The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

With Wade Redden out indefinitely, and Daniel Alfredsson expected to be out at least 7-10 days until his MRI results are released tomorrow, think about this for a moment.

Wade Redden makes $6.5 million. Alfredsson makes about $4.6 million. The Ottawa Senators entire team payroll is about $40 million. So with their best defenceman and team captain watching from the sidelines, just over 25% of their entire team payroll isn't playing. And even without these two players, the Sens can still put out a decent competitive product.

A contrast to this is the Chicago Blackhawks. As soon as Martin Havlat went down to injury, they were done. Their hot start has been negated with their current 12th place position in the Western Conference. Give credit to Sens management for spending their dollars wisely, despite the $3.7 million gaffe of Martin Gerber. Then again, he's won his last two games, so maybe we'll praise it later.

One last thing: President Roy Mlakar, who doesn't like to be asked any hard questions about the Sens and can be overtly defensive, doesn't mind that salary cap will likely go up with increased revenues projected for this year. This means the cap will be around $45-6 million or so. Wasn't the cry of the small market team that they cannot compete with big market, free-spending clubs? How can they afford a $45 million payroll now but not three years ago? "We have 18,000+ in our building," says Mlakar. Yeah...but the Senators never really had a problem selling tickets. Ottawa has always ranked at least in the top 10 in attendance, and top 5 in walk-up ticket sales.

Sure, the Canadian dollar has been stronger, but I still don't get it. But hey, at least we no longer hear any news of the Senators moving to Portland anytime soon.