"Ottawa Senators coach Cory Clouston has a delicate problem.

As is so often the case, it involves Senators goaltenders.

Even though Brian Elliott has seized the No. 1 job, Clouston has to get Pascal Leclaire back into a game sooner rather than later.

Clouston can't let Leclaire, who hasn't played since leaving an Oct. 14 game against the Carolina Hurricanes with a groin injury, become a bucket of rust on the bench, which would happen if he sat there much longer.

Besides, Leclaire (0-2-1) did start the season well, even if he didn't get anything to show for it because his teammates were playing so poorly. Might as well see if he can pick off where he left off when he got hurt.

Against this need to play Leclaire, though, Clouston has to be careful not to do anything that could upset his team.

Now that the Senators have won three in a row, risen to above .500 at 7-6-1 and appear to have turned a corner, Clouston can't do anything to disrupt thats progress. He doesn't need the team to take another nosedive, which could happen if Leclaire returned and got hammered.

So Clouston has to pick his spot carefully, but there aren't many soft landing spots for a goalie who hasn't played in three weeks.

After home games against the resurgent Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks, the Senators go on a tough four-game road trip to Boston, Philadelphia, Carolina and St. Louis.

If Clouston has already picked a date for Leclaire's return, and he probably has (maybe even Tuesday night against Atlanta), he wasn't saying on Monday.

"We have kind of a plan mapped out in our head, but we also have Plan B and Plan C," Clouston said. "But, yes, he needs to start playing here in the next little while."

Beyond this, though, is the bigger question of how much playing time Leclaire will get.

While Leclaire started the season as the No. 1 goalie, Clouston conceded on Monday that Elliott had, in Leclaire's absence, won the job. Elliott is now 4-3-0 with a 2.89 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage."