Ottawa loses 3-1 to Florida in pre-season opener

The Ottawa Senators opened the pre-season with a 3-1 loss Tuesday night in Halifax, Nova Scotia against the Florida Panthers. To be fair, though, Ottawa iced a lineup of mostly minor-leaguers, while Florida had a pretty decent squad and got some terrific goaltending from both Scott Clemmensen and Alexander Salak.

Ottawa's lone goal came from Alexandre Picard, assisted by Erik Karlsson and Joshua Hennessy, and Pascal Leclaire stopped 14 of 16 shots he faced. Scott Timmins, Kamil Kreps, and David Booth scored for Florida.

By all accounts, prospect Peter Regin had a heck of a game. He looked good in a few regular-season games last year, and could really make some waves if he plays well enough to make the big team's roster this season--he'd looke good at centre between Nick Foligno and Ryan Shannon on the third line. In terms of veterans, Shean Donovan did what he does with his speed, and Chris Neil, by all accounts, played like he wanted to prove the Senators' four-year contract extension was worthwhile.

Tonight's game should be a stronger showing for the Senators, with most of their big names in the roster for the home game. Which is good, because tonight's game is televised locally on Rogers 22, so we might actually get to see a few of the players in action.