The next time the Senators see the Buffalo Sabres they'll play for keeps.
You could tell that certainly wasn't the case Saturday night.
The Senators hit the midpoint of training camp and this effort served notice they've still got plenty of work to do to get ready for the real thing with only four exhibition games left to play after a 6-4 loss to the Sabres in front of 16,738 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
While Bobby Ryan, Nick Paul, Marc Methot and Mark Stone scored for the Senators, they weren't able to get to Buffalo goalie Chad Johnson when Ottawa needed it most in the third period and as a result, the club has only one win in four tries in the pre-season but really it's meaningless.