Ottawa looked very solid this preseason going 8-2 and finishing 1st in the Eastern Conference. Leading the team in scoring was newly acquired star winger Ales Hemsky.

Ales solidified his spot on the top line along with Marian Gaborik and Pat Marleau in the middle. On the second line it looks like it will be Pavol Demitra centering Freddy Modin and newly aquired winger Erik Cole. For the 3rd line Todd Marchant will skate down the middle with Jeff Friesen on his left side and most likely Matheiu Dandenault on his right. The 4th line will be mixed up but Chris Kelly is a lock at center there. Other possibilties on that line could be Evgeny Artukhin. The team will look to move Elias for a set of 3rd/4th line wingers.

On defense Anton Volchenkov and Brad Stuart will be the #1 pairing. Henrik Tallinder and Mark Streit will be the #1 pair while Zbynek Michalek and Steve Eminger will be #3. Steve Staios will be the #7 Dman and share time with Volchenkov or Stuart on the 4th pair. Theo Peckham and Steven Wagner will spend the season developing in the farm system.

The preseason saw Ryan Miller play 2 solid games to start with. After seeing that we won't have a problem with him we decided to test out Josh Harding the rest of the way. Harding went an amazing 6-1 with a 2.84 GAA. Although he won't be pro this year our hopes in goaltending look solid knowing that Harding will come in in a year or 2 and be a solid backup until Miller decides to leave the club. Peter Budaj will be the pro team backup while Justin Pogge will provide relief for Harding in the minors.

Overall the team looks great and the fans are very excited to see how far the team can go this year. Financially the team looks solid and attendance is poised to improve that this year.

For Sportsnet.ca this is Sean "The Dude" McCormick

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