Ottawa Senators

Following two seasons where the rebuilding Ottawa Senators exceeded expectations by reaching the playoffs, their sputtering start (4-6-2) certainly isn't what the team or its fans anticipated this season.

Their character and depth in promising talent helped them overcome injuries last season to stars like center Jason Spezza, defenseman Erik Karlsson and goaltender Craig Anderson.

Head coach Paul MacLean's ability to get so much out of his young, injury-ravaged team last season earned him the Adams Trophy as coach of the year.

Their regular season performance - coupled with their first-round playoff upset of the Montreal Canadiens - prompted some observers to predict bigger things for the Senators in 2013-14.    

Puck Daddy's Sean Leahy included the Senators on his list of top ten Stanley Cup contenders, while SI.com's Allan Muir ranked them (along with St. Louis and Washington) among three potential Cup contenders on the rise. The Sports Forecaster went all in, predicting the Senators would win the Cup next spring.

With Spezza, Karlsson and Anderson healthy and a roster filled with promising, well-coached talent, the Senators seemed poised to take a big step this season toward Stanley Cup contention.

So why are they off to a poor start?

One reason is their usually solid goaltending tandem of Anderson and Robin Lehner has struggled early, sitting 23rd overall in goals-against per game.

Over the past two years the Senators ranked among the league leaders in shots-against per game. They were 29th in 2011-12 (32.0) and 22nd overall last season. Only a dozen games into the season, the Senators are 30th in shots-against per game (37.0).

Strong goaltending used to offset those high shot-against numbers, but with Anderson and Lehner struggling early, it's becoming a serious problem.

Last summer's departure via free agency of former captain Daniel Alfredsson left a leadership void they're still struggling to address.

Alfredsson was popular, more experienced and considerably older than most of his young teammates, some of whom were small children when he made his NHL debut in 1995-96. Every player respected “Alfie” and looked to him for guidance and leadership over the past two seasons.

His departure was a shock, leaving his former teammates struggling to adjust. They were undisciplined defensively throughout October, giving up the first goal in nine of their 12 games to date and blowing two-goal leads in their final three games of the month.  

With experienced leadership, those issues would have been addressed sooner. 

New captain Jason Spezza is doing his best, calling a players-only meeting before their 6-5 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks,  but it could take a little more time until he's fully comfortable in the role.

Another factor is Erik Karlsson has struggled to play up to lofty expectations following his Norris Trophy win in 2012.

Karlsson missed most of last season to a sliced Achilles tendon. He returned to the lineup in time for the playoffs, but it was obvious he rushed back before he had fully recovered.

While he entered this season with a clean bill of health, Karlsson is struggling to regain his consistency. While posting solid offensive numbers (11 points in twelve games), he's been prone to costly defensive lapses.

Karlsson also recently blamed the media for pumping up expectations, claiming they were making him out to be “some kind of (expletive) god or something”. 

The Senators also appear guilty of buying into the off-season hype, developing poor on-ice work habits and getting away from the style which worked so well the past two years.

Earlier in the month MacLean told the Ottawa Sun the club was still searching for an identity, acknowledging part of the problem was players expecting the healthier stars to shoulder the load this season.

Fan and media expectations have undoubtedly cast their early-season struggles under a harsher-than-usual light.

Fortunately for the Senators, there's a long way to go until the regular season ends next April, giving them plenty of time to overcome their stumbling start. 

Over the past two seasons the Senators learned to handle adversity, but they must now learn to play under a much brighter spotlight.

For the Ottawa Senators, the offseason free-agency exit of longtime captain Daniel Alfredsson is far from tantamount to other recent cases of NHL teams losing their leaders and faces to transaction.

The Senators of 2013 are not the Boston Bruins of 2000, who were in the middle of back-to-back playoff no-shows while Ray Bourque found thicker ice in Colorado. They are not the current Calgary Flames, who finally let Jarome Iginla go to a more reliable contender this past spring.

