his final roster before the season opener on October 3. So no worries... so far.