Leclaire has made himself expendable

It's hard to imagine a scenario where the Ottawa Senators would consider re-signing Pascal Leclaire at the end of this season. It seemed the gods conspired to make our oft-injured netminder a footnote in the Sens (not exceptional) goaltending records.

I found myself aggressively agreeing with Don Brennan's column from Friday's Ottawa Sun (and it pains me to type that). Despite his stellar play so far this season, Leclaire just can't be trusted to be the Senators' number one goalie. It seems that if the Sens invested any faith in Leclaire, he would simply throw it away with another momentum-draining injury.

I'm not one to throw away goaltenders quickly. I still think Patrick Lalime doesn't get the credit he deserves for his time in Ottawa, and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me in simple language why Ray Emery was sent away, but Leclaire has been given a dozen opportunities in the past season (and three weeks) to play constantly and consistently and he's never taken full advantage.

I'm also not one to jump on a bandwagon for promoting a rookie goalie and betting the Senators' season on an unproven commodity; Robin Lehner is 19 years old and Mike Brodeur has three big-league wins.

I've stated before that this Sens' success this season depends on Brian Elliott. I just didn't think I would be so right, so soon. In that article, I said that Elliott would start between 25 and 40 games this season. With Leclaire officially continuing his injury strike, I think I'm going to bump that up to 40 or more.

So I think it's time to formalize what the universe already seems to have planned. Name Elliott the default starter for the remainder of the season, make Leclaire sit on the bench (with his freaking mask ON this time) and give the Senators the stability that the name I wanted to nickname "The Answer" is, unfortunately, unable to provide.

Wake me up when September ends

I can't believe the fans in Montreal. This post isn't really about them, but it has to be said: Booing your still-young and recently ordained #1 goalie in a preseason game isn't just a bit of overkill, it's shooting a butterfly with a machine gun.

Wayne Scanlan does an excellent job of putting this pre-season insanity in its place in today's Ottawa Citizen.

Leafs Nation was close to calling it a season after their 5-0 preseason-opening loss to the Senators. Then, after winning the rematch, normal levels of criticism and insanity resumed. Let's not forget that the Leafs had a record in the realm of 6-3-0 during last season's preseason, and finished 29th during the season that matters.

I'm happy to see that Ottawa, by and large, has not fallen into the same trap. Other than some optimism with regards to 19-year old goaltending prospect Robin Lehner, dodging the hype in the Nation's Capital hasn't been too difficult.

Too many factors haven't been tested and too few Sens regulars have yet to hit the ice together. Now is not the time to condemn or boast about the NHL team which hasn't suited up all at once.

Some say that the off-season, with its increasingly ridiculous free-agent contracts (happy not to address that one, thank you very much), is sport's silly season. Well, I think we've found a new definition.

As the song goes...