Bryan Murray News

Sidney Crosby, left, of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Daniel Alfredsson of the Ottawa Senators talk after the Penguins eliminated the Senators on Friday night in Game 5. Captain Daniel Alfredsson and his Ottawa Senators dropped a 6-2 decision in Game 5 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, who become the first team to march to the conference finals.

At the end, when they told Paul MacLean he couldn't play hockey anymore and that he would have to do something else, he had played in 719 NHL games and scored 324 goals and collected 673 points.

Singer Lyndon Slewidge belted out "O Canada" in a deep syrupy baritone Sunday night, as white towels were spun by a tightly coiled crowd awaiting the Penguins-Senators game at Scotiabank Place.

When Matt Cooke's skate came down on Erik Karlsson's Achilles tendon on Feb. 13, Ottawa's season was truly thrust into its underdog, ragtag phase, all replacements and duct tape.

The first period was scoreless but hardly boring, with multiple scoring chances within the first couple minutes.

Last season, Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year because his young team of largely unproven NHL players earned a surprising playoff berth.This time around, MacLean is a Jack Adams finalist for his ability to lead his injury-depleted roster to a surprising playoff berth.

By dispatching the Montreal Canadiens in five games last week, the Ottawa Senators broke a long-standing curse on Canadian NHL teams: It marked the first time a Canadian squad has won a playoff series after reaching the Stanley Cup final in the new millennium.

Before Game 1 of their Stanley Cup series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Senators said any attempts to make Matt Cooke pay for a play that injured star defenseman Erik Karlsson are over and done with.

The voting for the NHL's General Manager of the Year has been completed and the nominees were released today.

Now that the Senators season has been wonderfully extended into the second round of the playoffs , it has breathed life into the hope that top centre Jason Spezza will return to the lineup sometime soon.

Ottawa Senators forward Jason Spezza was on the ice with teammates at practice on Sunday morning for the first time since having back surgery.

It's pretty incredible what the Ottawa Senators have been able to accomplish this season having lost so many key players to injury.

The role of an NHL general manager is one of the toughest in sports, but savvy executives like Ray Shero, Glen Sather, Dean Lombardi and Ken Holland appear to handle the job with ease.

The Binghamton Senators coach and assistant Steve Stirling pushed to keep Pageau in the pros when Ottawa discussed sending him back to his junior team.

The Senators and Canadiens will hit the ice again Friday night for Game 2 less than 24 hours after an eventful 4-2 win for Ottawa, which could force each team to fill a void in their lineup.

Montreal's Josh Gorges and Raphael Diaz battle against Ottawa's Colin Greening and Chris Neil at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Feb.

Not even Ottawa's general manager believed that Erik Karlsson would be back in time for the end of the regular season.