Ottawa Senators

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This article is about the current National Hockey League team. For the original NHL team, see Ottawa Senators (original).

Ottawa Senators
Conference	Eastern
Division	Northeast
Founded	1992
History	Ottawa Senators 1992-present
Arena	Scotiabank Place
City	Ottawa, Ontario
Local Media Affiliates	The A Channel Rogers Sportsnet East TEAM (1200 AM)
Team Colours	Red, Black, White and Gold
Owner	Eugene Melnyk
General Manager	John Muckler
Head Coach	Bryan Murray
Captain	Daniel Alfredsson
Minor League Affiliates	Binghamton Senators (AHL) Charlotte Checkers (ECHL)
Stanley Cups	none
Conference Championships	none
Division Championships	1998-99, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2005-06

The Ottawa Senators are a professional ice hockey team in the NHL based in Ottawa, Ontario. They began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a 1992 expansion team. They are the only major league team in the Canadian capital.

[edit] Franchise history

[edit] The Original Ottawa Senators Franchise

The Original Ottawa Senators logo, 1918-34

The Ottawa Senators existed from 1901-34, winning ten Stanley Cups in that time. The team then relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, as the St. Louis Eagles, but folded after only one season there, 1934-35.

[edit] 1992 expansion

The NHL's planned 1992 arthur expansion had several strong contenders, but starting in 1989, original owner Bruce Firestone put together an energetic bid to revive NHL hockey in Ottawa, employing the last surviving original Senator, Frank Finnigan, as its public face. Firestone was President & CEO of Terrace Investments, a local commercial real estate development company. (Current Senators COO Cyril Leeder was President of Terrace, and Bell Sensplex Executive Director Randy Sexton was V-P).

The revived Senators were awarded one of the two expansion slots (along with the Tampa Bay Lightning) and both would begin play in 1992. The Senators' bid had been considered something of a long-shot, particularly in the face of a financially much stronger bid from Hamilton, Ontario, and ran into financial trouble almost at once, as Firestone had trouble borrowing money to meet the $50-million expansion fee. Firestone had to pay for the whole stadium and the streets and roads leading to the arena. In 1995-96, the Senators moved from the Ottawa Civic Centre to the Palladium (later renamed the Corel Centre and now Scotiabank Place), on January 15, 1996.

[edit] Beginning of a new era

Unfortunately, as with the Lightning's campaign — which many felt similarly won over a stronger St. Petersburg, Florida bid because it was going to be managed by former NHL great Phil Esposito, also its first president — 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 and spartan arena by NHL standards, seating only 10,500, and beat the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Montreal Canadiens 5-3 in the opener. Sadly, Finnigan died before the team started play, and the win against the Habs was one of the the few tastes of glory the new Sens would experience; they were a laughingstock and the worst team in the league, going 10 wins-70 losses-4 ties (24 points) in the 1992-93 (by tie-breaking rules, the second-year San Jose Sharks had a better season at 11 wins-71 losses-2 ties [24 points], since the first tiebreaker in the NHL is number of wins). It is as often happens to a sports expansion team. The Senators and their fans would suffer through four more last-place finishes.

[edit] 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, neither provincial nor federal, including a refusal by the Ontario government to pay for a new $40-million highway interchange. On August 17, 1993, Bruce Firestone resigned after missing mortgage and development payments and was replaced by Rod Bryden, a founder of SHL Systemhouse. 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 Palladium arena has been criticized for being remote. 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, which is the area around Hull, Quebec. Difficulties are compounded by frequent traffic jams before and after games. With no financial help from the government to improve the existing interchange, the team built interchanges and a new bridge that goes over the highway out of its own pocket.

Over the years, the arena has become one of the driving forces for development in Kanata. What was once an arena surrounded by farmland is a growing commercial and residential area.

[edit] Ottawa's turnaround

Scotiabank Place, 2006.

Two major events occurred for the Sens in January 1996: Jacques Martin became their head coach, and the team moved into its new arena — the 18,500-seat Palladium in Kanata, Ontario, a suburb of Ottawa. While Ottawa finished the 1995-96 season with a poor record, it marked the start of a remarkable franchise turnaround. Daniel Alfredsson became the first Senator to win the Calder Memorial Trophy, the NHL Rookie of the Year Award. Alfredsson, selected 133rd overall in 1994, was also selected to play in the 1996 NHL All-Star Game. The Senators made the playoffs for the first time in 1997. They clinched the seventh seed on the last game of the regular season thanks to a late goal from Steve Duchesne against Dominik Hasek, then of the Buffalo Sabres, giving the Senators a 1-0 win. The Senators then faced the Sabres in the first round of the playoffs and lost in the full seven games.

