Yeah, coaches do pull goalies after two goals on five shots. But when that goalie is your top goalie, who earns a cool $3.6 million this season and is slated to earned nearly $5 million next season, then there's trouble brewing somewhere.

Granted that there wasn't much help for Pascal Leclaire on both goals. On the first by Kostopoulos, Brian Lee was flat on the ice and Matt Carkner had his back to the play, covering the other threat. On the second goal, Chris Kelly baubled the puck and allowed Rob Brind'Amour to slip one past Leclaire. Okay, I'll give you both of those. But this is your star goaltender. At some point in time, he has to make the saves, and he has to avoid giving up juicy rebounds.

The sad fact is that coach Cory Clouston has more confidence in Brian Elliott than he does in Leclaire. Elliott is the de facto #1 goalie, and it's his job to lose or keep. Why? Because I believe, and so does coach Cory, that Elliot is more technically sound and safer than Leclaire. Leclaire's goaltending style is to challenge the shooter. He steps way out of the paint and shuts off any angle, and is relies on speed to handler the deke. Problem is, a quick pass to another open man leaves him way out of position. For Leclaire's style to work, the Sens D-men have to shut off any pass possibility. If they don't, then Leclaire has to rely on speed and a large dollop of luck. Of course, I'm talking about a top-shape Leclaire here. As we saw last night, the goals scored on him were in close, and both rather stoppable,

By comparison, Elliott, doesn't challenge as much, and relies on nearly flawless positioning to offer minimal target areas. He relies on good speed to close those areas when required. He is capable of acrobatics, but prefers not to have to rely on them. He's a boring and stolid goaltender to watch most of the time, but most coaches would give their left unmentionable to have a boring and stolid goalie that stops pucks.

This situation doesn't bode well for Leclaire, nor for GM Bryan Murray. The arrival of Leclaire was supposed to spell the end of the Sens' goaltending woes. That's an expensive mistake so far. Murray hasn't exactly made any other brilliant moves so far. It's no wonder then that his contract was renewed for one year, and one year only. Make no mistake, the Senators have to go deep into the playoffs (at least to the Conference finals) on the shoulders of their "2nd" goaltender if Murray is to keep his job.