Run for the money

On the ice, the cash-poor Senators live like kings

It's time to stop whatever you're doing and start rooting for the Ottawa Senators. Immediately. Has a team ever fulfilled a sports fan's competing needs so perfectly?

The Senators are front-runners -- they lead the NHL's Eastern Conference with 56 points and have lost just four of their past 28 games. They're dazzling offensively (having scored a league-best 134 goals) and inspiring defensively (they haven't allowed more than three goals in a game in nearly two months). Put on your Senators cap and everyone will commend you on your intelligence.

The Senators are underdogs -- the team is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, and on the verge of bankruptcy. Next year at this time they could be playing home games in Portland, Ore., or not at all. As of Wednesday the Senators players' most recent paychecks are seven days late, which means they've played three games for about what you spend each week on elephant hide. Put on your Senators cap and everyone will commend you for your sensitivity.

In the Senators' 11-year existence the franchise has exemplified several important truths. We've been reminded how spectacular losing can be (Ottawa was an astounding 51-224-23 during its first four seasons; goalie Damian Rhodes wept when he was traded to them in 1996). We've also been reminded that with strong drafting and excellent coaching even such prodigious failure can be overcome. Relying almost exclusively on homegrown players and upon the tutelage of even-keeled coach Jacques Martin, Ottawa has made the playoffs in six consecutive seasons.

Part of Martin's success comes from not letting his team get distracted. The Senators had a highly disruptive malcontent in Alexei Yashin, yet they kept winning even while Yashin (then Ottawa's best player) sat out a year, pouting and attempting to renegotiate his contract. They had the Rhodes/Ron Tugnutt goalie controversy. And they've had serious financial issues year after year. Now, Martin has to handle a group of players who aren't getting paid.

"We have some tough games coming up," says Martin, referring in part to Wednesday's visit to Vancouver, which is tearing up the West. "My concern is to have the team prepared. We have a enough to worry about on the ice."

Martin's message is getting through: "We're not going to let the outside stuff interfere with us," says Senators defenseman Wade Redden.

So far Redden's right on. Ottawa went 2-0-1 after missing its payday, and maybe the most satisfying game was Monday's 5-2 thumping of the Rangers in New York, which prompted howls of glee from Canada's capital. On one Senators online forum, an e-mailer shouted out to Rangers GM Glen Sather: "Hey, Slats -- bet you wish you could buy this team and bring it to New York."

The Rangers (15-21-6-1) last week received paychecks that put them on pace to earn a grotesque $75 million this season. The Senators (25-9-5-1) last week received paychecks that put them on pace to net less than what it costs to take books out of the library. Even solvent, the Senators have a payroll of only $30 million. Consider this: The Rangers' most explosive forward, Pavel Bure ($10 million), earns nearly five times more than the Senators' most explosive forward, Marian Hossa. The Rangers' top defenseman, Brain Leetch ($9.7 million), earns over three times more than the Senators' top defenseman, Redden. The Rangers' highest-paid center, Bobby Holik, takes home three times more than the Senators' highest-paid center, Radek Bonk.

The Senators have charged and danced to the top of the league behind the likes of centers Todd White ($750,000) and Martin Havlat ($960,000). And even if all payrolls were even, neither Senators GM John Muckler nor majority owner Rod Bryden would likely trade their team for any other in the league.

That's not to say the Sens are perfect. (Who, outside of Pinstripers, would want to root for a perfect team, anyway?) If there's one other lesson the Senators have reinforced during the past few years it's that you don't go far in the playoffs without an elite-level goalie, and without a couple of physically rambunctious forwards to wear down your close-checking opponents. That's about all the Senators -- now relying on Patrick Lalime in the nets, and a uniformly sprightly cast up front -- need to become the first team to challenge for the Stanley Cup on even less than a shoestring.

Somehow Bryden, who has been scrambling to get help from several lenders, is going to get this team paid. And -- for this year, anyway -- they're staying put. So, wherever you live, start supporting your Senators immediately. There's no doubting this is the best team money can't buy.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides every Wednesday at CNNSI.com.

 

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