The Senators won their first playoff series in 1997-98, 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 team that became that season's Stanley Cup runner-up, the Washington Capitals, who quickly disposed of the Sens in five mostly one-sided games.

Ottawa has made the playoffs every year since their original visit. However, they have had limited success, winning only five series in their nine trips to the postseason. They had several consecutive losses to the Maple Leafs, leading to a heated rivalry between the two teams, added to by their geographic proximity in Ontario.

[edit] New millennium

Ottawa was locked in a contract dispute with then-captain Alexei Yashin during 1999-2000. Yashin, who earned the nickname "Cashin" for his actions, held out for the entire season, but the NHL ruled that he remained committed to the Senators for another season. The regular season was successful as they finished with 93 points, in second place in the Eastern Conference. However, they had a quick playoff exit after losing in six games in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yashin played during the 2000-01 season, but was stripped of the captaincy before 00-01, and was traded in the following off-season to the New York Islanders for Zdeno Chara, Bill Muckalt, and the Isles' second overall pick, which the Sens 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 Leaf goaltender Curtis Joseph.

The Senators finished 2001-02 with 94 points, in third place. In the playoffs, they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in 5 games, limiting the Flyers' high-powered offence to just 2 goals for the franchise's second playoff series win, but fell again to their arch-nemesis, the Maple Leafs, in a tense seven-game affair.

Ottawa's jerseys (from top-left clockwise: Home, Away and Third Jerseys).

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 Presidents' Trophy in 2002-03, finishing with a league-best 113 points. In the playoffs they defeated Yashin and his Islanders and Philadelphia before coming within one game of making it into the Stanley Cup Final series, falling to the eventual champions, the Devils. In September 2003, the team was purchased by pharmaceutical magnate Eugene Melnyk.

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. However, the Toronto goalie who came out laughing was now Ed Belfour, not Joseph. By now, 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. Two days after the Senators' loss, coach Jacques Martin was fired, and goaltender Patrick Lalime was later traded to the St. Louis Blues. Martin had been coach of the Senators for eight and a half years. He was widely respected, earned a 341-255-96 regular season record with the Senators, had led the team to eight consecutive playoff appearances, and was widely credited with changing the team into a league leader. However, after losing eight of twelve playoff series, including all four series in five years versus the Leafs, team management felt that a new coach was required for playoff success. On June 8, 2004, a mere day after their expansion brethren, the Tampa Bay Lightning, drank from Lord Stanley's Mug for the first time ever, Bryan Murray became the team's fifth head coach.

[edit] 2005-06 season and playoffs

On August 23, 2005, shortly after the end of the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Marian Hossa, whose 45 goals for the Senators in 2002-03 were a team record at the time, 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 second overall draft pick Dany Heatley, who had requested a trade out of Atlanta to shake his personal demons associated with Atlanta after being involved in a car crash on September 26, 2003 that killed Thrash centreman 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 fellow Rookie of the Year Alfredsson and young centre Jason Spezza, who led the American Hockey League in scoring during the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

On October 5, 2005, Alfredsson and Heatley became the first players to score the winning goals for a shootout in National Hockey League History; they both scored against Toronto's Belfour. Their sticks were subsequently sent to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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 captain 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, fourth in the league. His 103 points also recorded fourth in the NHL.

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 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, which was also partly the reason that cost him the NHL scoring title. His 71 assists were second, but he was behind with a considerable 25-assist margin — Art Ross Trophy-winner Joe Thornton led with 96 in the assist column.

Meanwhile, defenceman Wade Redden became the first Senator to win the NHL Plus/Minus Award, tied with New York Ranger Michal Rozsival, with a +35 despite missing 17 games due to a sprained ankle and personal reasons. 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.

Ottawa's alternate logo; a more detailed version of the Senators' trademark Roman legionnaire logo, turned three-quarters instead of at a profile view. The eyebrows and outlines are darkened to black on the jerseys recently.

On April 29, 2006, the Senators defeated Tampa Bay 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 by the Edmonton Oilers. 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' 2005-06 postseason as "an epic failure".

After their latest playoff failure, Eugene Melnyk (the team's owner) comforted fans in an open letter, 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.

