Why the Sens suck!

1 - Brian Lee - Post lock out, the Sens were sitting in a position to draft Mark Staal, the accepted best player available and Mucks went on a limb and reached for Brian Lee.  This move was widely criticised at the time and is a major reason the Senators back end is very weak now.  Staal would be a first pairing defenseman for the Sens and would look mighty attractive in their uniform for the next ten years.

2 - Dany Heatley - The deal with the Oilers was not a world beater but imagine Dustin Penner and Ladislav Smid in a Sens uniform now.  Penner would be a 30 goal grinder on Jason Spezza's wing, the perfect corner man and stand in front of the net compliment to Spezza's puck control game.  He would fill the classic Dave Andreychuk role.

3 - Zdeno Chara - The Sens kept Wade Redden and lost Chara in the course.  Rumours have it that Chara wanted an NHL captaincy and he would not get that in Ottawa.  Redden was a good community guy, but was not the on ice performer that Chara was.

4 - Bad contracts - Kovalev at $5 million, Gonchar at $5.5 million, Kuba at $3.8, Fisher at $4.2, etc.  The Sens need to re-think contracts before handing them out.  Aging stars are not worth the big money any more.  That money is being wasted on players who cannot contribute over 80 plus games.  Smaller contracts as well cause issues, Kelly at $2 million is a role that could be filled by a cheaper and younger player, to save money for the upper echelon players. 

Cap management is a key to success, when a player plays 30 minutes a game, that player should be compensated on a mathematical basis at a much higher rate than a player playing 12 to 15 per game.

5 - Goaltending - Pascale Leclaire looked like an up and coming goaltender.  See last year in the playoffs against Pittsburg.  Since his movement to Ottawa, he has been unable to stay healthy and therefore get consistency.  The best goalie in Sens history is Patrick Lalime.  That is a pretty bad statement on your franchises ability to draft, develop or acquire goaltenders.

Basically, right now, the Sens suck due to poor management.  I thinking Bryan Murray is a very solid hockey guy and has done his best.  I think some factors have been beyond his control (2) and some are back luck (5), some are Mucklers decisions (1 and 3 and some of 4) and some are the owner's meddling (4).

I truly think the Sens can be back to being competitive next year.  I think Murray should be promoted to special owner's envoy and Paul Fenton/Jeff Kealty should be brought into GM/Assistant GM the Senators moving forward.