yave1964 Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 The Ottawa Senators from the 1998-99 season thru the 2007-08 season, a decade basically, minus one season wiped out to a lockout, the club AVERAGED 103 points, breaking 100 six of the, winning fifty games twice, winning the Presidents trophy once even . A breakdown of the basics, year by year: 1998-99 103 points 3rd best in Hockey. +60 goal differential knocked out round one1999-00 95 points lost in round one2000-01 109 points 4th best in Hockey lost in round one2001-02 94 points lost in second round2002-03 113 points WON PRESIDENTS TROPHY lost in conference final2003-04 102 points 5th best in hockey lost in first round2004-05 LOCKOUT2005-06 113 points 2nd best in hockey +113 goal differential 2nd round2006-07 105 points lost in Stanley cup final2007-08 94 points lost in round one. So over nine seasons they averaged 103 points, six times they finished in the top five in the league in points, made the playoffs every year as a top club and then disappointed.knocked out in the first round five timesknocked out in the second round two others. This was a dish prepared for the fine folks of Ottawa to enjoy, and then pulled away from them. and this was not a fluky club, players who spent a large portion of the time with this club include: FORWARDSMarian Hossa/Danny HeatleyJason SpezzaDaniel AlfredssonMike Fisher UnderwoodChris KellyChris NeilAlexei YashinRadek BonkTodd WhiteMarty HavlatPeter SchaeferAntoine VermettePatrick Eaves DEFENSEMENZden0 CharaChris PhillipsWade ReddenAndrej MeszarosAnton VolchenkovJoe CorvoSami SaloBrian Pothier GOALTENDERS Patrick LalimeNathan GerberRay EmeryDominic Hasek To say this club was LOADED is to insult them, they were beyond loaded, hell you could reassemble the best of what is left playing and throw in a bunch of average players to round out the roster and still put a fairly competitive team on the ice. Goaltending was the biggest problem, hands down. Lalime was not the answer unless the question was who is a solid regular season netminder who chokes in the postseason, and Gerber/Emery were at the wrong stages of their careers. Hasek was about fifty. If they had went out and acquired a serviceable Mike Vernon type, someone expected to perform as the caretaker of the net, just don't lose and let the club figure out a way to win, they likely would have won a cup or two. A team that averaged 103 points a season for nine years went 41-43 in the post season during that time. Somehow this decade of excellence turned into a decade of futility, FIVE times knocked out in the first round in nine seasons with this club??? How? This was the greatest club that never was, a decade of regular season greatness followed by post season futility. I have followed the sport for forty years and have no memory of anything like this, the Bruins of the late seventies maybe, but they at least won a couple of cups a few years previous. A championship club was put together and failed to deliver. I look at this roster and cannot think how that was possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 The Ottawa Senators from the 1998-99 season thru the 2007-08 season, a decade basically, minus one season wiped out to a lockout, the club AVERAGED 103 points, breaking 100 six of the, winning fifty games twice, winning the Presidents trophy once even . A breakdown of the basics, year by year: 1998-99 103 points 3rd best in Hockey. +60 goal differential knocked out round one1999-00 95 points lost in round one2000-01 109 points 4th best in Hockey lost in round one2001-02 94 points lost in second round2002-03 113 points WON PRESIDENTS TROPHY lost in conference final2003-04 102 points 5th best in hockey lost in first round2004-05 LOCKOUT2005-06 113 points 2nd best in hockey +113 goal differential 2nd round2006-07 105 points lost in Stanley cup final2007-08 94 points lost in round one. So over nine seasons they averaged 103 points, six times they finished in the top five in the league in points, made the playoffs every year as a top club and then disappointed.knocked out in the first round five timesknocked out in the second round two others. This was a dish prepared for the fine folks of Ottawa to enjoy, and then pulled away from them. and this was not a fluky club, players who spent a large portion of the time with this club include: FORWARDSMarian Hossa/Danny HeatleyJason SpezzaDaniel AlfredssonMike Fisher UnderwoodChris KellyChris NeilAlexei YashinRadek BonkTodd WhiteMarty HavlatPeter SchaeferAntoine VermettePatrick Eaves DEFENSEMENZden0 CharaChris PhillipsWade ReddenAndrej MeszarosAnton VolchenkovJoe CorvoSami SaloBrian Pothier GOALTENDERS Patrick LalimeNathan GerberRay EmeryDominic Hasek To say this club was LOADED is to insult them, they were beyond loaded, hell you could reassemble the best of what is left playing and throw in a bunch of average players to round out the roster and still put a fairly competitive team on the ice. Goaltending was the biggest problem, hands down. Lalime was not the answer unless the question was who is a solid regular season netminder who chokes in the postseason, and Gerber/Emery were at the wrong stages of their careers. Hasek was about fifty. If they had went out and acquired a serviceable Mike Vernon type, someone expected to perform as the caretaker of the net, just don't lose and let the club figure out a way to win, they likely would have won a cup or two. A team that averaged 103 points a season for nine years went 41-43 in the post season during that time. Somehow this decade of excellence turned into a decade of futility, FIVE times knocked out in the first round in nine seasons with this club??? How? This was the greatest club that never was, a decade of regular season greatness followed by post season futility. I have followed the sport for forty years and have no memory of anything like this, the Bruins of the late seventies maybe, but they at least won a couple of cups a few years previous. A championship club was put together and failed to deliver. I look at this roster and cannot think how that was possible. Same could be said for many of the Flyer's rosters of 2000's never having a solid goaltender crippled them (although never having a Hasek or Chara type) but a lot of talent except in net...Boosch, Checmaniac, 85 year old Sean Burke, Jeff Hackett and even a scrap heap goalie the Yotes didn't even want in Eche...then the years of career backup Biron, Leighton and others....the best one they had Emery till he got hurt... ...but yes a lot of wasted years in Ottawa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted October 22, 2013 Author Share Posted October 22, 2013 @OccamsRazorEvery club has a team that if not for a 'poison pill', lack of a netminder, short a d-man or a forward, whatever, coulda woulda shoulda won a cup. This team had it for a decade though, which to me is unprecedented. They should have won at least one cup if not more with this collection of talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihabs1993 Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Great read. This team could have, and probably should have, put up at least 2 or 3 cups. The funny thing is, they can't even blame the lockout because they actually got better by 11 points after the lockout... I agree that their only glaring weakness was their goaltending. Jeez, just thinking about what that team could have been is scary for a Canadiens fan... They were basically an all-star team that under preformed greatly in the post season 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojo1917 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 (edited) @yave1964 they seem to always have had the misfortune of drawing the Devils in the playoffs, I seem to remember at least a couple of years when "down" Devils teams would upset juggernaut Ottawa and the series wouldn't be close... Broduer had that effect on teams. Edited October 23, 2013 by mojo1917 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammer2 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 @mojo1917 Yep, back'n the day....drawing Marty in the playoffs was not good....lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Just for giggles I checked, the Senators only lost once in that run to Marty in a tough fought seven game series in the conference finals of 2003. Believe it or not, the team that owned the Senators, was the Toronto Maple Leafs. During the nine year run the Leafs faced them four times in the post season and beat them all four times even though every single season the Leafs had an inferior regular season record. Four series, four wins, the Leafs OWNED the Senators during this time period. That is something I had completely forgotten. The Hasek led Sabres beat them two of three series, the Penguins and Devils and Ducks all ousted them once. But nobody owned them like the hated Leafs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radoran Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 even more scary? One of the first round series they won is apparently one of the ones the Flyers practically deliberately threw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davesch1959 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Opposing goaltending was ALWAYS extremely better in every series they lost...and pretty much the ONLY reason they lost...and a few untimely penalties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Opposing goaltending was ALWAYS extremely better in every series they lost...and pretty much the ONLY reason they lost...and a few untimely penalties.Welcome to the forums! I picked your boys out of the East, I don't know where it all went wrong, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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