1995–96 Ottawa Senators season
1995–96 Ottawa Senators | |
---|---|
Division | 6th Northeast |
Conference | 13th Eastern |
1995–96 record | 18–59–5 |
Home record | 8–28–5 |
Road record | 10–31–0 |
Goals for | 191 |
Goals against | 291 |
Team information | |
General manager | Randy Sexton (Oct-Dec) Pierre Gauthier (Dec-Apr) |
Coach | Rick Bowness (Oct-Nov) Dave Allison (Nov-Jan) Jacques Martin (Jan-Apr) |
Captain | Randy Cunneyworth |
Alternate captains | Steve Duchesne Tom Chorske |
Arena | Ottawa Civic Centre (Oct-Dec) The Palladium[a] (Jan-Apr) |
Average attendance | 13,271 (544,108 total) |
Minor league affiliate(s) | Prince Edward Island Senators Thunder Bay Senators |
Team leaders | |
Goals | Daniel Alfredsson (26) |
Assists | Daniel Alfredsson (35) |
Points | Daniel Alfredsson (61) |
Penalty minutes | Dennis Vial (276) |
Plus/minus | Pat Elyniuk (+2) |
Wins | Damian Rhodes (10) |
Goals against average | Damian Rhodes (2.77) |
The 1995–96 Ottawa Senators season was the fourth season of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). This season was plenty of change for the club. The club changed coaching staffs twice, changed their general manager and moved into the new Palladium arena in Kanata. The team again finished last in the league, even though they knocked the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils out of playoff contention in the last game of the season, allowing the Tampa Bay Lightning to clinch the playoff berth at the expense of the Devils.[1][2]
Offseason
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Smitty18.png/150px-Smitty18.png)
Prior to the season, on August 2, 1995, Brian Smith, former NHL hockey player and sportscaster at Ottawa TV station CJOH-TV was killed. He had been the primary reporter on the Senators for the station. The Senators honored him with a patch on their jerseys, with his nickname 'Smitty' and number 18, which they wore on their jerseys for the whole season. The team raised a banner in his memory.
Regular season
The Senators finished last in wins (18), points (41), goals scored (191), even-strength goals scored (132), power-play goals scored (53) and power-play percentage (12.33%). They also tied the New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning for fewest short-handed goals scored (6).[3]
There were some bright spots during the season, rookie Daniel Alfredsson led the team offensively with 61 points (26 goals-35 assists), while Alexei Yashin was out of the lineup for 36 games. Alfredsson won the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the NHL's rookie of the year.
After getting off to a good start with a 6–5–0 record, the Senators lost their next eight games, which ended up costing head coach Rick Bowness his job, as the club replaced him with Dave Allison, who was previously the head coach of the Senators AHL affiliate, the Prince Edward Island Senators. The Dave Allison era did not last long in Ottawa, as the club won two of 25 games (2–22–1) before he was replaced by Jacques Martin. Under Martin, the Senators was more competitive, going 10–24–4 in his 38 games to finish the year with an 18–59–5, their fourth straight season at the bottom of the NHL standings.
Highlights
After taking over from the fired Randy Sexton as General Manager, on December 6, 1995, Pierre Gauthier made three moves to strengthen the club. He hired Jacques Martin as head coach, signed hold-out Alexei Yashin to a contract and engineered a blockbuster trade on January 23, 1996, dealing away Don Beaupre, Martin Straka, and Bryan Berard, while acquiring Damian Rhodes and Wade Redden. It was a three-way trade between the Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the New York Islanders and was necessary because Berard, the Senators' first-round pick, was refusing to report to the Senators.
The Senators left the Ottawa Civic Centre and played their first game in The Palladium on January 17, 1996, against the Montreal Canadiens. The raising of the Senators' Stanley Cup banners failed, leaving the banners obscuring some fans' view of the scoreboard. The Senators lost 3–0 to the Canadiens.
On April 13, 1996, the Senators played the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils, who must win to clinch the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Senators played the role of spoiler, defeating New Jersey 5–2, officially eliminating the Devils from post-season play and giving the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that entered the league the same year as the Senators, its first playoff berth.
