I guess before the season started I was cautiously optimistic that the Sens 1) without Boucher, 2) with a group of NHL hungry rookies and 3) with zero pressure, would catch some of the other teams off guard and perhaps be better than everyone expected.

Of course with a record of 3-7-1 for October, they are just about as bad as others predicted. From my perspective the goalies have performed OK on most nights. The carousel of forwards, while anemic in scoring, have been OK too. Where I am shocked is on defense. While their D is closer to AHL calibre than all star, what I have seen is no better than what we saw last season, in some ways even worse. I was seriously expecting a significant improvement under Smith as his main missions were to improve the special teams and defense - I guess this remains a work in progress.

I hope to see some gradual improvement for November.