These Senators are not even the current Columbus Blue Jackets, who turned heads in 2013 by nearly making the playoffs in the wake of trading Rick Nash.

Ottawa has much more immediate promise than that.

In fact, a combination of internal structure and external circumstances points to this team emerging as one of the premier powerhouses in the newfangled Atlantic Division this season.

Yes, that division does include Alfredsson’s new allies in Detroit, which makes it easy enough to assume the Red Wings will be effortlessly elevated by his presence. And, yes, there are also the defending Eastern Conference champions from Boston, 2013 playoff entrants Montreal (last year’s Northeast Division champ) and Toronto.

Coming off a pair of impressive performances as playoff underdogs in 2012 and 2013, the Senators are an energetic bunch with plenty to build on and plenty to prove. That formula equals danger for their adversaries.

This assessment is not to belittle Alfredsson’s inspirational leadership and veteran presence. Besides continuing to lend his share of practical assets, the 40-year-old offered vital intangibles that will take some effort to replenish in his absence.

That goes for defenseman Sergei Gonchar, whom Ottawa dealt to Dallas in June, as well.

That notwithstanding, it is also crucial to have a host of rising and peaking players who inspire and feed off one another with their actions at least as much as their words. The 2013-14 Senators will have no shortage of that in a group that will look to reigning Jack Adams Award winner Paul MacLean for tutelage.

So far, in the regular season, MacLean’s tenure has consisted of an 18-point turnaround from 2010-11—the final year of Cory Clouston’s reign—and an injury-defying ride to seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

As its final impression in his first season, the novelty of MacLean’s presence and approach translated to a near-upset in the first round of the 2012 playoffs. The eighth-place Sens raised a 3-2 upper hand on the top-dog Rangers before New York regrouped and took back-to-back elimination games in tight 3-2 and 2-1 decisions.

Amidst a shorter-than-usual 2013 campaign, Ottawa often lacked the input of forwards Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza, reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and goaltender Craig Anderson.

Those four combined to miss 123 contests over a 48-game itinerary. Spezza sat out 43, Karlsson 31, Michalek 25 and Anderson 24.

But all that meant was asking several prospects to hasten their graduation and step up their game.

In turn, the Senators should have a more confident collection of young, energized talent this fall and winter in forwards Cory Conacher and Mike Zibanejad, defensemen Eric Gryba and Patrick Wiercioch and goaltender Robin Lehner.

The forwards will join a returning core on the strike force that also includes Kyle Turris, Michalek and new captain Spezza. Then there is flashy newcomer Bobby Ryan.

As a 26-year-old bona fide first-liner, Ryan will essentially provide a happy medium between the advanced age of Alfredsson and the greenness of Jakob Silfverberg, who was Anaheim’s compensation in the trade for him.

Ryan’s import is a microcosm of the delicate balance between youth and energy as well as veteran presence and experience that the Sens are establishing.

The burgeoning defensemen, Gryba and Wiercioch, figure to provide depth on the blue-line corps at the very least. Lehner, meanwhile, will further a desirable challenge for Anderson, who—when not injured last season—easily turned in his best performance of his decade-long professional career.

The Anderson-Lehner tandem has every reason to cement its presumptive status as the stablest duo in the division.

No other Atlantic tenant possesses both a seasoned starter coming off a career year and a young backup with a bevy of promise and whose growing pains may already be out of the way. Some have one or the other, but not both.

That alone can give Ottawa a head-to-head edge against a team like Montreal, which bears its similarities in young offense (Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher) and Norris-caliber defense in P.K. Subban.

Anderson’s 1.69 goals-against average and .941 save percentage dazzled statistically, but came within a fairly small sample size of 24 games. He knows he will need to stay within top-notch boundaries over a longer slew of contests in order to win an ongoing battle for crease time with a promising prodigy whose development is ahead of schedule.

In other words, complacency projects to have a difficult time working against the likes of Anderson.

The same notion ought to apply to the heavily leaned-on Michalek, Spezza and Karlsson, who ought to be especially hungry after so much lost time.

