Sunday, October 09, 2011

Sens celebrate the past for a bit, while they ponder their future

With visions of Frank McGee, King Clancy and many other ghosts of the past, the Ottawa Senators launched their retro look for the NHL season, a salute to the teams of the original Sens, a day when the team that came out of Bytown was a regular participant in Stanley Cup finals.

Today's Senators lineup isn't quite as star laden as the original version of the 1920's and truth be told, much to the distress of loyal Sens fans everywhere, the chances of this year's model making a Stanley Cup run do seem a little remote.

Judging by the first two games of the season, the 2011-12 Sens probably won't have much in common with the dynamic squads of the late 1920's, unless the NHL institutes a new rule that only the third period of Senators games will count on the scoreboard.

After 120 minutes of play in the current campaign, the Sens have drifted through the first 40 of each game only to suddenly launch a frantic counter offensive in the final frame that nearly secures a victory.

Leafs nearly blow it against Sens, twice
Motor City meltdown

It's a dizzying pace of goals for and against, divided into percentage of play that roughly come out to 66 2/3 terrible and 33 1/3 amazing,  for Sens fans arriving late may become fashionable, since the local squad seemingly doesn't get involved until the third period anyways.

It's still so very early in the NHL season, what two games in, but Sens fans at least can take heart that their very young and still in the rebuilding phase team is going to be somewhat competitive, though it apparently will take at least two period a night to get the blood pumping.

While the Sens fans wait to see how this collection of Bytowners will take to the game, on a few select occasions they'll be allowed to let their thoughts drift back to the days of Finnigan, Clancy and McGee.

This year at least, on the nights of the heritage jersey the Sens will look good regardless of the action on the ice, a nod to the past era of the Senators while the new generation works out their glitches of the current era.

Sens fans probably might suggest that playing the first two periods as well as the third could go a long ways towards honouring the greats that wore the original O.

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