The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
One question surrounds the Ottawa Senators as they head into the second round: are these guys for real? Following a rather unremarkable regular season that saw them make the post-season by five points, the Sens were supposed to be the ones on the receiving end of a first-round rout. Instead, following last Thursday's 6-1 blowout in Montreal, Ottawa is in the second round for the first time since 2007 _ and no one is underestimating them now. The Senators owe much of their success to their puckstopper. A headline on Sportsnet.ca summed it up best: 'Sens finally have a great goalie in Craig Anderson.' That they do. They also have depth up front and have adopted a score-by-committee approach reminiscent of the team's successful clubs of the late '90s and early '00s. Most of Ottawa's top players are relative unknowns. Names like Cory Conacher, Mika Zibanejad, Jakob Silfverberg and Patrick Wiercioch are aren't exactly household names. Heck, you can't even pronounce some of them. But these guys have a fire in their belly. They are equal parts hungry and disciplined. They're not likely to win the Stanley Cup this June, but we could well be witnessing the early stages of a return to hockey dominance in the nation's capital.