Karlsson, in particular, figures to bring more of the explosive offensive flair and understated defensive soundness from his Norris campaign in 2011-12. As such, he will fill one critical void on the defensive corps and complement the defensively dependable veterans in Marc Methot and Chris Phillips.

Contrast that with, say, Boston and its blue-line brigade that looks great on paper but is coming off a draining playoff run and short recovery period.

Besides opening the door to Ottawa by those means, the Bruins and their 2013 playoff run also lend the Senators an intangible asset worth copying.

The aforementioned Iginla may be in Boston now, but he went to Pittsburgh prior to the last trading deadline when everyone initially believed he would be a Bruin.

Whether anyone admits it or not, it is hard to dismiss the notion that Boston’s sweep of the Penguins last spring was partially inspired by a searing incentive to ensure Iginla lost the gamble he took at its expense.

The Senators can and should employ the same self-drive in this year’s season series with Alfredsson and the Red Wings.

If they do that and capitalize on any bouts of residual fatigue among such Bruins blueliners as Zdeno Chara (another ex-Sen), then their hopes of finishing first in the division will be automatically emboldened.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics and past playoff results courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com. 

He is the most beloved player in the history of the Ottawa Senators franchise. However, that didn't stop Daniel Alfredsson from closing out his time with the Senators and signing with the Detroit Red Wings.

It was not easy for Alfredsson, because he had been playing with the Senators since his rookie season of 1995-96, the fourth season in the franchise's history.

Alfie was the beloved face of the Ottawa franchise. Few thought the 40-year-old superstar would ever leave the team, even if he had never won the Stanley Cup with them. Alfredsson is obviously near the end of his career and it seemed that he would play out his last year or two with the Sens.

But he made a decision that could have a lasting impact on his legacy.

He decided that having a chance to play for the Stanley Cup was more important than leaving on a good note in Ottawa. He was courted by the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins, and he decided to call Detroit his home.

There have been other players who have left their longtime teams to win a Stanley Cup before. One of the most notable is Ray Bourque, who had played stellar defense for the Boston Bruins from 1979 through 2000. The Bruins had a number of excellent teams in those years and got to the Stanley Cup Final twice, but had never won it.

They were also going downhill. Bourque could not see any chance to win the Stanley Cup with the Bruins. Harry Sinden, recognizing Bourque's desires and his loyal service to the Bruins, wanted to give his star player a chance to win the Stanley Cup. He traded him to the Colorado Avalanche.

While Bourque and the Avs were not successful in the 2000 playoffs, they won the Stanley Cup in 2001. It was a glorious moment for Bourque as the Avs edged the New Jersey Devils in seven games. Captain Joe Sakic was the first member of the team to hoist the Cup, and he quickly passed it to the beaming Bourque.

Bourque retired shortly thereafter and moved back to Boston. He is still a Bruins icon.

Alfredsson will undoubtedly be a Senators icon in the future. But right now, the wound is too fresh and too raw for that idea to be considered.

Cyril Leeder is the Senators' president and CEO. He told the Ottawa Sun that nothing is guaranteed when it comes to Alfredsson's future with the team.

Will the Senators raise his number to the rafters?

“We’ll see,” Leeder told Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun. “I’m not going to prejudge that now. That’s an announcement that should come at a different point in time.”

Leeder also addressed Alfredsson taking a position in the team's management when his playing days are over, something that owner Larry Melnyk said would be offered to Alfredsson.

“I think that’s still to be determined,” Leeder told Brennan. “I don’t think that was a foregone conclusion, that Daniel was going to come and work for the organization. I know that had been talked about by a number of people but I think that’s still to be determined in the future.”

That's the bleeding wound of Alfredsson's departure doing the talking.

General manager Bryan Murray provided a timeline in his press conference of how he learned of Alfredsson's decision to leave. When he realized Alfredsson was telling him he would not be coming back to Ottawa, Murray used the word "devastating" to describe the conversation.

