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

It sure is a great time to be a Sens fan.

This year, we were preparing for the worst. The word of the day (or season) was REBUILD! It is a nice way of saying we’ve cleaned house, all of our new players are rookies and we are expecting to finish in the bottom of the league to try to secure a coveted #1 pick in this year’s draft, and perhaps in a few more.

Then maybe in a few years we’ll contend again.

Ottawa fans bought in to this for the most part. Last season, the team was tanking and had no chance of making the playoffs by the New Year. It was going to be painful, but by acknowledging this now and dealing with it now, the rewards would be felt in the future once all the new players drafted become full time NHLers and light up the league, all the way to Lord Stanley.

For the most part, this works (Chicago is a recent good example of this). A lot of the time though, there are no guarantees. For instance, the Atlanta Thrashers (now Winnipeg Jets, of course) and Columbus Blue Jackets have been given high draft picks for years after performing miserably during the regular season. Both teams have only one playoff appearance, complete with a first round exit, to show for it in their entire history. And the “successful” Chicago Blackhawks had to wait over 40 years to secure their Stanley Cup after their good drafting finally paid dividends.

So while indeed I accepted the fact that a rebuild was needed, I wasn’t going to start planning the Cup parade in 2015. I knew full well in the world of pro sports many things can and do go wrong, and drafting is no exception (The Senators have their own poster-boy for draft picks gone bad, with their 1993 1st overall selection Alexandre Daigle).

But after a shaky start to the season, this edition of the Ottawa Senators is, well, winning. And they’re in the playoff race. And the inexperienced, rookie players look like they have a full-time career here in the NHL.

And while I definitely take a more pessimistic approach when it comes to drafting properly, Ottawa seems to know what it’s doing at the draft table. GM Bryan Murray, whom the city of Ottawa was frothing at the mouth to run out of town this time last year, still knows how to find talent (his crowning achievement is, without question, drafting both Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry for the Ducks in the bottom half of the first round in 2003. Ironically, they would be two of the big reasons for shattering his Cup dreams with Ottawa in 2007). His first draft with Ottawa in 2008 landed all-star Erik Karlsson. Mark Stone led Canada in goal scoring at the recent World Juniors (a 6th round pick no less), while 2011 first rounder Mika Zibanejad scored the OT winner that landed Sweden its first gold medal in 30 years at that same tournament.

Rookies like Zach Smith, Jared Cowen, Eric Condra and Colin Greening are probably 2-3 years ahead of their development.

While there are still about 30 games left in the schedule, there’s no reason to think Ottawa will fall out of the playoff picture. Add to the fact if goalie Craig Anderson can continue to play lights out hockey as he has done in the last few weeks…well, let’s just say I’ve seen weirder things happen in sports than a team that was supposed to finish last do some damage when the post-season arrives.

Here's hoping!