Ottawa Senators

After falling short in the conference finals, a wiser team can finish the job and win the Cup

By Michael Farber

Team Page | Predicted Finish: 1

Eleven tumultuous years after Ottawa's first general manager publicly apologized for picking ineligible players during the NHL expansion draft, being a Senator means never having to say you're sorry.

Daniel Alfredsson Darren Carroll SI RANKING (1 best - 30 worst) OFFENSE 2 DEFENSE 2 GOALTENDING 10 POWER PLAY 2 PENALTY KILLING 7 G.M. AND COACH 2

Ottawa has the goods to win the Stanley Cup. It has perhaps the fastest group of nine forwards in the Eastern Conference. It has three scoring lines, an estimable balance achieved elsewhere only in Detroit. At long last the Senators have grit, too, in nails-on-a-blackboard winger Vaclav Varada, who is as good as anybody at instigating the opposition. They have the best right side in hockey, with 50-goal-scorer-in-waiting Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson and, when he finally signs, Martin Havlat. They have the luxury of matching top lines with two No. 1-quality defensive pairs: Zdeno Chara and the emerging Chris Phillips, and slick Wade Redden and Karel Rachunek. Ottawa has a consistent if not brilliant goalie in Patrick Lalime. It has a first-rate systems coach in the cautious Jacques Martin, and a general manager with a clue in John Muckler, who is beginning his second season with the team. It has financial stability in new owner Eugene Melnyk, a big change from last season, when the franchise filed for bankruptcy in January. Most important, the Senators finally have an idea of what it takes to win a Stanley Cup.

"Everybody in our dressing room sees what we have coming back and how close we came," Redden says of missing the Cup finals by one win last season. "I think we learned a lot from the experience."

They lost Game 7 of the conference finals when Devils winger Jeff Friesen scored with 2:14 to play, but by then it was just as easy to say that Ottawa had beaten itself. Despite having home ice advantage in all three of their playoff series, the Senators didn't win the first two games at home in any series. Then they committed the unpardonable act of falling behind three games to one to New Jersey. For Ottawa to be a juggernaut this season, it must assert itself. "This team," Muckler says, "needs more of a killer instinct."

The holes in the Senators' lineup appear to be mere pinpricks. A center will have to switch to left wing, but Ottawa has a glut of capable pivots since Jason Spezza emerged last year. He probably earned frequent rider miles bouncing between Ottawa and its minor league team in Binghamton, N.Y., five times. In 33 regular-season games with Ottawa, Spezza contributed a creditable 21 points, but his breakthrough in Game 5 against New Jersey -- the nothing-to-lose Martin belatedly inserted him into the lineup -- established his NHL credentials. In a pivotal playoff match the 19-year-old was conspicuously the best player, scoring a power play goal and assisting on the game-winner in a 3-1 victory.

Using that performance as a springboard, Spezza worked out maniacally with Toronto veteran Gary Roberts during the summer and stocked his freezer with high-protein, low-fat buffalo and ostrich steaks. Spezza reported to training camp 10 pounds lighter and distinctly cut.

Hossa also is prepared to abandon the periphery and make the commitment to becoming a true power forward. He was on a 50-goal pace last season but scored only seven in the final 20 matches to finish with 45. Even so, after being nearly invisible in four straight postseasons, Hossa became a dominant player for the first time in 2003. The scary thing is, he can be even better.

"This team has the most character I've been associated with since Edmonton," says Muckler, an Oilers assistant coach in the 1980s and coach of the 1990 Cup-winning team; he was later coach and then G.M. of the Sabres. "Now they have to prove it. They came to camp believing that they can win the Cup."

Incidentally, that hapless first Senators G.M., Mel Bridgman, had to apologize because the team's table at the expansion draft had no working electrical outlet nearby and he had neglected to bring batteries for the computer, which contained the updated list of draftable players. The 2003-04 Senators can do Windows and everything else. Next June they should be making plans for a parade.

Insider

The Senators don't have any significant holes.... With Zdeno Chara, Chris Phillips and Wade Redden, Ottawa is the only club in the league with three shutdown defensemen.... Marian Hossa is the NHL's best big winger, and he could dominate the way a young Jaromir Jagr used to.... Re-signing veteran C Bryan Smolinski was huge. Not only does he provide the club with another offensive weapon, but he also gives the Senators a top face-off man.

Issue date: October 13, 2003