Alfredsson decided to leave a team that appeared to be on the upswing. The Senators made the playoffs two years in a row under head coach Paul MacLean and had beaten the Montreal Canadiens in the first round this year before falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Sens had played heroically in 2013 because they suffered a slew of injuries that would have stopped most teams. They survived and thrived and the future looked bright.

If the Sens were faltering, perhaps Alfredsson's decision would have been easier to take. But the Senators believe they are on the rise.

There's a difference between a player like Alfredsson leaving Ottawa and Bourque leaving Boston, or new Hall of Famer Chris Chelios leaving the Chicago Blackhawks as he did after the 1998-99 season. The Bruins and Blackhawks had long histories, and while both were great players in Boston and Chicago, respectively, neither was the best player in franchise history.

Bourque left the Bruins with their blessings. Chelios did not, but the Blackhawks did not go into shock when he left to play for a hated rival.

However, the Blackhawks were not so forgiving when superstar Bobby Hull left the team to play for World Hockey Association's Winnipeg Jets prior to the 1972-73 season.

Hull was persona non grata around the Blackhawks for decades. They did not relent and welcome him back until 2008. That was shortly after Rocky Wirtz took over the team following the death of his father William "Bill" Wirtz in 2007. Now, Hull is one of the proud Blackhawks alumni who are often featured at key home games.

But that took more than 35 years.

The Senators are devastated now, and they will never forget what it felt like when Alfredsson decided to leave. At some point, however, Alfredsson will go into the Hall of Fame in a Senators sweater.

He will return to Ottawa and his long and great career will be celebrated.

However, that celebration may be a bit more muted than it would have been had he remained in Ottawa until the end of his career. The Senators and their fans will never forget that Alfie left and that he finished his career with the Red Wings.

The start of NHL free agency was a miserable one for Ottawa Senators fans as longtime captain Daniel Alfredsson chose to leave the franchise after 18 years to pursue a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings.

Many Senators fans were angry with the captain's departure, but their spirits were brightened later in the afternoon when the team announced that it had acquired young star Bobby Ryan from the Anaheim Ducks.

Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun was the first to report the deal, also noting that Ryan is a player who Ottawa has wanted for a few months.

Losing a captain and the face of a franchise is always a difficult situation for a team, but the addition of Ryan will make the Senators a younger, deeper and more skilled team.

Over the last few years, mainly through the draft, Ottawa has amassed a nice collection of young players with impressive offense talent. It's a group that will continue to build on the team's success from the past two seasons, which includes two playoff appearances.

Replacing Alfredsson's spot at right wing on the first line with Ryan is a great move by the Senators as they continue a youth movement that will take the team into a bright future.

Here's what the Senators' four lines could look like next season:

Even though he's only 26 years old, Ryan has 26 games of playoff experience in his six-year career with the Ducks. He was a first-line winger for most of his time in Anaheim, and that is the kind of role he can be expected to fill in the Senators offense, which needed some additional depth and skill after finishing 27th in goals scored last year.

Ryan came into the shortened 2013 season with four straight years of 30 or more goals scored. He adds much-needed strength, size and skill to the Senators' top line as a top-tier power forward. The New Jersey native protects the puck well, makes plays with his solid vision and impressive passing skills and also fights for loose pucks in the dirty areas.

Power forwards are hard to find, especially those who are young and already have a proven record of success at the NHL level. In a division that includes several teams that play a physical style of hockey, the Senators needed to add some size in the offseason, which this trade addresses.

Ryan and first-line center Jason Spezza should quickly form a fantastic duo when the Senators open training camp in the fall.

Spezza is an elite offensive player with 30-plus assists in eight of his last nine seasons and will benefit from being able to create quality scoring chances for a player of Ryan's caliber. The 30-year-old All-Star hasn't played alongside a winger with the goal-scoring ability that Ryan brings to the ice since Dany Heatley played for Ottawa five years ago.

The team's power play, which finished 20th last season with a 15.9 percent success rate, will also be a more potent group with the addition of Ryan, who has scored 36 power-play goals in his career.

