"So with Robin Lehner blanking the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night and Brian Elliott losing to them 4-1 on Wednesday night, do you think tongues will be wagging Thursday across the national capital region? Of course they will. That's the nature of the position. It wouldn't be hockey season in Ottawa unless the Senators gave us a good goaltending debate. Not that this one has much chance of going anywhere, simply because Elliott ($900,000) and Pascal Leclaire ($4.8 million) have one-way contracts and Lehner doesn't. Money matters in today's National Hockey League. It nonetheless adds to the drama of training camp, especially with Senators coach Cory Clouston looking for one goalie to step up and assert himself. If, at the end of eight pre-season games, Lehner's the one, the Senators will have a real dilemma. The plot figures to thicken on Friday and Saturday, when the Senators play games against the Montreal Canadiens and Leclaire, No. 1 by virtue of salary, gets a chance to show where he is. Elliott's performance aside, the Senators as a group didn't do much to commend themselves on Wednesday night. They were almost the mirror opposite of the group that won 5-0 on Tuesday. "There were a couple of players who played well, and a couple who didn't," Clouston said. "We've got to keep things in perspective." http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports.../Goalie debate begins anew/3565149/story.html