[edit] 2006-07

[edit] Pre-Season

In July 2006, the Senators lost four players to free agency; defencemen Zdeno Chara (who signed a 5-year deal with the Boston Bruins), Brian Pothier (who signed with the Washington Capitals), goalie Dominik Hasek, (who's signed a 1-year deal, 750,000+bonuses if Hasek goes back to the Cup Final with the Detroit Red Wings), and forward Vaclav Varada who has signed with HC Davos of the Swiss Elite League). They replaced Hasek with former Carolina Hurricanes starter Martin Gerber and also signed defenceman Joe Corvo, late of the Los Angeles Kings. 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. On September 12, 2006, the club announced that they signed Russian centre Alexei Kaigorodov to a two-year entry level contract. They signed blueliner Jamie Allison, re-signed Antoine Vermette, Chris Neil and Peter Schaefer to avoid arbitration proceedings. They signed Chris Kelly and Spezza for 2 years each, as well as Christoph Schubert.

[edit] Regular season

The Senators played 9 pre-season games before they started the regular season with a match-up against their Ontario rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, on October 4, 2006 in which they defeated the Leafs 4-1. In their second game they were defeated by the Leafs 6-0. In their third game, versus the Buffalo Sabres, they were defeated 4-3 despite a late comeback. Spezza scored twice in the last 5 minutes. In their next game they were defeated 1-0 by Calgary, but were able to defeat Montreal 3-2 in a shootout the following game. Ray Emery played both games. Gerber then returned to the net for a 2-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche. This was Wade Redden's 700th career NHL game. The Senators then won 8-1 against the New Jersey Devils, with many of their new players, Joe Corvo, Tom Preissing and Dean McAmmond, producing goals in the win. They then went on to defeat Toronto in a 6-2 victory. A fight between Darcy Tucker and Patrick Eaves added more heat to the rivalry. However, Ottawa managed to defeat Toronto again 7-2 two days later. Ottawa's next two games were both losses, 2-1 to the Bruins (Chara, now the Bruins' captain, scored the winning goal and hammered Chris Neil), and 4-2 to the Montreal Canadiens. As of November 8, 2006, the Senators lost five games in a row for the first time since 1996, and lost three consecutive games started with a lead, losing to Carolina 3-2 after a 2-0 lead, Washington 4-3 in overtime after a 3-0 lead, and then Atlanta 5-4 after 3-1 and 4-2 leads. Then they turned their game around and won 6-3 on the road against the Pittsburgh Penguins, only to lose 4-3 at the hands of the Boston Bruins the next night. Then their struggles continued as they fell to the Canadiens 6-3. However they pulled together and scored 2 power-play goals and went on to defeat the league-leading Buffalo Sabres 4-2, with Ray Emery in net. Then lost 3-2 to New Jersey despite a short 2 goal comeback in the third. Then, the next game the again faced the Sabres, and won again, 4-1. On Monday, November 20, the Sens played the Minnesota Wild, and beat them 5-3 in a hard fought game. They again won 3-2 in overtime against Philadelphia, scoring 3 unanswered goals. The following Friday, the Senators defeated the Florida Panthers 6-4, with Dany Heatley registering his second hat-trick of the season, plus adding one assist, reaching the .500 win percentage from the first time since early-October. However, they could not pass the .500 percent mark, falling to Tampa Bay 3-1 for the first time in the regular season since the 2003-2004 seson. They managed to get a victory on the last road game of the week, defeating Carolina 4-1 with Martin Gerber in net. They then faced Florida, scoring 6 with Ray Emery in net, in which he got his first shutout this year, in a 6-0 thrashing. They continued the streak with Antoine Vermette scoring 2 in a 5-2 victory against Tampa Bay. They then surged against the New York Islanders, 4-2. Then, angainst the Washington Capitals, they were thrashed, 6-2. However, their next two games against the Rangers and Columbus were both losses, 3-1 and 6-2. Columbus scored a team record 5 powerplay goals that night. They finally turned around their brief slump, winning 3-2 against former teammate Dominik Hasek and the Detroit Red Wings. However, the next game against the Nashville Predators, they were beaten by an embarassing score of 6-0.

• To see the Senators' game highlights and recaps, click here.

[edit] Third sweater

The current home sweater of the Ottawa Senators was originally introduced as a third sweater in 1997, and in 1999 replaced the Senators' original black sweater, which was identical in design to the white sweater still in use today.

The current third sweater was introduced in 2000. It was black with coloured stripes of red, white, and gold. The gold strip is modeled after an ivy length around the jersey. The same striping pattern is found on the sleeves. The logo is the same as on the home jersey, the face of a Roman face looking forward.