Despite the success Ryan achieved in Anaheim, he was always the third star behind Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry.

As a member of the Senators, the 26-year-old can step into the spotlight and play a leading role on one of the NHL's youngest teams, a group that's poised to become a contender in the Eastern Conference over the next few years.

The next step for Senators general manager Bryan Murray is to re-sign Ryan. He has just two more years left on his current contract that includes a team-friendly $5.1 million salary cap hit, per CapGeek.

Ryan will lead Ottawa's youth movement at forward over the next two seasons, but to ensure he remains a cornerstone of the franchise long term, a contract extension should be a top priority for the club moving forward.

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Nicholas Goss is an NHL Lead Writer at Bleacher Report. He was also a credentialed writer at the 2011 and 2013 Stanley Cup Final, as well as the 2013 NHL draft.

Player: Curtis Lazar

Drafted By: Ottawa Senators (17th overall)

Position: Center

Final Central Scouting Ranking: No. 20 North American skater

Height/Weight: 5'11'', 193 lbs

DOB: February 2, 1995 (18 years old)

Most Recent Affiliation: WHL, Edmonton Oil Kings

Background

Curtis Lazar has been a solid two-way center for the Edmonton Oil Kings over the past two years. Lazar scored 20 goals and 31 points as a rookie before exploding for 19 points in 20 playoff games as the Oil Kings captured the WHL title.

Scouts were playing close attention to Lazar in his second year with Edmonton, but the Vernon, B.C. native struggled early in the season. But he finished strong, scoring 14 goals and 23 points in his final 20 games. He also had a plus-25 rating for the season.

Full Scouting Report

Lazar has an NHL-ready shot, but most scouts view him as a two-way center rather than as a big goal scorer once he reaches the NHL. His skating ability is an asset. Lazar also has earned a reputation for standing up for his teammates when necessary, as he did in the CHL Prospects Game when he dropped the gloves with Darnell Nurse. Lazar is good in his own zone and should be a responsible defensive center in the NHL.

Before the draft, International Scouting Services had this to say about Lazar:  

“Lazar is a gritty and hard-working 200-foot player that also has some high-end offensive ability,” says Ross MacLean, head scout for International Scouting Services. “He’s a very good linear skater with good hands and a strong release on his shot, making him a very dangerous shooting option off the rush. He is intelligent around the net, has good vision and can set up in the perimeter effectively as well. Lazar is an all-situations capable player who has the skill to compete against top opposition and always seems to up his game when the stakes get higher. I would expect him to start putting up some significantly higher offensive numbers the remainder of his junior career.”

NHL Player Comparison

Lazar is a poor man's Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins. He is a hard worker, takes the body when called upon and, while not an elite scorer, will come up with big goals in clutch situations.

NHL Timetable

If he's willing to accept a third- or fourth-line role, Lazar could be in the NHL by the 2014-15 season. The key may be adding a little more muscle to his 5'11", 193-pound frame, which would help him when playing against older and larger players than what he faced in the WHL.

Top-End Potential

At the very least, Lazar figures to be a third-line checking center who will slow down opposing teams' top scorers, drop the gloves when needed and score the occasional goal. Because he takes coaching well and is popular with his teammates, he may wear a letter after a few years in the NHL. His top-end potential is probably as a second-line two-way center who can score 20 goals and put up impressive plus/minus numbers and kill penalties.

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference Semifinal series. As beat writer Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out, the Pens have now pinned Ottawa firmly against the ropes:

The Sens struggled through a challenging regular season, where injuries took a serious toll. Two personnel losses were especially tough. Jason Spezza played just five games before suffering a back injury that required surgery, while Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson was in his 14th game when his Achilles tendon was 70 percent severed by the skate of Matt Cooke.

On the strength of great goaltending from Craig Anderson and better-than-expected play from a cast of young guns straight from the Binghamton farm team, the Senators exceeded expectations by battling to a seventh-place finish in the Eastern Conference, then demolished the Montreal Canadiens in their first-round series.

