The Ottawa Roster (part 2 of 3)

Last night, I gave a play by play of what I expected the forward lines to look like as of right NOW in the Senators lineup. Tonight, I look at the rest of the team, starting with the D

Defense pairing 1: Phillips-Volchenkov

One of the better shutdown pairings in this league. The A-Train blocks lots of shots and hits, well, like a train...and Phillips has a better first pass and can help on attack at times.

A lot of fans are dismayed that this is our first pairing and want a star defenseman with some offensive talent on the first unit. I disagree. The defense is there to play just that - defense. If you get some goals out of them it's a bonus, sure, but the Senators have plenty of young prospects on D who can run a PP and make good passes. You better believe there are teams who wish they had either one of these players in their rosters (Volchenkov especially).

Defense pairing 2: Kuba-Campoli

This is a very potent and mobile pairing. Kuba passes well and can be relied upon in his own end moreso than Campoli. But Campoli can run a PP and also has a more than adequate shot that's only going to get better with age (he's only 25).

Obviously Bryan Murray likes both players a lot - he signed Kuba to an extension last year and traded away a 1st rounder for Campoli. And for me, these were both great moves. Ottawa on the PP this year are going to be very dangerous - in no small part because of these two players on the blue line.

Defense pairing 3: Lee-Picard

The depth pairing. I am going to be brutally honest here...Brian Lee looked, at times, absolutely atrocious out there last season (especially playing with Bell). But I can honestly say I have seen an improvement with each game that went by. His problem seems to be that he doesn't know what sort of defender he should be at times - the puck moving D or the stay at home D. So he plays a game that's kinda halfway between without being good at either one. Methinks he will have to battle hard to impress at camp or risk being sent down to Bingo once more.

I didn't really see much of Picard, but he has potential and hopefully he can get a decent shot on the 3rd pairing this year. There will be other prospects breathing down his neck for sure.

Goalies: Leclaire-Elliott

Ever since Pascal Leclaire was traded to Ottawa on deadline day in March, the buzz and anticipation has been constant. Last season he spent mostly on the injured list, but the season before he had 9 shutouts (in just 54 starts!!!) and posted solid numbers.

He is easily the closest thing to a #1 goaltender that the Senators have had for a while...but will the pressure get to him? And can he produce similar numbers playing behind a system that is much less defense-orientated than what he was used to in Columbus???

We saw a lot more of Brian Elliott than we expected to last year because of the Gerber meltdown. And he definitely has promise. But there are areas of his game that need work. He MUST get a better handle on his rebounds and he also needs work on being screened. If Leclaire can stay healthy and play 60-65 games then Elliott is more than capable of doing the rest.

Part 3 (hopefully coming tomorrow) will look at the trading block and what sort of returns we could expect for certain players...