Ottawa Senators

The Ottawa Senators are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Facts

Founded: 1992-93 (franchise awarded December 6, 1990)

Arena: Scotiabank Place (seating capacity 19,153)

Former Home Arena: Ottawa Civic Centre (1992-1995)

Uniform colours: black, red, and white

Logo design: Roman legionnaire

Division Championships: 4 (1998-99, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2005-06)

Presidents' Trophies: 1 (2002-03)

Rivals: Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres – in short, all the Senators' fellow teams occupying the Northeast Division in the NHL

Minor league affiliates: Binghamton Senators (AHL), Charlotte Checkers (ECHL)

Nickname: "Sens"

Mascot: Spartacat

Team History

The original Ottawa Senators

One of the greatest and most famous teams of the early years of hockey, the Ottawa Senators existed from 1901 to 1934, winning eleven Stanley Cups in that time. The team then relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, as the St. Louis Eagles, but folded after the 1934-35 season.

Expansion

The NHL's planned 1992 expansion had several strong contenders, but, starting in 1989, original owner Bruce Firestone put together an energetic bid to revive NHL hockey in Ottawa, using the last surviving original Senator, Frank Finnigan, as its public face. The new-look Senators won one of the two slots (along with the Tampa Bay Lightning) and began play in 1992. The Senators' bid had been considered something of a long-shot, and ran into financial trouble immediately. Firestone had trouble borrowing money to meet the 50 million dollar expansion fee. In the 1995-1996 season, the Senators moved from the Ottawa Civic Centre to the Palladium (now known as Scotiabank Place) on January 15th 1996, which was in the near-by city of Kanata (which amalgamated under the City of Ottawa in 2000).

Beginning of a new era

Unfortunately, as with the Lightning's campaign—which many felt similarly won its bid over a more favoured St. Petersburg group because it was led by former NHL great Phil Esposito — good public relations could not disguise the lack of talent. The modern-day Senators played their first game in the Ottawa Civic Centre, a small arena by professional standards, seating 9,862, and beat the to-be Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens 5-3. Tragically, Finnigan died before the team started play, and the win against the Habs was the last bit of glory the new Senators would see; they were the worst team in the league, going 10-70-4 (24 points) in the 1992-93 season (the second-year San Jose Sharks had a technically better season at 11-71-2 points, since the first tiebreaker in the NHL is number of wins). It is as often happens to sports expansion teams in any league, and hit both Ottawa and San Jose. In retrospect, though, one must realize that it was a good deal worse for the Los Angeles Kings, who barreled down in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal squad. The Senators and their fans would suffer through four more last-place finishes.

Rod Bryden era

For several years management had trouble securing financing for the construction of an arena. The team received no financial help from government, including a refusal by the Ontario government to pay for a new $25M highway interchange. On August 17, 1993, Bruce Firestone resigned after missing mortgage and development payments and was replaced by Rod Bryden, a former high tech tycoon. A year later he managed to borrow enough to pay for a $188 million arena called the Palladium. Although widely acknowledged as a well-designed arena, in the years since construction the arena has been criticized for being difficult to reach. It is located in the far west end of Ottawa, and is a long trip from many other areas, especially in the east or the Outaouais. Difficulties are compounded by frequent traffic jams at game time, as well as the isolation of the arena, which makes it difficult for celebrations to continue naturally after the game. Highway improvements are planned.

The Great Hockey Nation's Capital's Turnaround

Two major things happened for the Ottawa Senators in January 1996: Jacques Martin became their head coach and the team moved into their new arena, the 18,500-seat Palladium (later the Corel Centre, and now known as the Scotiabank Place, seating 19,153) in Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa and now part of the city of Ottawa. While Ottawa finished the 1995-96 season with quite a poor record, it marked the start of a remarkable franchise turnaround. Daniel Alfredsson became the first Senator to win the Calder Trophy. Not only that, Alfredsson (now the Ottawa captain and all-time leading scorer) was selected to play in the 1996 NHL All-Star Game. And, of all things, it was from him; the 133rd selection in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. The 1996-97 NHL season saw the Senators make the playoffs for the first time. They clinched the seventh seed on the last game of the regular season thanks to a late goal from Steve Duchesne on Dominik Hasek, then of the Buffalo Sabres giving the Senators a 1-0 win in the game. They faced the same Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the playoffs where they lost a thrilling seven-game series.

