Listen, as two-time winners of the August Stanley Cup- I'm listening. The Ottawa senators are... I think they're right to be excited this year. I think fans are right to be excited this year.

Are they not a little bit excited? I think they're going to take a step forward because of how muted their fans have been this August.

I agree. I would say the August Stanley Cup went to the Montreal Canadians, but not because they thought they were going to win the Cup, but because they got Line A, and I was thrilled for them.

They're a smart online team, and I think they have caught on to the meme.

The Sense fans? Yes.

They have finally caught on to the August Stanley Cup, and they're going to... They won't allow themselves to get in the way of their team's success anymore. That's fair.

Well, I don't think that they did. I think that ownership did. I think bad general managers did. But look at, Ottawa is riding a high. They got a great starting goal tender. They got a great character winger in David Peron. They got a freaking arena plan. It's just there's so much going on here, and a new head Coach, who makes you vomit on the first day of training camp.

And they're not starting the season with, Oh, Shane Pinto is just going to miss half the season. That is wham, right? Remember. Right, smack dab in the middle of training.

He was also in the middle of a contract dispute.

And that. Yeah, it's great. Or you're coming off like, Hey, you're getting fined at first round pick. That's right. None of that. Distraction senators are of the past. They're not a noisy team anymore, and I really like that about them.

Now, there is just a straight-up truth about them, though. They made some good ads, like Adam said, Peron. Allmark is huge because they couldn't stop a beach ball last year. Other than that, they have not made very many moves, which is why all their young guys, all of them, have to take a step this year if they hope to make the playoff. Every single one of them, every guy, 25 and under.

There's certainly a sneaky case that the Ottawa senators are going to be a big active trade team, but it's going to be One of those things that they are going to have to perform on the ice first, as the team currently is, in order for those trades to happen. Let's just talk about how the franchise changes with Lena Zomark starting games for you.

You don't have to worry about the fuck ending up in the back of your net every bloody time. Jacques Martin is having to be like, no, these guys are good goalies, followed by them not being good goalies at all. When your coach says something like that, it is usually followed by some bump, and it just wasn't. But Corpusallo, I don't think is a terrible goalie. Was the contract smart? No. I don't think he's that bad. He's obviously not there anymore. Anton Forseberg, I don't think is a bad goalie.

Anton Forseberg has been really good at times in his career. Yes.

That was so strange. Oh, Mark, when What was his last actual bad season? Ages ago.

Oh, yeah. No. Oh, Mark's great. He's one of the top 10 goal tenders in the National Hockey League.

So between pure lucky bounce back and we have a really good goalie now, surely the Sends save percentage collectively goes up by an amount where you're already making up 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 points in the standings. It should be a slam dunk improvement to go from one of the worst handoms in the league to, at very least, adequate.

Yeah, I truly think having Lena Solmark on this team is a game changer for them, like wholesale. They're catapulted into a new part of the division now that they can say, Hey, we have a solid goal tender that we can trust, plus a pretty really good backup who's been a starter here briefly before and displayed good goal tending talent. That's something that Buffalo can't say, Montreal can't Can't say that, Detroit especially can't say that. They have 82 goal tenders signed at their roster. You know who can't say it?

Boston.

As of right now with Swayman not signed, they can't say that either.

The same day that we're recording this, the Bruins have the Sens tandem from last year, except swap out Forzberg for Brandon Busey, who I don't know if he's even played in the NHL. You got Corpusel Busey.

So if you look at the Sens right now, I say they have one of the best goal tender situations in the division. So there's There's really high hopes for this team. There's definitely the potential.

They've also done a good job of not going after players that don't want to be there. Third time's the charm. Naming... I mean, you had Dabrin cat a couple of years ago. Last year, you had Chikrin Tarasenko. Those guys are gone. I look at this roster, and it's a group of guys that want to be Ottawa senators. To be fair to the players that didn't want to be in Ottawa, the Eugene Melnik years repelled a lot of people from wanting to be there. They were not good. Now you've got a whole It's a different thing. Here's what I love, too. You got... Katie Kachuk is going to be 24. This is his 24-year season. Tim Stutz is a 22-year. Drake Batherson will be 26. These three players are going to be the players that you expect to step up, and they have been stepping up. But I think this is the year that they get to the next level of, Okay, we're here and this is going to be great.

Well, as long as we're talking about the next level, Adam, I got to offer you condolences.

Why?

I think Jake Sanderson is He's going to make your mentions tough. Why?

I liked the deal. I liked the deal.

