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During the teams first year, they hired an NHL player, Mel Bridgeman, who had no prior management experience, to be the teams first General Manager. Originally the team tried to get Brian Sutter as their first Head Coach, but he came with a price tag that the team just couldn't afford. He also had reservations about being with an expansion team. The Ottawa Senators finally signed on Rick Bowness. The team won their first game against the Canadiens 5-3 in what would be one of the few highlights of the entire season. After that first night, everything seemed to go downhill. The team tied the San Jose Sharks for the worst record that season, winning 10 games out of 84. 70 ended in a loss and 4 were ties. The team managed to score only 24 points during the season. But this was all part of the teams plans.
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About The Ottawa Senators
The team figured on finishing low in the standings for the first few seasons in order to get the high draft positions and build the team into a Stanley Cup contention team. Bridgeman was fired after his first season and Randy Sexton took over as GM. Firestone also chose to leave and the team gained Rod Bryden as their new owner. The team stuck with their strategy of finishing low and gaining high draft positions. The team would work to gain many strong players that would continue with the team for a number of years.
As the 1995 season began, the Ottawa Senators ticket holding fans were a bit frustrated with the team. They were growing restless at the team’s long term plan to gain strong draft picks and ticket sales really began to drop. Rick Bowness was later fired in 1995 and head coach Dave Allison came in. He was no better than Browness and the team had a 2-22-3 record under his coaching. Sexton was also replaced and before the end of January 1996, the inner problems with the team began to resolve themselves and the course was set for the team to start proving themselves to their fans.
The team has seen four division championships and one conference championship. They have yet to win the big one though and the Stanley Cup still eludes the team. The 2008-2009 season didn't prove too fruitful for the team yet again. The team struggled throughout the first part of the season scoring the lowest number of goals in the league. This of course would lead to more coaching changes. This was obviously a beneficial move for the Ottawa Senators however because they went on to win 9 games in a row at home. This improvement got new head coach Cory Clouston a two-year contract to coach the team.
The team will have to figure out what to do with Dany Heatley if they want to preserve any strength on the bench. The thing is, Heatley wants to be traded, but refused to waive his no-trade clause when the Edmonton Oilers wanted him. The Ottawa Senators don't want him either. Who wants someone who basically walks out on the team... twice. The team has much firepower on the bench, however it seems they can’t hone those skills and put them to good use. If the Ottawa Senators want to get anywhere near the Stanley Cup playoffs this year, they better figure out to do with themselves and learn the teamwork of the game. And quickly.