The Senators won their first playoff series following the 1997-98 NHL season, defeating the New Jersey Devils in six games. Despite defeating the heavily favoured Devils in the opening round, the Senators' lack of depth and experience was easily exposed in the second round against the Washington Capitals who quickly got rid of the Sens in five games.

New Millennium

Ottawa was locked in a contract dispute with Alexei Yashin during the 1999-00 NHL season. Yashin (who some fans referred to as 'Cashin' throughout this incident) held out for the entire season, but it was ruled that he still owed the Senators a year. The regular season was successful, as they finished with 93 points, in second place, however a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs ended the playoffs quickly. Yashin played during the 2000-01 season, but was traded in the summer of 2001 to the New York Islanders for Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt, and the Islanders' first round, and second overall, pick, which the Senators used to draft Jason Spezza. The Senators lost again to the Maple Leafs in the first round, this time in a 4-0 sweep, where they were repeatedly stymied by Leafs' goaltender Curtis Joseph.

The Senators finished the 2001-02 NHL season with 94 points, in third place. In the playoffs, they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in 5 games limiting the Flyers high powered offense to a measly 2 goals for the franchise's second playoff series win, but fell again to their nemesis, the Maple Leafs, in a tense seven-game affair. The Senators filed for bankruptcy on January 9, 2003, after a long history of debt. They continued regular season play after getting some emergency financing from the NHL. Despite the off-ice problems, Ottawa won the President's Trophy in the 2002-03 NHL season, finishing with a league-best 113 points. In the playoffs they defeated the Yashin-led New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers before coming within one game of making it into the Stanley Cup final series, falling to the eventual champions, the New Jersey Devils. In September 2003, the team was purchased by pharmaceutical magnate Eugene Melnyk.

Ottawa has made the playoffs every year since their original visit. However, they have had limited success, having won only four series in their eight trips to the postseason, including several consecutive losses to the Maple Leafs, leading to a heated rivalry between the two teams.

In the first round of the 2004 NHL playoffs, the Senators lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 4th time in 4 series against the Leafs. Ottawa had developed a strong rivalry with their Ontario cousins and there was a great deal of pressure on the team to finally defeat their archrivals, especially since they consistently finished higher in the regular season standings. Two days after the Senators' loss, coach Jacques Martin was fired, and goaltender Patrick Lalime was later traded to St. Louis. Jacques Martin had been coach of the Senators for eight and a half years. Martin was widely respected, had a 341-255-96 regular season record with the Senators and had led the team to eight consecutive playoff appearances, and was widely credited with changing the team into a strong league leader. However, after losing eight of twelve playoff series, including four out of four over five years to the Maple Leafs, team management felt that a new coach was required for playoff success. On June 8, 2004, Bryan Murray became the team's fifth head coach.

2005-06 Season & Playoffs

On August 23, 2005, shortly after the end of the 2004-05 NHL lockout, a "marvelous talent" named Marian Hossa, whose 45 goals for the Senators in 2002-03 were a team record until the 2005-06 arrival of Dany Heatley, and had ranked fifth in the league in 2003-04 with 36, was traded with defenceman Greg de Vries to the Atlanta Thrashers for former first round draft pick Heatley, who had requested a trade out of Atlanta to shake his personal demons associated with Atlanta after being involved in a car crash that killed teammate Dan Snyder, who was driving with Heatley at the time. Heatley has since regained the All-Star form he displayed in his rookie year on a line with Alfredsson and young centre Jason Spezza, who led the AHL in scoring during the lockout.

On October 5th, 2005, Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley became the first players to score the winning goals for a shoot out in NHL History; they both scored against Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Ed Belfour. Their sticks were subsequently sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Dany Heatley also set a team record with the longest consecutive point-scoring streak at 22 games. On February 2, 2006, the team set its own record scoring three short handed goals in one game in a 7-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Antoine Vermette and Mike Fisher both scored short handed within the same penalty in the second period and team captain Daniel Alfredsson scored the third short handed goal in the third period.