Oh, yeah, did you? Yeah.

I was the one that liked the deal.

They still called me a troglodyte.

They have a legitimate case to say that they have seven guys on their team who could all be very, very good NHL players on borderline stars. If you look at the defense, it's Shabbat and Sanderson. Both of those guys on the left side could be studs, and we could look at them like how we looked at the lightning. Shabbat's a bounce back, too. Yeah, Shabbat, I feel it's there, though. We could look at them like how we looked at the lightning and the left side of this team. The right side is a little lacking. But then you go to the fore group and you say, K'Chuk, Stutzla, Norris, Pinto, Batherson. Five guys who could all He's going to legitimately be NHL stars.

Asterisk on Norris. I mean, at what point do you just carve into rock, injury prone?

I think with every young player, you're not that until you are that. And with Norris, I'm still there with, Hey, he could be very good, and I'm not ruling about that. Oh, no, he got a real good player, and he's there.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And to be fair, currently, he's on the IR. And it's tough. So I want to say something, Jesse. You mentioned the left side on their defense. Sanderson Shabbat, great. Arnaud Zube was pretty solid for them last year. One guy that they picked up in the Chiquran trade that I actually really like is nick Jensen. I think solid, steady. When you have a team that... Guys, no offense to... I feel like I'm picking on him. But you had a guy that the coach didn't like in Brandstrom. You had Travis Hammond signed to that weird head scratching deal. Nick Jensen is a real upgrade on what they had before.

There's no argument that the sends have gone backward at any position.

No, you're right. That's a good position to be in. Yeah, absolutely.

Even coach.

Yeah.

An owner.

Yeah. Everything. That's crazy, actually. There's no argument that the sends have gone backward.

You look at the... Okay, we named a bunch of young guys. You named nick Jensen, bringing him in. That also includes Peron and Cousins. And then Jaru's coming back for another season. He was great last year. So you have the old vets and the NHL regulars to surround the young talent, too. It's not just young guys who need to overperform. They're really one good stud right-handed defenseman away from having a totally solid roster. If you look at it, that's what they're missing, high-end right side of the D. But the depth is there with the additions of Peron Cousins. I don't hate their bottom lines at all.

I want to say- All we have to go off of, one sec, is, Brandi Kchuck's play this preseason is like a guy who watched his brother go to back-to-back Cup finals and win the second one.

Oh, boy. I want one.

He looks like he's trying to win the Stanley Cup now. And I'm not saying that as a chirp. If this is his benchmark for the rest of the season, yeah, everyone's in trouble.

I want I say that as a Leef fan, I hate that they have nick Cousins. Hate it. I hate it. And I also want to ask you guys, what are the expectations for the two-thirds Leef fourth line with Michael Amadio?

It's due to be three out of three when they got David Kompf. That's right.

That's right. Yeah.

No, Gregor. Of Amadio.

Noah Gregor and Michael Amadio. What do we think? What are the expectations, guys?

That line might score 20 goals all season, and 15 of them will be on the lead.

Yes, absolutely. That is amazing. So Looking at it, I think everything's improved. Are they there yet, though? That's the question. Now, last year, and this is really important, they did have a big step up. A lot of people had them making the playoffs last year. I felt like, well, they had 60 something points the previous year. They improved it by about 10. They had 78 last year. The odds makers now are hot. They're red hot on the Ottawa senators. 90.5 points. That is a twelve and a half point swing. That's really hard to do. Can this team do it? And by the way, whether you pick over or you pick under on Bet MGM, the number is the same. It's a 1.87 bet.

I'm going over. Okay. I go over on that, and I know twelve is a lot, and I'm going over that. There's points to be had in this division, and they're going to grab a lot of them.

And where do you have them finishing?

They're going to be playing meaningful games into late March, early April, fifth in the division. That puts you right in wild card territory.

Jesse Blake.

I got them fifth and over. They're going to be battling the Islanders for that second wild card spot, I think, to the I agree. The the Ridley Grigg, nick Cousins line, plus David Peron. That's going to be a fucking... How do you deal with that?

Run, Katie K'Chuck out there on point.

That's an insane trio.

It's going to be deadly. The Suns are going to have a really fun season battling for that second wild card spot.

I agree, Jesse and Steve. I think they're an over. I think this is a 95 to a 98 point team, and you have to be to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference right now. 90 is too low. And I think that they are an outside shot at the playoffs. For sure, a wild card team. Fifth place, all three of us. Ottawa senators. That is your Ottawa senators season preview.