Final standings
No. | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | PTS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Pittsburgh Penguins | 82 | 49 | 29 | 4 | 362 | 284 | 102 |
2 | Boston Bruins | 82 | 40 | 31 | 11 | 282 | 269 | 91 |
3 | Montreal Canadiens | 82 | 40 | 32 | 10 | 265 | 248 | 90 |
4 | Hartford Whalers | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 237 | 259 | 77 |
5 | Buffalo Sabres | 82 | 33 | 42 | 7 | 247 | 262 | 72 |
6 | Ottawa Senators | 82 | 18 | 59 | 5 | 191 | 291 | 41 |
R | Div | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | Pts | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Philadelphia Flyers | ATL | 82 | 45 | 24 | 13 | 282 | 208 | 103 |
2 | Pittsburgh Penguins | NE | 82 | 49 | 29 | 4 | 362 | 284 | 102 |
3 | New York Rangers | ATL | 82 | 41 | 27 | 14 | 272 | 237 | 96 |
4 | Florida Panthers | ATL | 82 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 254 | 234 | 92 |
5 | Boston Bruins | NE | 82 | 40 | 31 | 11 | 282 | 269 | 91 |
6 | Montreal Canadiens | NE | 82 | 40 | 32 | 10 | 265 | 248 | 90 |
7 | Washington Capitals | ATL | 82 | 39 | 32 | 11 | 234 | 204 | 89 |
8 | Tampa Bay Lightning | ATL | 82 | 38 | 32 | 12 | 238 | 248 | 88 |
9 | New Jersey Devils | ATL | 82 | 37 | 33 | 12 | 215 | 202 | 86 |
10 | Hartford Whalers | NE | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 237 | 259 | 77 |
11 | Buffalo Sabres | NE | 82 | 33 | 42 | 7 | 247 | 262 | 73 |
12 | New York Islanders | ATL | 82 | 22 | 50 | 10 | 229 | 315 | 54 |
13 | Ottawa Senators | NE | 82 | 18 | 59 | 5 | 191 | 291 | 41 |
Divisions: ATL – Atlantic, NE – Northeast
bold – Qualified for playoffs
Schedule and results
1995–96 regular season[5] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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October: 5–5–0 (home: 2–2–0; road: 3–3–0)
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November: 1–11–1 (home: 0–5–1; road: 1–6–0)
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December: 2–12–0 (home: 0–5–0; road: 2–7–0)
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January: 1–10–1 (home: 1–5–1; road: 0–5–0)
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February: 3–8–1 (home: 0–4–1; road: 3–4–0)
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March: 3–10–1 (home: 3–5–1; road: 0–5–0)
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April: 3–3–1 (home: 2–2–1; road: 1–1–0)
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Legend:
Win (2 points) Loss (0 points) Tie (1 point) |
Player statistics
Scoring
- Position abbreviations: C = Centre; D = Defence; G = Goaltender; LW = Left Wing; RW = Right Wing
- † = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Senators only.
- ‡ = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Senators only.
No. | Player | Pos | Regular season | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GP | G | A | Pts | +/- | PIM | |||
11 | Daniel Alfredsson | RW | 82 | 26 | 35 | 61 | −18 | 28 |
19 | Alexei Yashin | C | 46 | 15 | 24 | 39 | −15 | 28 |
7 | Randy Cunneyworth | LW | 81 | 17 | 19 | 36 | −31 | 130 |
28 | Steve Duchesne | D | 62 | 12 | 24 | 36 | −23 | 42 |
76 | Radek Bonk | C | 76 | 16 | 19 | 35 | −5 | 36 |
17 | Tom Chorske | LW | 72 | 15 | 14 | 29 | −9 | 21 |
82 | Martin Straka‡ | C | 43 | 9 | 16 | 25 | −14 | 29 |
9 | Dan Quinn‡ | C | 28 | 6 | 18 | 24 | −8 | 24 |
4 | Sean Hill | D | 80 | 7 | 14 | 21 | −26 | 94 |
23 | Jaroslav Modry‡ | D | 64 | 4 | 14 | 18 | −17 | 38 |
78 | Pavol Demitra | LW | 31 | 7 | 10 | 17 | −3 | 6 |
91 | Alexandre Daigle | C | 50 | 5 | 12 | 17 | −30 | 24 |
13 | Ted Drury | C | 42 | 9 | 7 | 16 | −19 | 54 |
22 | Antti Tormanen | RW | 50 | 7 | 8 | 15 | −15 | 28 |
5 | Kerry Huffman‡ | D | 43 | 4 | 11 | 15 | −18 | 63 |
20 | Trent McCleary | RW | 75 | 4 | 10 | 14 | −15 | 68 |
10 | Rob Gaudreau | RW | 52 | 8 | 5 | 13 | −19 | 15 |
94 | Stan Neckar | D | 82 | 3 | 9 | 12 | −16 | 54 |
12 | Dave Archibald | C | 44 | 6 | 4 | 10 | −14 | 18 |
49 | Michel Picard | LW | 17 | 2 | 6 | 8 | −1 | 10 |
2 | Lance Pitlick | D | 28 | 1 | 6 | 7 | −8 | 20 |
36 | Troy Mallette | LW | 64 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −7 | 171 |
21 | Dennis Vial | D | 64 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −13 | 276 |
3 | Frank Musil | D | 65 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −10 | 85 |
25 | Pat Elynuik | RW | 29 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
29 | Phil Bourque | LW | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −3 | 14 |
6 | Chris Dahlquist | D | 24 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −7 | 14 |
14 | Jean-Yves Roy | RW | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
33 | Don Beaupre‡ | G | 33 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 17 | |
27 | Janne Laukkanen† | D | 20 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
26 | Scott Levins | RW | 27 | 0 | 2 | 2 | −3 | 80 |
1 | Damian Rhodes† | G | 36 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
16 | Dave McLlwain‡ | RW | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
35 | Mike Bales | G | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
27 | Joe Cirella†‡ | D | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −3 | 4 |
24 | Daniel Laperriere | D | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
18 | Patrick Traverse | D | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1 | 2 |
Goaltending
- † = Joined team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, signing) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Senators only.
