Senators Artcles: Back to school; Ottawa prospects need education in winning titles
April 22, 2005

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

Back to school; Ottawa prospects need education in winning titles

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Press & Sun-Bulletin

On any given day, as he walks through the locker room, John Paddock will make a mental note of how many Binghamton Senators have won a championship ring during their professional careers.

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It doesn't take long.

In 2000-01, as a rookie defenseman fresh out of college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Brian Pothier helped the Orlando Solar Bears capture the Turner Cup in the since-disbanded International Hockey League.

That's it. That's the list.

"We're still a relatively young team," Paddock, the Senators' co-coach, said recently, "but only Pots has ever won. That's why, for these guys, what happens over the next few weeks is going to be very important."

Even in a season when unyielding labor strife shuts down the NHL, the foremost objective in the AHL is to develop players who can win the Stanley Cup, a prize that narrowly eluded the Senators' parent club in Ottawa two seasons ago.

Thus, as they open the first-round playoff series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tonight in the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena, the Senators will be embarking on a quest for Binghamton's first Calder Cup and also sewing the seeds for future postseason runs in Ottawa.

"We want them to be winners," Ottawa Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "If they can go into the playoffs and have a great run, it's huge for their confidence going forward. From what I've seen of them this year, I think they can win it."

Based on the last six weeks of the regular season, the Senators are at least a favorite.

Stocked with a minimum of seven players who'd otherwise be skating for Ottawa and refocused after the plug was pulled on the NHL season, the Senators reeled off a 19-2-1-3 record and points in 23 of the last 25 games en route to 106 points and the East Division crown.

They're led by AHL MVP Jason Spezza, bone-crushing NHL defenseman Anton Volchenkov, 39-goal veteran Denis Hamel and Ray Emery, the AHL's reigning Goalie of the Month. In the words of Ottawa general manager John Muckler, "They seem to have a little bit of everything."

Except the experience of winning a championship.

After Pothier, Hamel has come closer than any of the Senators, playing in back-to-back Calder Cup Finals with the Rochester Americans and losing both times. None of the other Senators have been beyond the conference finals, and before they can even fantasize about drinking from The Cup in Ottawa, they'll need to have success here.

"I think everyone in the organization wants this team to do well," captain Chris Kelly said. "I don't think this team was put together just to do well in the regular season."

In hockey, winning is an attitude, a state of mind. Pothier said it's about conquering the adversity that every champion encounters along its path to a title, and he's been imparting his experience in Orlando to any of the Senators who ask.

He remembers sitting in the locker room, the Turner Cup nearby after a five-game victory over Chicago in the finals, and feeling physically and mentally exhausted from a postseason run that lasted only 16 games.

"The playoffs are a really different season, just to understand what it takes to win," Pothier said. "Every game has to feel like Game 7. You have to spend it all. When it's over, you shouldn't have any gas left in the tank.

"Guys really need that experience, to be on a team that has that feeling, because then they can duplicate it. Even if you get far and lose out, you understand what it takes."

Across the AHL, parent clubs are placing a premium on providing their young players with that knowledge.

Witness the Florida Panthers. With their affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, missing the Calder Cup playoffs, they loaned prospects Jay Bouwmeester and Stephen Weiss to the Atlanta Thrashers' club and agreed to pay the Chicago Wolves an undisclosed sum per playoff series they win.

Becoming a serial winner in hockey can also cement an NHL job. When he reflects on his playing days in the early-1980s, Senators coach Dave Cameron recalls teammates and opponents, like former New York Islanders winger Bobby Nystrom, with ordinary regular-season statistics who forged long careers with their postseason heroics.

"A guy can make a name for himself by what he does in the playoffs," Cameron said. "If you're able to play deep into the playoffs in the American Hockey League, it will only enhance your ability to do it at the next level."

Eventually, there will be hockey again at the next level. It's believed that success here can only breed future success in Ottawa, and that, as much as anything, is what this postseason run is all about.

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Season Series

Game-by-game this season of the Binghamton Senators vs. the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Binghamton won seven of the eight games, three of them going into overtime:

* Penguins 2, Senators 0 (Oct. 31 at Wilkes-Barre). Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stops 28 shots for first AHL shutout.

* Senators 3, Penguins 2, OT (Nov. 19 at Binghamton). The Sens' Antoine Vermette scores 2:56 into overtime; Jason Spezza nets two goals, one assist.

* Senators 5, Penguins 4, OT (Nov. 20 at Wilkes-Barre). Denis Hamel scores 3:33 into overtime after the Penguins tie it with three third-period goals.

* Senators 5, Penguins 1 (Jan. 7 at Binghamton). Sens goalie Ray Emery stops 27 shots and Anton Volchenkov nets one goal, two assists.

* Senators 4, Penguins 3, OT (Jan. 14 at Binghamton). The Sens' Jesse Fibiger scores 1:35 into overtime after the Penguins tied it with two seconds left in regulation.

* Senators 6, Penguins 2 (March 13 at Wilkes-Barre). Antoine Vermette nets one goal, two assists; Pens goalie Dany Sabourin pulled after three goals on 13 shots.

* Senators 3, Penguins 1 (April 6 at Wilkes-Barre). Pat Kavanagh and Josh Langfeld score shorthanded goals for the Sens.

* Senators 5, Penguins 2 (April 9 at Binghamton). Sens scored four first-period goals; Jason Spezza nets two goals, two assists.