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Ottawa Senators
Overall: 16
Northeast Division: 3
The
Senators, who again should be in the lower tier of Eastern
Conference playoff teams, pulled the biggest upset of the
1998 postseason by knocking out heavily favored New Jersey
in six games. Then they followed a storybook spring with a
nightmarish "How I Spent My
Summer
Vacation."
Life got mighty interesting in June for a six-year-old
franchise that had outgrown the buffoonery of its infant
years. General manager Pierre Gauthier, who laid the
groundwork for Ottawa's budding professionalism, resigned
for what he called family
reasons, but within weeks he wound up with the same job in
Anaheim. Rick Dudley, the former Sabres coach who had been
running the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey
League, replaced Gauthier. But Dudley will be hard-pressed
to duplicate his
predecessor's knack for making good use of late draft picks and
castoffs such as wingers Magnus Arvedson and Andreas
Dackell and defenseman Janne
Laukkanen.
Coach Jacques Martin must devise an attack for a team that
can be inept with the puck. However, Alexei Yashin, a
potential 100-point center, loves to play in traffic and
should thrive with the new rules that have created
additional space behind the net.
But until injured wingers Daniel Alfredsson (17 goals in 55
games) and
19-year-old junior sensation Marian Hossa return from knee
injuries, in November and December, respectively, Yashin
will have to make
things happen pretty much on his
own.
The core of young defensemen (including former high draft
picks Chris Phillips and Wade Redden) is one of the top
three in the
conference. That's a blessing, since it will have to protect a middling
pair of goalies, Damian Rhodes and Ron Tugnutt. The
streaky Rhodes has had occasional bouts of self-doubt and can
crack at any time, while Tugnutt merely cracks—he
fractured two ribs in a boating accident in the
off-season.
Ottawa can't wait for the season to start. The summer has
been just too
tough.
—By Michael Farber
Fast Fact
Even though the Senators advanced to the second round of
the playoffs last spring, they still have the worst winning
percentage (.308) of any NHL team since the 1990-91
season.
Keys To Success
- Early in the season the Senators must overcome the loss of injured
offensive keys Daniel Alfredsson and Marian Hossa, neither of
whom is expected back before mid-November.
- The most underrated defense in the NHL needs to be dominant
because Ottawa will have difficulty scoring.
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