The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Getting 3 out of 4 points to start the season against the Eastern Conference Stanley Cup finalists is definitely a great way to start. The back-to-back games in Sweden showed some good signs but the results of game one likely put a few Sens fans in panic mode. The question that lingered over the summer and during training camp reared its ugly head, and it points to goaltender Martin Gerber.

I would say three out of the four goals in the 4-3 OT loss Saturday were pretty weak. The game itself didn't have a lot of flow and Ottawa was already in battle-from-behind mode when the first shot of the game, less than a minute in, fooled Gerber and gave the Pens a 1-0 lead. This was the third start, including pre-season, that Gerber allowed the first shot to be scored. The OT goal was another softee so coach Hartsburg decided to put Alex Auld in net to start game two. He dismissed any notion that it was due to Gerber's play.

Sure, Auld stopped 30 out of 31 shots in the 3-1 victory, but I don't know, I still don't feel comfortable with this guy. There were a number of times when he had no idea where the puck was or if he had stopped it. He positioned himself well to make the stops which Gerber was lacking the game before so if he can keep that up, maybe that's all he needs to do. But I say time and time again to anyone who'll listen, if Auld is so good, why didn't Vancouver, Florida, Phoenix and Boston try to keep him?

So who starts the season opener against the Red Wings? I think to show confidence in their #1 they have to put Gerber back in, but we'll see this Saturday. I'm giving Gerber a three strikes and you're out policy, so he's got two left to step up in SBP's books.

I'm probably making it sound all doom & gloom and I shouldn't since they looked really good in their 3-1 win today and on the whole, Ottawa was definitely the better team than Pittsburgh in both games despite the game 1 result. Hard to believe just this past April, it would have been hard to give the Sens much of a chance at all to pull out a victory, but perhaps the locker room changes made in the off-season are already starting to pay off.

Some other positives was the team looked great on the penalty kill with Vermette & Kelly leading the charge (only 1 goal on 14 chances). Kuba (who had 4 assists in the two games) and Smith made their regular season Sens debut and made a good defensive pairing and the Pizza line carried the scoring without too many problems.

It's too early to tell if they can keep it up, but for now, they've giving Sens fans a reason to be a little more optimistic than the day after game 4 of their embarrassing sweep by the Penguins.

Quote of the game: "And Talbot was dropped just as bad as Kimbo Slice last night..."