2002–03 Ottawa Senators season

NHLTeamSeason
Season=2002–03
Team=Ottawa Senators
Conference=Eastern
ConferenceRank=1st
Division=Northeast
DivisionRank=1st
Record=52–21-8-1
HomeRecord=28-9-3-1
RoadRecord=24-12-5-0
GoalsFor=263
GoalsAgainst=182
GeneralManager=John Muckler
Coach=Jacques Martin
Captain=Daniel Alfredsson
AltCaptain=Zdeno Chara
Curtis Leschyshyn
Wade Redden
Arena=Corel Centre
GoalsLeader=Marian Hossa (45)
AssistsLeader=Daniel Alfredsson (51)
PointsLeader=Marian Hossa (80)
PlusMinusLeader=Zdeno Chara (+29)
PIMLeader=Chris Neil (147)
WinsLeader=Patrick Lalime (39)
GAALeader=Patrick Lalime (2.16)
PresidentsTrophy=Yes
DivisionWin=YesThe 2002–03 Ottawa Senators season saw the Senators reach the highest point in the playoffs until the 2006–07 season. They were eliminated by the New Jersey Devils, the eventual Stanley Cup winning team in the Eastern Conference final. On top of their larger success, with their total 113 points they won the President's Trophy, the Northeast division title and the Eastern Conference title.

After their long history of debt problems, the Senators filed for bankruptcy on January 9, 2003. Fortunately, they continued regular season play after getting some emergency financing from the NHL. Despite the off-ice problems, they had a successful year, compared to their early day woes. The President's Trophy awarded to the Senators then marked them the first Canadian team to have won it since the Calgary Flames in 1989. In the playoffs they defeated their former teammate Alexei Yashin and his New York Islanders, then the Philadelphia Flyers before coming within one game of making it into the finals, falling to the Devils.

Right winger Marian Hossa lead the scoring for Ottawa with a huge gap over the rest of the roster, just passing Yashin's past record of 44. Without a goaltending situation, Patrick Lalime showed one of his best years, with career bests in GAA and wins.

Despite a slow start to the season after an even .500 ratio, the Senators turned around their game with a 10–game unbeaten streak. Fans were cornerened if their start was with the off-ice problems however this was soon irrelevant to the fans when they again made a playoff berth. Before the playoffs, the Senators explained they need more grit, so two separate trades to Buffalo included tough guys Vaclav Varada and Rob Ray respectively, plus two-way forward Bryan Smolinski from the Los Angeles Kings.

After the other two smooth playoff rounds into the deciding game seven for the Prince of Wales Trophy, with home-ice advantage, Ottawa tied the 2–2 game up from a one-timer goal from Radek Bonk. However with two minutes remaining, Devils' forward Jeff Friesen deked out Lalime and shot over his leg pad, into the net, eliminating Ottawa that night. [cite news
title=Ottawa Senators
accessdate=2007–07–07
publisher=Chris Robinson
page=74–91]

Regular season

Division standings

[ cite news
title=Playoff goaltender stats
NHL.com
url=http://www.nhl.com/nhlstats/app?fetchKey=20033OTTGAGAll&page=Stats&service=page&sort=player.properName&viewName=wlt]

Transactions

Trades

Draft Picks

Ottawa's draft picks from the 2002 NHL Entry Draft held on June 22 and June 23, 2002 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

ee also

* 2002–03 NHL season

References