Some Tough Final Roster Decisions in Ottawa This Weekend The Ottawa Senators preseason has come to a close, and not a moment too soon. The Senators rested all of their top players Saturday night and lost their finale 6-4 to the Montreal Canadiens. For some of Ottawa's depth players (and that's all there was in this game) it was one last chance to impress Sens management. After the contest, the Senators made more cuts. Leaving aside players who had already been ticketed for Belleville earlier in camp, the Saturday cuts included forward Roby Jarventie, who had a great camp and scored a beauty Saturday night. He'll be joined in Belleville by goalie Mads Sogaard and, if he clears waivers, forward Bokondji Imama. Jarventie's demotion is sure to draw criticism from some fans who felt like he had outplayed some of the depth players who made the squad. Jiri Smejkal, Josh Bailey and Rourke Chartier appear to have made the team to start the year. Smejkal absolutely kicked the door down with his performance at camp. Josh Norris (shoulder rehab), Shane Pinto (still an RFA) and Zack MacEwen (injured Saturday night) will probably reclaim jobs at some point but it almost certainly won't be on Wednesday. The roster to start the year looks like it will be: Forwards: Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, Vladimir Tarasenko, Ridly Greig, Drake Batherson, Dominik Kubalik, Mark Kastelic, Mathieu Joseph, Parker Kelly, Jiri Smejkal, Rourke Chartier and the still unsigned Josh Bailey, who's on a PTO*. *UPDATE: Bailey was released on October 8th: Defence: Jakob Chychrun, Thomas Chabot, Jake Sanderson, Artem Zub, Erik Brannstrom, Travis Hamonic and Max Guenette. Barring injury, the goalies were always going to be Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg. As for the game, the Senators led 4-3 with under seven minutes to play but Montreal rallied with three unanswered goals in four minutes to put it away. Arber Xhekaj's insurance goal at 17:58 initially looked like it had hit the post, but it somehow went right through the net without tearing the mesh. Kelly, Jarventie, Kubalik, and Greig scored for the Senators, who played a good chunk of the game with just 10 forwards. Tarun Fizer (lower body) and MacEwen (upper body) were both hurt in the second period and did not return. Fizer had already been ticketed for Belleville, but MacEwen was a lock to start the year on Ottawa's fourth line. He was clobbered in the neutral zone while accepting a difficult pass from Hamonic. The Senators finished 6-2 in the preseason, second best in the conference behind 7-0 New Jersey. The Sens open the season Wednesday night on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes.
