The Senators have returned Thomas Chabot to Saint John of the QMJHL, after signing the first round pick to his entry level deal. A little signing bonus for the kid to take with him!

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It wasn't the performance Andrew Hammond would have wanted if he felt the need to prove the naysayers wrong. Spotted a 2-0 lead (which they quickly extended to 3-0), Hammond allowed 4 goals on the last 6 shots he faced in the final 22 minutes of his 32 minute appearance as the Senators fell 4-3 to the Jets.

Not that the blame can be placed solely on the backup goalie, because the team really fell asleep in front of him and the goals that led to the tie were deflections or tips.

There are plenty of available excuses for the flat 3rd period. Hockey players are creatures of habit, and traveling the day of the game and getting out of Ottawa late due to mechanical issues can throw a team off their rhythm. Arriving at the arena just 90 minutes before the game maybe didn't give them the usual pregame preparation and after a good start they just didn't have their legs under them. Reasons perhaps, but not excuses.

They seemed to be content with the 3-0 lead they had built up in the first half of the game and stopped forechecking, but allowing that many goals in such a short time on so few shots is not acceptable from a goalie, exhibition game or not.

There were some bright spots, mostly the line of Gabriel Pageau, Milan Michalek and Bobby Ryan who were good all night and combined for 6 points and a +7 rating. There were a couple of scary moments for the line, as Pageau blocked a shot with his chest early on, and then Ryan dropped the gloves with Blake Wheeler late in the third, a contest that probably had both coaches holding their breath for a moment hoping something that silly didn't result in a freak injury to each of their respective skilled forwards while they were doing something that they aren't usually doing.

Craig Anderson looked very sharp in his 28 minutes, stopping all 17 shots he faced.

I don't think it is just me, but this preseason seems to be dragging on and the regular season can start any time now.

All that remains is a home and home with Montreal on Thursday at the Bell Centre and Saturday at CTC.

While we will probably see almost the NHL lineup in at least one (if not both) of those games, I am wondering if there is a lineup shuffle on the horizon before the season even starts (at least from what everyone had anticipated). Just throwing it out there, as the Turris line has been intact but Zibanejad and Ryan haven't even been in the lineup on the same night let alone played together in the entire preseason to date.

I could see Dave Cameron going with a balanced top 9, and spreading out the offense.

Something like:

MacArthur - Turris - Stone
Michalek - Pageau - Ryan
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Lazar
Prince - Smith - Neil/Chiasson

At this point I would say Prince has earned an everyday shot, at least to start the season. He could easily play in the top 9 as well, if the Senators wanted to do something crazy like send Lazar to Binghamton to play first line centre minutes and power play/penalty kill time.

Time will tell, and there is still 2 games left, even if it seems like training camp has already gone on too long.

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