Ottawa is Canada's last remaining playoff representative, and even Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on the bandwagon:

However, after two games in Pittsburgh, it looks like the clock is about to strike midnight for the Sens. Here's how the series is breaking down.

Special Teams

Pittsburgh took control of Game 1 with its power play, going 2-of-4 while keeping Ottawa off the scoresheet in its five opportunities. In Game 2, things evened out with one power-play goal for each team.

Heading home to Ottawa, the Senators will need to do a near-perfect job of staying out of the box and killing the penalties they do take against Pittsburgh's potent power play.

Goaltending

For the first time in the playoffs, Craig Anderson was chased from his net Friday night after giving up three goals on 21 shots—all to Sidney Crosby. Anderson only surrendered four goals twice in the entire regular season, but in this series, he gave up four in Game 1 and three in 21:15 of Game 2.

Robin Lehner was solid in relief, but since Ottawa can't match Pittsburgh's offensive firepower, it'll have to make up the difference between the pipes if it wants to fight its way back into this series.

Return from Injury

Before Friday's Game 2, Bruce Arthur of the National Post wrote about Erik Karlsson's return from his Achilles injury—impressive, to be sure, but he's not the same player as before he was sidelined.

On Friday, Karlsson appeared to struggle. He was a minus-two on the night, unable to contain Crosby on either of his first two goals. Elliotte Friedman of Hockey Night in Canada also pointed out that his ice time was dramatically lower than the typical 27-minute range that he'd logged in most of the prior games:

Karlsson's drop-off is sudden. If he has aggravated his Achilles or is suffering from another injury, that will be a big blow to Ottawa's prospects heading into Game 3.

On a brighter note, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reports that Jason Spezza might be ready to return on Sunday:

Coach Paul MacLean told reporters Spezza is continuing to skate in Ottawa and a decision on whether he'll play or not will be made after Sunday's morning skate. This is the first time that MacLean hasn't completely dismissed Spezza's a return.

Spezza had 22 points in 20 games and starred for the Senators when they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007. His big-game experience could provide a real boost as Ottawa returns to home ice.

The Senators made a game out of it on Friday but still came up short. Now in an 0-2 hole, things need to change in a hurry if they hope to extend their series.

Do you think the Senators can mount a push against the powerful Penguins, or are we seeing the last chapters of Ottawa's storybook 2012-13 season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter for lots more hockey talk.

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The Ottawa Senators are carrying the hopes of a hockey-centric nation on their shoulders.

They are the last of the Canadian teams left in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Senators eliminated the Montreal Canadiens easily in five games. The San Jose Sharks swept the Vancouver Canucks right out of the playoffs with just a modicum of effort.

Then, there's the Toronto Maple Leafs. After making the playoffs for the first time since 2004, the Maple Leafs were in the process of shocking the hockey world. They fell behind the Boston Bruins 3-1 after the first four games, and it seemed like they would go quietly against a team that had tormented them in recent years.

But the Maple Leafs reached for another gear and found it. Not only did they win the fifth and sixth games to tie the series, they were dominating the Bruins in Boston in the third period of the seventh game.

Then it happened. The Maple Leafs appeared satisfied with their three-goal cushion and the Bruins kept pressing.

The Bruins got a goal near the midway point of the period to stop the bleeding. They got a huge save from Tuukka Rask to keep the Leafs from restoring their three-goal margin. Then, with Rask on the bench, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron scored to tie the score. Bergeron added the inevitable winner in overtime.

The Leafs had been vanquished.

That left Canada with just one surviving team in the playoffs.

The Senators.

This is clearly a team that is deserving of respect. No team suffered through more serious injuries during the year than Paul MacLean's team. Stars like Erik Karlsson, Jason Spezza, Milan Michalek and Craig Anderson were all out of the lineup at key points during the season.

Few gave the Senators a chance to make the playoffs for a second consecutive year. Most thought they would be sellers at the trade deadline.

