Season rests on shoulders of Brian Elliott, not Leclaire

I've been keeping an eye on a few different preseason rankings, and many of them seem to reference that Pascal Leclaire needs to have some sort of bounce-back season in order for the Senators to be successful.

I would like to politely disagree with this premise.

Leclaire didn't have an unsuccessful season last year - he barely hit the ice. With 34 starts, he collected 12 wins. That's far from a great record. And despite this, the Senators won 44 games. Now, I'm no mathemagician (that's a joke, not a typo - geez) but those other 32 wins must have come from somewhere (I see Mike Brodeur had three)... hmmm... let's double check the roster.

Oh yeah! That saviour!... I mean other goalie, Brian Elliott. He's the only reason why the Senators were able to scrape their way into the playoffs last year. And he may turn out to be the only reason they make it in this year.

Pascal Leclaire is more injury prone than the Wile E. Coyote, and - combined with at least one slump from #33 this season - chances are that Elliott will again start between 25 and 40 games.

So when making win predictions for the Sens this year, I recommend that prognosticators expand their thought process from "12 wins? Need better!". Look a little deeper and see the true corner stone of the Senators' goaltending - he spends less time on the bench than you think.