With Brian Elliott allowing three goals in an 86 second span on Friday night against the St. Louis Blues, Coach Cory Clouston elected to stay with Elliott over Pascal Leclaire. With no wins this season and a .872 save percentage along with a 3.96 goals against average, Leclaire has yet to live up to his billing as an elite number one starter when Bryan Murray acquired him from Columbus.
Clouston has proven to be a loyal coach as he has stood behind the players he coached in Binghamton (ie. Elliott, Ryan Shannon and Matt Carkner). Clouston came up with Elliott when he was promoted to the big club and brought first hand knowledge of what Elliott was capable of. Elliott has since then rewarded Clouston with his solid play and saved last season when Leclaire went down with injuries.
When Leclaire was traded to Ottawa, he was injured and spent the rest of the season rehabbing his injured ankle. When he was ready to play, Leclaire made it through his first 16 starts of the 2009-2010 season with a respectable 8-5-3 record. But then the injuries came and Leclaire has been on a downward spiral ever since. Out a month, Leclaire came back and made it through ten games, only winning three times in that span, before going down with another injury for almost another whole month. Since December 31, 2009, Leclaire only won once in the rest of the regular season, which was a span of 13 games.
Leclaire ended the 2009 – 2010 regular season with a 12-14-2 record and as the back-up to Elliott. The only saving grace for Leclaire was his playoff performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Elliott was overwhelmed in his first playoff action, and was pulled in game 4 for Leclaire. With a spectacular game 5 that went into triple overtime, Leclaire made 56 saves and gave the Sens a new life.
With the start of a new season, and Leclaire coming off his great playoff performance but having a sub-par training camp, Clouston decided to name Leclaire the starter when the puck dropped to open the season. Leclaire started off strong, as he was the only reason Ottawa wasn’t embarrassed their first three games into the season. Being left out to dry, Leclaire had no support and lost his first three games. Then Leclaire’s bad luck continued as he went down with a groin injury in the fourth game of the season. Leclaire’s last start was a 6 – 2 beating from the Vancouver Canucks, a game where Leclaire received no help from his team to keep the puck out of the net.
Elliott has since then come in to turn the season around. He has won all nine games that the Sens have won and has brought them out of the Eastern Conference basement. But with the Sens poor play of late, including that of Elliott, who has allowed 14 goals in his last three games, why has Leclaire not seen more action?
Since the calendar turned to 2010, Leclaire has won only twice in 22 games. Being a UFA at the end of the year, Leclaire’s numbers will be lucky to earn him a multi-million dollar contract. But we have seen flashes of Leclaire’s potential. Maybe he just needs one more shot to recapture that magic.
I think Clouston’s decision not to pull Elliott after his second period three goal brain fart speaks volumes on how he feels about Leclaire. Obviously Elliott was frustrated, but Clouston stuck with him. The game was only 3 – 1 at that point, could Leclaire have faired better than the 5 – 2 final? With three days between the last game and today’s upcoming game, will Clouston give Elliott the game after a few days off? Or will Leclaire get a chance to prove himself?
In Clouston we trust, but does he trust Leclaire?
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