Senators Articles: B-Sens have exhausted list of excuses
February 22, 2005

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Scott Lauber of Press Connects.com

B-Sens have exhausted list of excuses

There can't be, there won't be, any more excuses.

No longer can the Binghamton Senators cite the NHL's labor strife as an explanation for any future struggles. No longer can they claim their attention is being diverted from the ice to the board room. No longer can they chalk up any mediocrity to League Lockout's on-again, off-again negotiations.

That dog won't hunt. Not anymore.

At long last, the 2004-05 NHL season is dead. It was canceled last Wednesday by commissioner Gary Bettman, but like the character in a horror flick who staggers after being fatally stabbed, it survived for three days until the owners and players pushed on the knife during one last, desperate negotiating session Saturday in New York.

Now, with more certainty than ever, Jason Spezza can say he won't be playing in Ottawa this season. Neither will Antoine Vermette or Josh Langfeld, Anton Volchenkov or Brian Pothier, Chris Kelly or Ray Emery.

Finally, the whole of their minds can join their bodies in Binghamton.

"We've had a lot of games, so I haven't had too much time to really think about it," Spezza said last week of the doomed NHL season. "You can sit back and watch it unfold from afar, but all I can worry about is the team we've got here."

That better not be just lip service. Not with the standings tighter than a pair of 10-year-old dungarees.

The Senators enter the week tied atop the East Division with the Philadelphia Phantoms. But they're also only nine points ahead of the Hershey Bears for the final playoff berth, and they've played two more games than Hershey, three more than both the Norfolk Admirals and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and four more than Philadelphia.

"I know everyone's got games in hand on us or whatever," said co-coach John Paddock, he of the 525 AHL victories and three Calder Cup titles, "but teams will play each other a lot. Hershey plays Wilkes-Barre six more times, and unless someone sweeps, they'll knock each other off to some extent. You can't control what other teams do, so it's important for us to win. Period."

That's precisely the point. And with a roster more talented than most in the AHL, the Senators should win their share, assuming their focus is in the right place.

In mid-December, most of the Senators admitted their attention was split between their AHL jobs and news of the lockout. It was a perfectly reasonable theory for their 12-11-3-2 start, although isn't it funny how that didn't affect the lockout-bolstered Manchester Monarchs or Rochester Americans?

And two weeks ago, with the Senators mired in an 0-4-1-2 funk that came in the immediate wake of a franchise-record nine-game winning streak, coach Dave Cameron said he thought the team wouldn't play its best, most consistent, hockey until after the NHL season was wiped out.

Of course, the NHL shutdown could have the reverse effect, too. Back in training camp, Spezza and others said they were coming here to stay in shape for when the No Hockey League resumed. Without an NHL light at the end of the tunnel, at least this season, it's conceivable the Senators may struggle to find motivation.

If last weekend was any indication, that's hardly the case. The Senators got 38 saves from Billy Thompson in a one-goal victory Friday night in Syracuse before four third-period goals and Spezza's five points paced a 7-2 romp Saturday in Manchester, N.H.

With the Senators playing once this week, Friday night at last-place Albany, the rest of the East Division will have a chance to cash in some of their games in hand. But next week, things get serious when Norfolk comes to town for two games.

"You'd like to finish in first place and you'd like to get home ice (in the playoffs), but the reality of it is you can't lose sight of the big picture," Cameron said recently. "What we have to worry about is the process. We have to keep getting better, and I still think we'll be better after the (NHL) season is cancelled."

Well, here we are, wondering how the Senators will respond.

And betting that Cameron is right.

Lauber covers the Ottawa Senators' organization for the Press & Sun-Bulletin.