Dany Heatley became the first Ottawa Senator in franchise history to reach 100 points on April 13, 2006, recording two assists during a 5-4 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers and five days later became the first to reach the 50-goal mark and the fifth player to do so in the league in the 2005-06 season. He finished with exactly 50 goals.

On October 15, 2005, Dominik Hasek recorded his 300th career win in a 5-1 win, stopping 34 of 35 shots.

On April 15, 2006, scoring an assist against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Daniel Alfredsson became the second player in franchise history to reach 100 points. Heatley and Alfredsson now each hold the team record for most points in a season with 103. Jason Spezza also set a club record with 71 assists despite missing 14 games due to an injury.

Meanwhile, Wade Redden became the first Senator to finish first in the plus/minus category with a +35 despite missing 17 games due to a sprained ankle and personal reasons. He finished the season tied with Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers. Andrej Meszaros narrowly missed on being the first rookie to win the plus/minus title with a +34 rating. At one point he led the NHL with +39.

On April 29, 2006, the Ottawa Senators defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, four games to one. Ray Emery became the first rookie netminder since Philadelphia's Brian Boucher in 2000 to win a playoff series. The Senators were defeated by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round on May 13 2006, losing the series four games to one. This loss was particularly devastating since the Senators were widely tipped to win the Stanley Cup and were the highest seeded team left in the playoffs after the elimination of the Detroit Red Wings. Despite the high expectations, however, the Sens dropped the first three games of the series including two at home; ultimately losing on home ice, in overtime, on a short-handed goal scored by Buffalo's Jason Pominville in Game 5 of the series.

Respected hockey broadcaster Bob McKenzie described the Senators 2005-2006 postseason as "an epic failure".

After their latest playoff failure, Eugene Melnyk (the team's owner) comforted fans by saying that their team would not only win the Stanley Cup in the future, but, once they had it, they would, he boasted, "hoard" it year after year.

2006-07 Pre-Season

On July 1st, 2006, the Senators lost four players to free agency; defensemen Zdeno Chara (who signed a 5-year deal with Boston) and Brian Pothier (who signed with Washington), goalie Dominik Hasek and forward Vaclav Varada (both of whom have yet to sign with another team). They replaced Hasek with goaltender Martin Gerber, and also signed defenseman Joe Corvo. A short time later, they traded star forward Martin Havlat and centre Bryan Smolinski to the Chicago Blackhawks for Tom Preissing, Josh Hennessy, Michal Barinka and a second-round draft pick in 2008. They are also expected to sign Russian centre Alexei Kaigorodov to a rookie contract.

Jerseys

Third Jersey

The Third Jersey of the Ottawa Senators was introduced in 2000. It was black with coloured stripes of red, white, and gold. On the gold strip were black arrows following each other around the jersey. The same striping pattern went on the sleeves too. The logo is the same as on the home jersey, a Roman's head looking out.

Season-by-season record

CQF = Conference Quarter Finals, CSF = Conference Semi Finals, CF = Conference Finals

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PTS	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1992-93	84	10	70	4	--	24	202	395	1716	6th in Adams	Out of playoffs
1993-94	84	14	61	9	--	37	201	397	1710	7th in Northeast	Out of playoffs
1994-95¹	48	9	34	5	--	23	117	174	749	7th in Northeast	Out of Playoffs
1995-96	82	18	59	5	--	41	191	291	1553	6th in Northeast	Out of playoffs
1996-97	82	31	36	15	--	77	226	234	1087	3rd in Northeast	Lost in CQF
1997-98	82	34	33	15	--	83	193	200	1091	5th in Northeast	Lost in CSF
1998-99	82	44	23	15	--	103	239	179	892	1st in Northeast	Lost in CQF
1999-00	82	41	28	11	2	95	244	210	850	2nd in Northeast	Lost in CQF
2000-01	82	48	21	9	4	109	274	205	1062	1st in Northeast	Lost in CQF
2001-02	82	39	27	9	7	94	243	208	1347	3rd in Northeast	Lost in CSF
2002-03	82	52	21	8	1	113	263	182	1135	1st in League	Lost in CF
2003-04	82	43	23	10	6	102	262	189	1270	3rd in Northeast	Lost in CQF
2004-05²	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
2005-06	82	52	21	--	9	113	314	211	1443	1st in Eastern Conference	Lost in CSF
Grand Totals³	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PTS	GF	GA	PIM	Highest Season Finish	Highest Playoff Finish
14 NHL Seasons	1036	435	457	115	29	1014	2971	3069	15905	1st in League	Won CSF

