Ottawa Senators demanding respect now that they are back in Playoff race -NHL Update
Ottawa Senators are finally back and at it as the team finally clinched a playoff spot after dominating the New York Islanders, 5-1, on Sunday night, April 1, 2012, and are now demanding more respect than ever.
Defying all offs, Ottawa managed to make it and climbed back into the playoff race since a few times this 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, it looked as if the team was headed where they ended off last year.
Senators failed to secure a spot in the 2010-2011 regular season and ended not only at the bottom of the North Eastern Division but also in the Eastern Conference as well, but now, Ottawa is genuinely a supercharged team looking to end it big.
“It is so close now, there are so many good teams, that you’d have to have a really strong year to be in the playoffs, and we’ve had that. It didn’t look like that at the start, but a lot of the players have played extremely well,” Ottawa Senators general manager, Bryan Murray, said.
The return of Daniel Alfredsson and an huge boost in performance by Jason Spezza can be termed to be two of the biggest reasons for the Senators major comeback but also, the coaching staff should be given due credit. Paul MacLean took over the position last year after Ottawa let go of Cory Clouston and it has definitely had a positive impact so far.
“And I think a lot of it was the direction and the coaching they’ve received from the whole staff, and they brought along a lot of the younger players in the organization,” Murray added.
Senators have always enjoyed a good reputation in the NHL, but with a decline during the past few seasons, it has made them look like a minor league team struggling to get anything done, something Murray took as a challenge.
“I think anytime someone challenges you, it’s either fight or flight,” he stated.
The only team ahead of Ottawa in the Northeast Division are the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Boston Bruins, and that too only by six points with 98. Senators are on a roll and hope to make it big this time around with a supercharged team and staff ecstatic for the postseason.
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