They were nothing of the kind. They were resilient, and they made the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

Their first-round win over Montreal earned them a matchup with the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins. That's a tough assignment for any team, but it's especially demanding for the Senators.

That's because they are not just playing for themselves and their fans. They are playing for a nation that has not had a Stanley Cup winner since 1993.

Twenty years ago, the Montreal Canadiens won their 24th Stanley Cup. Head coach Jacques Demers' team had a magical run. After dropping their first two games at home to the late, lamented Quebec Nordiques, the Canadiens were virtually unstoppable.

They won the next four games to eliminate the Nords. They swept the Buffalo Sabres. They took care of the New York Islanders in five games, and they did the same to the Los Angeles Kings to earn the Stanley Cup.

The Canadiens lost the opening game of the Nordiques series in overtime. That was definitely not part of a trend. They would play 10 more overtime games in that playoff year, and they would win them all.

In their victories over the Sabres and the Kings, they would win three overtime games in each series.

Since that magical year, no Canadian team has been able to lift the Stanley Cup. The Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Senators and the Vancouver Canucks have all played in the Stanley Cup Final.

The Flames, Oilers and Canucks all got to the seventh game of that round before their hearts were broken

Canadian fans are having a hard time abiding all this Stanley Cup success by U.S.-based teams. Many find it insulting since they basically invented and fine-tuned the sport.

That's why the Senators have the weight of a nation on their shoulders.

Canadian hockey fans may root for the Canucks, Flames, Oilers, Jets, Canadiens and Maple Leafs. However, many of those fans have adopted the Senators for the remainder of the 2013 playoffs.

MacLean does not have to say anything about it and neither do his players, but they know what has already happened. Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg didn't make the playoffs and the others have been beaten in the first round.

If the Senators were a juggernaut, it would be one thing. Instead, they are facing a juggernaut in the high-scoring Penguins.

They may not need added pressure, but they have it.

To survive against the Penguins—and they have already dropped the opener—they are going to have to find some offense and goalie Craig Anderson must play brilliantly in goal.

It would be a tall order for any team, but it's even more demanding for Ottawa.

The odds are not in the Senators' favor to be the team that ends Canada's Stanley Cup dry spell.

The NHL has suspended Eric Gryba of the Ottawa Senators two games for his hit on Lars Eller of the Montreal Canadiens, according to TSN.ca. 

The collision took place in the second period of Game 1 Thursday night in Montreal. 

Raphael Diaz made a dangerous pass up ice which Eller received near the Habs’ blue line, only to be crushed immediately by Gryba. Eller flung violently in the air and landed hard on the ice. He lay motionless, face down, with blood pouring from his face as the trainer arrived to assist him. 

He remained on the ice for a few minutes before being taken off on a stretcher and transported to a hospital. 

The good news is that Eller was released from the hospital on Friday, but, according to NHL.com, he suffered "a concussion, facial fractures, loss of consciousness and had teeth knocked out."

As for Gryba, there is significant discussion in the hockey world regarding the legality of the hit and whether or not he should have been suspended at all. 

Gryba received a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct for the hit, but was it even interference? 

Gryba delivered the hit when the puck was on Eller’s stick. He also kept his feet on the ice, lowered his shoulder and initially made contact with Eller’s mid-section. It doesn't appear as though Gryba made an attempt to target Eller’s head, and on top of that, Gryba doesn't have a history of dirty plays in his young NHL career. 

That leaves Eller’s injury as likely the primary and perhaps only reason for Gryba’s suspension. Although Brendan Shanahan presents a very different view in the NHL’s explanation video, which can seen here.

With that said, no one should be surprised by the ruling, as Shanahan and the NHL have been inconsistent in their disciplinary decisions for quite a while. 

Whether we like it or not, it appears the game is heading in a direction where open-ice hits like this one will be penalized in some way. That is, if the player receiving the hit is injured.

I’m sure many fans and players alike would prefer if that wasn't the case and suspensions were based primarily on the act rather than the extent of the opposing player’s injuries.  

One thing is for certain, it will definitely be worth watching the rest of this series.