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Ottawa Senators

image:OttawaSenators 100.png
Team Jersey
enter image here
League
National Hockey League
Current Coach
Bryan Murray, 2004-
Current General Manager
John Muckler , 2002-
Current President & CEO
Roy Mlakar , 1996-
Current Owner & NHL Governor
Eugene Melnyk , 2003-
Most Games
Radek Bonk: 686
Most Points
Daniel Alfredsson: 568
First Game
Ottawa 5 - 3 Montreal
(Ottawa; October 8, 1992)
Largest win
Ottawa 9 - 1 New York Rangers
(Ottawa; January 24, 2003)
Largest defeat
Ottawa 0 - 10 Calgary
(Calgary; January 15, 1994)

Ottawa 1 - 11 St. Louis
(Ottawa; February 26, 1994)

Stanley Cups
Winners: 0

The Ottawa Senators are an ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada. They play in the North-American National Hockey League.

Founded: 1992-1993 (franchise awarded December 6, 1990)
Arena: Corel Centre (capacity 18,500)
Uniform colours: black, red, gold, white
Logo design: Roman legionnaire
Division titles won: 3 (1998-99, 2000-01, 2002-03)
President's Trophies won: 1 (2003)
League championships won: 0
Contents

Original Franchise

The original Ottawa Senators franchise was based in Ottawa from 1901 to 1934. They competed in the National Hockey Association and the National Hockey League and won a total of nine Stanley Cups. This franchise was originally nicknamed Silver Seven, and later nicknamed Senators. The original Senators relocated to St. Louis, Missouri and played their final season 1934-1935 as the St. Louis Eagles. This franchise is completely separate from the modern-day Senators franchise.

List of Stanley Cup final appearances by Ottawa based teams

Original Ottawa Senators Year-by-Year Record

Season---W--L--T--OTL-GF--GA---PTS--Finish----Playoffs
1917-18--9-13--0--0---102-114--18-3rd, NHL--Out
1918-19-12--6--0--0----71--53--24-1st, NHL--Lost Final
1919-20 -18--5--0--0---121--64--38-1st, NHL--Won Cup
1920-21-14-10--0--0----97--75--28-2nd, NHL--Won Cup
1921-22-14--8--2--0---106--85--30-1st, NHL--Lost Final
1922-23-14--9--1--0----77--54--29-1st, NHL--Won Cup
1923-24-16--8--0--0----54--32--32-1st, NHL--Lost Final
1924-25 -17-12--1--0----83--66--35-4th, NHL--Out
1925-26 -24--8--4--0----77--42--52-1st, NHL--Lost Final
1926-27-30-10--4--0----86--69--64-1st, CD---Won Cup
1927-28 -20-14-10--0----78--57--50-3rd, CD---Lost QF
1928-29 -14-17-13--0----54--67--41-4th, CD---Out
1929-30 -21-15--8--0---138-118--50-3rd, CD---Lost QF
1930-31 -10-30--4--0----91-142--24-5th, CD---Out
1932-33 -11-27-10--0----88-131--32-5th, CD---Out
1933-34 -13-29--6--0---115-143--32-5th, CD---Out

QF = Quarter Final, CQF = Conference Quarter Finals, CSF = Conference Semi Finals, CF = Conference Finals, CD = Canadian Division, AdD = Adams Division, NED = Northeast Division

Current Franchise

In 1992, the Ottawa Senators began play in the modern era, under original owner Bruce Firestone . The Senators suffered through several miserable seasons, among the worst in the NHL record book, after they started play. The modern-day Senators played their first game in the Ottawa Civic Centre, a small arena by professional standards, seating approximately 10,500.

Two major things happened for the Ottawa Senators in January 1996: Jacques Martin became their head coach and they moved into a new arena, the 18,500-seat Palladium (now known as the Corel Centre) in Kanata, a former suburb of Ottawa and now part of the city of Ottawa. While Ottawa finished the 95-96 season with a poor record, it marked the start of a remarkable franchise turnaround. Daniel Alfredsson became the first Senator to win the Calder Trophy. The 96-97 season saw the Senators make the playoffs for the first time, where they lost a thrilling seven-game series to the Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators won their first playoff series following the 1997-98 season, defeating the New Jersey Devils in six games.

Ottawa was locked in a contract dispute with Alexei Yashin during the 1999-2000 season. Yashin 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 2000-2001 season, but was traded in summer 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 season with 94 points, in third place. In the playoffs, they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 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 Cup in the 2002-03 season, finishing with a league-best 113 points. In the playoffs they defeated the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers before falling to the eventual Stanley Cup champions, and came within one game of the Stanley Cup final before being defeated by 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 in the playoffs, 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 5 years. 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, Jacques Martin was fired. He had been coach of the Senators for 8 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 straight 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.

See also: List of Ottawa Senators captains

Current Ottawa Senators Year-by-Year Record

Season---W--L--T--OTL-GF--GA---PTS--Finish----Playoffs
1992-93-10-70--4--0---202-395--24-6th, AdD---Out
1993-94 -14-61--9--0---201-397--37-7th, NED---Out
1994-95 --9-34--5--0---117-174--23-7th, NED---Out
1995-96 -18-59--5--0---191-291--41-6th, NED---Out
1996-97-31-36-15--0---226-234--77-3rd, NED---Lost CQF
1997-98 -34-33-15--0---193-200--83-5th, NED---Lost CSF
1998-99 -44-23-15--0---239-179-103-1st, NED---Lost CQF
1999-00 -41-28-11--2---244-210--95-2nd, NED---Lost CQF
2000-01-48-21--9--4---274-205-109-1st, NED---Lost CQF
2001-02-39-27--9--7---243-208--94-3rd, NED---Lost CSF
2002-03-51-21--9--1---263-182-113-1st, NED---Lost CF
2003-04-43-23-10--6---262-189-102-3rd, NED---Lost CQF

QF = Quarter Final, CQF = Conference Quarter Finals, CSF = Conference Semi Finals, CF = Conference Finals, CD = Canadian Division, AdD = Adams Division, NED = Northeast Division

Players of Note

Hall of Famers:

  • None

Current players:

Not to be forgotten:

Retired Numbers:

  • 8 Frank Finnigan (from the original Senators franchise)
  • 99 Wayne Gretzky (retired league-wide by the NHL)

Historical

Ottawa Senators official web site

Last updated: 05-17-2005 04:00:16