Top lines impress during final scrimmage

The auditions came to an end Monday night for the Ottawa Senators.

The Senators held their final scrimmage of training camp at Canadian Tire Centre as Team White scored a 7-4 upset victory over Team Black.

Now, with the season set to open Friday with a back-to-back series at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Senators will form their roster and hold their first practice as a team Tuesday morning. This was the last chance for the players on the bubble to impress and you have to give some of them credit for making a push.

Trying to build chemistry, the top two lines that coach D.J. Smith and his staff put together were a glimpse into the future. While veteran Derek Stepan was between top pick Tim Stuetzle and Evgenii Dadonov, top winger Brady Tkachuk formed a youthful trio with centre Josh Norris and winger Drake Batherson.

Stuetzle, who only arrived in camp Sunday, looked good. He was stopped on a breakaway chance by Marcus Hogberg in the first. At the end of the period, the Senators had their players do shootouts and Stuetzle fired one home just for good measure.

Batherson, defenceman Josh Brown and Alex Galchenvuk also chipped in for Team Black.

Waived earlier in the day, centre Filip Chlapik scored twice for Team White while defencemen Christian Wolanin had a threegoal effort and Jonathan Aspirot also scored on goaltender Matt Murray. Forward Micheal Haley, who was also placed on waivers, added one in the third.

Make no mistake, the team in the white jerseys had to battle the odds because it was made up mostly of a group of players that have already been earmarked for Belleville. Hogberg, who is tabbed to be the backup behind Murray, had some good stops and that's a good sign because he'll get a chance to play this season.

The expectation is general manager Pierre Dorion, Smith and the rest of staff will make their final roster decisions in time for Tuesday morning's practice. Really, all that's left to decide is some spots on the taxi squad, because there wasn't a player on Team Black that would be earmarked for Belleville.

The Senators were pleased with the competition for jobs in camp. However, there will be some disappointment when the two teams are officially split up into two groups. Those who are being sent to Belleville won't be far away, but with the extra roster spots available they're down on the club's list.

You have to think guys like Haley and Chlapik have put themselves in the mix to be on the Senators' six-man taxi squad as long as they clear waivers.

BACK IN THE HOUSE

Call it the new normal or maybe it's a little bit of normalcy. For the first time in 10 months, Monday morning felt different as plans actually needed to be made to go to the rink for the Senators' intrasquad game. When the province of Ontario gave the green light to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Senators go ahead with the games, the stipulation was made they could do so without fans in the seats, but both sides do plan to revisit that later in the season.