[edit] Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Records as of August 21, 2006. ^[1]

¹ Season was shortened due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.

² Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

³ As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games will have a winner; the OTL column includes SOL (Shootout losses).

⁴ As of December 14, 2006.

⁵ Franchise total stats after 2005-06 season.

[edit] Notable players

[edit] Current roster

As of December 13, 2006. [1]

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

Defencemen
#		Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
4		Chris Phillips - A/C	L	1996	Calgary, Alberta
5		Christoph Schubert	L	2001	Munich, Bavaria
6		Wade Redden - A (IR)	L	1996	Lloydminster, Saskatchewan
7		Joe Corvo	R	2006	Oak Park, Illinois
14		Andrej Meszároš	L	2004	Považská Bystrica, Slovakia
24		Anton Volchenkov	L	2000	Moscow, Russia
42		Tom Preissing	R	2006	Arlington Heights, Illinois

Forwards
#		Player	Position	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
11		Daniel Alfredsson - C (Injured)	RW	R	1994	Gothenburg, Sweden
12		Mike Fisher - A	C	R	1998	Peterborough, Ontario
15		Dany Heatley - A	RW	L	2005	Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg
16		Brian McGrattan (Injured)	RW	R	2002	Hamilton, Ontario
17		Denis Hamel	LW	L	2003	Lachute, Quebec
19		Jason Spezza	C	R	2001	Toronto, Ontario
20		Antoine Vermette	LW	L	2000	Saint-Agapit, Quebec
22		Chris Kelly	LW	L	1999	Toronto, Ontario
25		Chris Neil	RW	R	1998	Markdale, Ontario
27		Peter Schaefer	LW	L	2002	Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan
37		Dean McAmmond	LW	L	2006	Grande Cache, Alberta
44		Patrick Eaves	RW	R	2003	Calgary, Alberta

• To see the Senators' individual player pages, click here.

[edit] Team captains

• Laurie Boschman, 1992-93
• Brad Shaw & Mark Lamb, 1993-94 (co-captains)
• Gord Dineen, 1994
• Randy Cunneyworth, 1995-98
• Alexei Yashin, 1998-99
• Daniel Alfredsson, 1999- present

[edit] Hall of famers

Builders

• Roger Neilson, Assistant/Head coach, 2001-03, inducted 2002

[edit] Retired numbers

• 8 Frank Finnigan, RW, 1923-31 & 1932-34 (original Senators), number retired October 8, 1992
• 99 Wayne Gretzky, number retired league-wide February 6, 2000

[edit] 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)

[edit] Franchise scoring leaders

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

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games Played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game; * = current Senators player

[edit] NHL awards and trophies

Presidents' Trophy

• 2002-03

Calder Memorial Trophy

• Daniel Alfredsson: 1995-96

NHL Plus/Minus Award

• Wade Redden: 2005-06 (shared with Michal Rozsival of the New York Rangers)

Jack Adams Award

• Jacques Martin: 1998-99

[edit] Franchise individual records

• Most Goals in a season: Dany Heatley, 50 (2005-06)
• Most Assists in a season: Jason Spezza, 71 (2005-06)
• Most Points in a season: Dany Heatley & Daniel Alfredsson, 103 (2005-06)
• Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Mike Peluso, 318 (1992-93)
• Most Points in a season, defenseman: Norm MacIver, 63 (1992-93)
• Most Points in a season, rookie: Alexei Yashin, 79 (1993-94)
• Most goaltender wins in a season: Patrick Lalime, 39 (2002-03)
• Most shutouts in a season: Patrick Lalime, 8 (2002-03)
• Lowest G.A.A. in a season: Ron Tugnutt, 1.79 (1998-99)
• Best SV% in a season: Dominik Hasek, .925 (2005-06)
• Highest +/- rating in a season: Wade Redden, +35 (2005-06)

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] Television broadcasting

Local coverage of the Ottawa Senators can be found on Rogers Sportsnet and A-Channel. National coverage is less frequent; however national broadcasting is usually done by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which has increased the number of Senators games broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada in 2006-07 compared to previous seasons. Five games in 2006-07 are to be broadcast on pay-per-view in the Ottawa area, starting off at Detroit on December 12, 2006.

[edit] See also

• List of Ottawa Senators players
• Head Coaches of the Ottawa Senators
• Battle of Ontario
• Spartacat
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• List of ice hockey teams in Ontario

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ottawa Senators

• Official website of the Ottawa Senators