The Ottawa Senators preseason schedule this year is head and shoulders above the gongshow that it was last year, and it is a case of the Senators learning from their mistakes.

The double-headers are fun and interesting, and they are a good way to ensure the players keep on the same rhythm in terms of games and off day programs.

Early on, with so many players still in camp, getting as many players the opportunity to suit up for relatively competitive games is a plus, and keeping them all in sync helps camp move along more smoothly.

After tonight’s double-header split-squad games against Toronto, they have 5 days off before heading to Winnipeg and then a couple more days off before finishing their pre-season with back to back games against the Habs on Oct 3rd and 4th.

After tonight, the club can pretty much split into the two groups that will make up, for the most part, those contending for the Ottawa roster and then those likely ticketed for Binghamton or Evansville. Also, you can expect many players to be sent back to junior or released after tonight. Ben Harpur (Guelph Storm), Nick Paul (North Bay Batallion), and Matt Murphy (Halifax Mooseheads) were all returned to their junior clubs after returning home from St. John’s. There are now 54 players in camp, and after tonight you can expect that to be reduced to about 45 or so, and split into the two groups.

Having the double-headers early in the preseason is also a dramatic upgrade over last season, where they played the Islanders in a double header in Ottawa and Barrie, but they were the last preseason games the clubs played.

That meant that, due to NHL veteran requirements in preseason games, the Senators never played a single game as a roster before the season opener. They were all over the place and I am not saying that that lack of cohesion was the reason for the Senators’ slow start to the season, but it definitely didn’t help matters.

Hopefully the way the schedule sets up this season puts the Senators in a better place to get a couple of games in with a majority of the actual roster intact and they can build into the season without interruption and not suffer the same fate as last season.

Those who don’t learn from their mistakes are destined to repeat them, and I think the Senators learned from at least one of the ones they made last season.