The forgotten Franchise
By The Ottawa Foreign Press (Where we report local issues instead of Foreign Ones)
January 30th, 2004

There they were, the Ottawa Senators, in the midst of a 3 game losing streak, the Senators got together in a closed-door players meeting. Mark Messier stood up, gave the team a tongue lashing for a horrid 7-11-3 record and a complete lack of effort by everyone. With the recent addition of Gary Roberts, Dainius Zubrus and Andrei Nikolishin, this was not expected out of the team. Then they went out to play the Boston Bruins.

For some odd reason, the Boston Bruins decided to play the entire game without a starting goalie. The Senators players took this as a slap in the face, an insult regarding the skill level of their own team in the eyes of the Bruins players, and in general, the entire league. The Senators went out to win the game by a score of 12-1.

20 Games since they broke their 3 game winless slide, the Senators have now gone 14-3-3 including an astonishing streak of 13 games without a loss going 10-3-3 while beating teams like the Blackhawks, Stars, and Blues during the streak. The Sens then went on a 3 game losing streak but have now rebounded making it 4 wins in a row without anyone noticing yet again.

How are the Sen’s doing this? Tomas Vokoun has taken over for the departed Hall of Famer Eddie “The Eagle” Belfour and has posted a 15-7-4 record with a stellar .917 save % and a 2.03 GAA. His Back-up Corey Schwab has been even better with a 5-2-2 record, a .924 save % and a GAA of 1.84.

Alexei Zhamnov is on a point per game pace. Gary Roberts is close behind with 36 points in 38 games. The commitment to team defence has also brought together good counterattacks leading to a solid Ottawa scoring unit, even though the Sens lack a true sniper.

So what do the Sens lack? Fan interest mainly. Even with the victories, even the hometown fans go on to ignore the Sens, and at this pace, by the end of the season, unless the playoffs bring enough revenue for the Senators, changes are going to be made for financial reasons, this may be the last chance for the Sens to win consistently for a while.