Notable Players

Current Roster

As of July 15, 2006 ^*

Goaltenders
Number	Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
1	Ray Emery	L	2001	Cayuga, Ontario
29	Martin Gerber	L	2006	Burgdorf, Switzerland

Defencemen
Number	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
4	Chris Phillips	L	1996	Fort McMurray, Alberta
5	Christoph Schubert	L	2001	Munich, West Germany
6	Wade Redden - A	L	1996	Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
7	Joe Corvo	R	2006	Oak Park, Illinois
14	Andrej Meszaros	L	2004	Povazska Bystrica, Czechoslovakia
24	Anton Volchenkov	L	2000	Moscow, U.S.S.R.
42	Tom Preissing	R	2006	Rosemount, Minnesota

Forwards
Number	Player	Shoots	Position	Acquired	Place of Birth
11	Daniel Alfredsson - C	R	RW	1994	Gothenburg, Sweden
12	Mike Fisher	R	C	1998	Peterborough, Ontario
15	Dany Heatley	L	LW/RW	2005	Freiburg, West Germany
16	Brian McGrattan	R	RW,LW	2002	Hamilton, Ontario
19	Jason Spezza	R	C	2001	Mississauga, Ontario
20	Antoine Vermette	L	C/LW	2000	Saint-Agapit, Quebec
22	Chris Kelly	L	C/LW/RW	1999	Toronto, Ontario
25	Chris Neil	R	RW/C/LW	1998	Markdale, Ontario
27	Peter Schaefer	L	LW	2002	Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan
44	Patrick Eaves	R	RW	2003	Calgary, Alberta

Hall of Famers

Roger Neilson (Assistant Coach/Coach)

Team Captains

Laurie Boschman 1992-93
Brad Shaw, Mark Lamb and Gord Dineen 1993-94
Randy Cunneyworth 1994-98
Alexei Yashin 1998-99
Daniel Alfredsson 1999- present

Retired numbers

8 Frank Finnigan (from the original Senators franchise, RW, 1923-31 & 1932-34)
99 Wayne Gretzky (retired league-wide by the NHL)

First Round Draft Picks

1992: Alexei Yashin (2nd overall)
1993: Alexandre Daigle (1st overall)
1994: Radek Bonk (3rd overall)
1995: Bryan Berard (1st overall)
1996: Chris Phillips (1st overall)
1997: Marian Hossa (12th overall)
1998: Mathieu Chouinard (15th overall)
1999: Martin Havlat (26th overall)
2000: Anton Volchenkov (21st overall)
2001: Jason Spezza (2nd overall) & Tim Gleason (23rd overall)
2002: Jakub Klepis (16th overall)
2003: Patrick Eaves (29th overall)
2004: Andrej Meszaros (23rd overall)
2005: Brian Lee (9th overall)
2006: Nick Foligno (28th overall)

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Senators. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, P/G = Pts per Game, * = Active

Player	POS	GP	G	A	Pts	P/G
*Daniel Alfredsson	RW	706	262	409	671	.95
Alexei Yashin	C	504	218	273	491	.97
Radek Bonk	C	689	152	247	399	.58
Marian Hossa	RW	467	188	202	390	.84
*Wade Redden	D	694	88	248	336	.48
Shawn McEachern	LW	454	142	162	304	.67
Martin Havlat	LW	294	105	130	235	.79
Magnus Arvedson	RW	393	92	118	210	.53
Andreas Dackell	RW	401	65	115	180	.45
Alexandre Daigle	RW	301	74	98	172	.57