Tuesday, May 22, 2007

From Broke to Champions ? and...

The last time the Ottawa Senators participated in the Conference Final, the team had come close to filling for Bankruptcy months early. In late December 2002 and beginning of 2003, the Ottawa Senators franchise was coming close to going belly up. The League stepped in and found an owner and the team came a goal close to going to the Cup final that year.

Wayne Scanlan from the Ottawa Citizen asked club President and chief executive officer, Roy Mlakar, about that time, and Mlakar told him it was the lowest moment in franchise history, even worse then their first season in the league in 1992-93. Mlakar remembers having to tell the players that they would not get paid. How worse can that get ?

The article goes on with the ups and downs of the franchise, that brought it to a first cup appearence in mordern history and also the first since 1927, when the first franchise won it for the last time.

The Senators organization have been thru alot in the last fifteen years, a Stanley Cup championship would be dearly welcomed.

Wings veterans remain cool

On the plane bringing the Detroit Red Wings to Anaheim for game six against the Anaheim Ducks, the veteran players remained cool and collected and not worried, even for the first time in this playoff year they face seeing their season end. Daniel Cleary noted how calm, veterans Chris Chelios, Nick Lidstrom and Dominik Hasek were, despite that had lost a heartbreaker the afternoon before. Let's roll the tape back to 2002, the Wings are trailing the series 3-2 against the Colorado Avalanche with Patrick Roy in goal.

The Wings win game 6, on a blooper by the future Hall of Famer. Game seven, the Wings blow the defending Cup champions out of the rink and win 7-0. Could history repeat itself tonight ? In today's, NHL nothing is impossible.

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