Egg on the Sens' faces

Well, Ottawa, all I have to say to you is that you really deserved this. The Senators used to be a model franchise in the NHL. They were built through the draft after struggles early in their existence. They held on to their most important home-grown talent, and were able to turn mistakes like Alexei Yashin’s contract into important pieces like Zdeno Chara and the pick they used to draft Jason Spezza.

For a while, the Sens played underdogs to the big, bad, big-budget Maple Leafs, and on a place in the hearts of almost everyone outside of Toronto.

The Sens used to be loyal-- to a fault, keeping guys like Damien Rhodes, Jacques Martin and Magnes Arvedson around well beyond their best-before dates.

Coming into this season, new head coach John Paddock had to like the way his future looked. An intensely-loyal organization that he’d been loyal to. An organization that loves to build from within, as guys like Daniel Alfredsson, Anton Volchenkov, Andrej Meszaros, Chris Phillips and Ray Emery can attest to. The Sens were coming off a trip to the Stanley Cup Final, and were favourites to win their division, and get back to at least the Eastern Conference final.

But they stumbled along the way, and Bryan Murray, the man behind every shake-up in Ottawa the last two years, sent Paddock packing midway through the year. Murray stepped back behind the bench himself, helping to lead the Senators to just 18 wins in their final 38 games this season.

That run culminated with the Senators being bounced from the playoffs, on home ice, in just four games.

The blame for this disappointing season can’t all be put on Murray, or any other one player. But if nothing else, it proves Paddock was clearly not responsible for the mess the Senators find themselves in this post-season.

Looks good on them, if you ask me.

Memo to Montreal: that was the worst performance I’ve ever seen in a potential clinching game. Wearing mittens I could count the number of smart plays and good passes the Habs made in the third period.

In other news, happy trails to Steve McNair-- one of the best video-game quarterbacks of all time, and one of the best real-life quarterbacks of the last decade. His Titans were fun to watch, and I don’t think there’s anyone that dislikes McNair. Much the way it’s hard to think anyone will ever forget his, and the Titans, memorable performance in Super Bowl XXXIV. All the best, Steve, you were one of the best.