LOL Ottawa Senators History

The **Ottawa Senators** are a team owned by Melnyk.

## 1990's: Usual Expansion Woes

* The new incarnation of the Senators had a good first game of their franchise beating the Canadiens, then that was all the momentum they had as they proceeded to shit the bed alongside the San Joe Sharks to tie for the worst record in the league. Can't get any worse right?
* Since the Senators and the Sharks weren't getting anything during the 92-93 season, the two tried bottoming out to select Alexandre Daigle in the upcoming draft, this became known as "The Daigle Cup".
	+ The Senators were so serious about getting Daigle that GM Bruce Firestone would even **call** teams before games to beat them badly, he even wound up admitting to this after the season by accident and the Senators would be fined $100,000. These events led to the creation of the draft lottery in 95.
	+ The officially certify this fuck up, the Senators would get Daigle and offer him a **$12.25 million dollar** contract (largest rookie contract at the time) and he would wind up becoming one of the biggest busts in history as he was traded to the Flyers four seasons later.

* After a few years in the basement, the 96-97 season gave Ottawa life as they made the postseason, the following year they'd post of winning record for the first time then go on to upset the Devils in their first playoff series win. Gold star for you boys!
* The 98-99 season was an impressive showing placing Ottawa third in the league at 103 points, they got routed in the playoffs by Buffalo in a sweep where the Senators only scored 3 goals in the whole series.
* Management then got in a contract dispute with Captain Alexei Yashin which resulted in him holding out during the entire 99-00 season, he tried to escape to Switzerland but apparently he was in the wrong. He was forced back to the Senators the following season (no longer Captrain) and Ottawa rained boos on him.

## 2000's: Melnyk's Arrival

* After another 2 more quick exits to the Leaf's in 2000 and 2001, the Senators realized they had to make some changes to get past the first round. Therefore they sent Yashin to Long Island (where they locked him into a 10 year deal, yeesh) for Zdeno Chara, Bil Muckalt, and a draft pick that became Jason Spezza.
* The Senators would upset the Flyers in Round 1 in 2002! ...only to lose to the Leafs again in the following round.
* You'd expect big changes to the front office following 3 eliminations to the same team, but nothing changed besides GM Johnson retiring.
* Doing nothing led to lack of interest in the team and as a result the Senators filed for bankruptcy during the 02-03 season. This led to the arrival of a new owner that offseason: Eugene Melnyk.
	+ Oh yeah and during the chaos they won the President's trophy and made it to the 3rd round losing to the Devils, the eventual champs, no big deal there.
* The Melnyk era started with a feeling Senator fans have grown to love: getting eliminated by the Maple Leafs. Coach Jacques Martin was finally axed.
* Ducks coach Bryan Murray would jump to Ottawa for the 04- oh yeah. I mean 05-06 season. Following a year off due to the lockout, the Senators were predicted to be Stanley Cup contenders.
	+ They would place second in the league but Goalie Dominik Hasek decided to run off to the Czech Republic for a little bit of playing time there, he would get hurt and as a result the Senators were eliminated by the Sabres in the second round.
* Ottawa tripped out the gate at the start of the 06-07 season, posting a record under .500 for the first half of the season, then out of nowhere proceeded to have a stellar second half, putting them in second place again.
	+ And this time, they went all the way the finals. Ottawa made this a big deal and the whole city was decked out in Senators decorations, there was even a 99-year old man, who saw the original Senators play in the Stanley Cup, invited to watch Game 3 live of the finals.
	+ The Ducks would wind up taking the series in 5, but on the bright side, the Senators did win Game 3! So that old man got a nice treat.
* Some backward ass shit happened following the loss in the Finals, Muckler would be axed to promote Murray to GM and he'd bring in his nephew as an Assistant. John Paddock got promoted to head coach as well.
	+ This backfired as the Senators went ice cold going into the beginning of 2008, Paddock got axed and Murray started coaching again.
	+ The Senators then limped in to the playoffs only to be pecked to death by the Penguins.
* The next coach was Craig Hartsburg, he too sucked and couldn't last a season either.
* Star forward Dany Heatly, realizing this was going nowhere, demanded a trade after the 08-09 season, he was eventually traded to the Sharks for Milan Michealeka, Jon Cheechoo and a draft pick.
* Following a Goaltending Coach change, most of the issues in Ottawa were sorted out and the team made the 2010 playoffs, they lost to the Pens again.

## 2010's

* The team collapsed again in the 2010-11 season.
	+ At this point, you'd expect Melnyk to axe Murray, while he was thinking of a change up, he still wanted Murray as an advisor for some reason.
	+ Murray would whine to Melnyk and he would keep his job as GM, this led to shipping off Mike Fisher to Nashville for a first rounder.
	+ Chris Kelly would also be traded to the Bruins, he would wind up winning a cup with them that season.
	+ Murray cleared the coaching staff again at the end of the season and bring in Paul McClean next.
* On the 2010 draft day, the Senators decided to trade their first rounder to the Blues for David Rundblad, this pick turned into Vladmir Tarasenko.
* If it seems admirable, the team was somehow able to go above expectations in the 2011-12 season, they made the players and lost in seven to the Rangers.
* The following year they made it one playoff round farther! Then lost to the Pens in 5.
* The Senators didn't make the playoffs tin 2014 thanks to the divisional realignment.
* There was some cancer in the 2014-15 Senator's season... literally. As Murray and assistant coach Mark Reeds were both fighting their own battles. (damn that sucks)
	+ Reeds passed the day of the Senator's first playoff, sadly, the team couldn't get it together and lost the series in 6 to the Canadiens (RIP Reed).
* Murray would step down to focus on treatment after the Senators failed to make the 2016 playoffs.