- ‡ = Left team via a transaction (e.g., trade, waivers, release) during the season. Stats reflect time with the Senators only.
No. | Player | Regular season | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
GP | W | L | T | SA | GA | GAA | SV% | SO | TOI | ||
1 | Damian Rhodes† | 36 | 10 | 22 | 4 | 1041 | 98 | 2.77 | .906 | 2 | 2123 |
33 | Don Beaupre‡ | 33 | 6 | 23 | 0 | 892 | 110 | 3.73 | .877 | 1 | 1770 |
35 | Mike Bales | 20 | 2 | 14 | 1 | 560 | 72 | 4.15 | .871 | 0 | 1040 |
Awards and records
Awards
Type | Award/honour | Recipient | Ref |
---|---|---|---|
League (annual) |
Calder Memorial Trophy | Daniel Alfredsson | [6] |
NHL All-Rookie Team | Daniel Alfredsson (Forward) | [7] | |
League (in-season) |
NHL All-Star Game selection | Daniel Alfredsson | [8] |
NHL Rookie of the Month | Daniel Alfredsson (November) | [9] | |
Daniel Alfredsson (April) | [10] | ||
Team | Molson Cup | Damian Rhodes | [11] |
Transactions
July 1995
July 8 | Acquired Jaroslav Modrý from the New Jersey Devils for a 4th round pick in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft - (Alyn McCauley). |
July 31 | Lost free agent Darren Rumble to the Philadelphia Flyers to a 1-year, $300,000 contract. |
Source[12]
August 1995
August 1 | Signed free agent Dan Quinn from the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-year, $1.05 mil contract. |
August 4 | Acquired Steve Duchesne from the St. Louis Blues for a 2nd round pick in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft - (Cory Sarich). |
August 7 | Lost free agent Corey Foster to the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 1-year contract. |
August 9 | Signed free agent Eric Lavigne from the Los Angeles Kings to a 1-year contract. |
Source[13]
September 1995
September 20 | Traded Jean-François Labbé to the Colorado Avalanche for future considerations. |
Source[14]
October 1995
October 2 | Claimed Justin Hocking from the Los Angeles Kings in the 1995 NHL Waiver Draft. Claimed Ted Drury from the Colorado Avalanche in the 1995 NHL Waiver Draft. |
October 4 | Claimed Tom Chorske off of waivers from the New Jersey Devils. |
October 5 | Acquired Jean-Yves Roy from the New York Rangers for Steve Larouche. New Jersey Devils received 3rd round draft pick in 1997 NHL Entry Draft - (Josh Langfeld for waiver draft payment for Tom Chorske. |
October 7 | Acquired Frank Musil from the Calgary Flames for a 4th round pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft - (Chris St. Croix). |
October 10 | Signed free agent Joe Cirella from the Florida Panthers to a 1-year, $150,000 (CAD) contract. |
October 13 | Resigned Frank Musil to a 1-year, $500,000 contract. |
Source[15]
December 1995
December 1 | Released Joe Cirella. |
December 31 | Re-signed Alexei Yashin to a 5-year, $13.6 million contract. |
Source[16]
January 1996
January 23 | Traded Dan Quinn to the Philadelphia Flyers for cash. Acquired Damian Rhodes from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Wade Redden from the New York Islanders for Martin Straka and Bryan Berard to the New York Islanders and Don Beaupre to the Toronto Maple Leafs as part of three-team trade. |
January 25 | Acquired Janne Laukkanen from the Colorado Avalanche for the rights to Brad Larsen. |
Source[17]
March 1996
March 1 | Acquired an 8th round pick in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft - (Erich Goldmann) from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Dave McLlwain. |
March 19 | Acquired an 9th round pick in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft - (Sami Salo) from the Philadelphia Flyers for Kerry Huffman. |
March 20 | Acquired Kevin Brown from the Los Angeles Kings for Jaroslav Modrý and an 8th round pick in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft - (Steve Valiquette). |
Source[18]
Draft picks
Ottawa's draft picks at the 1995 NHL Entry Draft in Edmonton, Alberta.[19]
Round | # | Player | Nationality | College/Junior/Club team (League) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Bryan Berard | ![]() |
Detroit Jr. Red Wings (OHL) |
2 | 27 | Marc Moro | ![]() |
Kingston Frontenacs (OHL) |
3 | 53 | Brad Larsen | ![]() |
Swift Current Broncos (WHL) |
4 | 89 | Kevin Bolibruck | ![]() |
Peterborough Petes (OHL) |
4 | 103 | Kevin Boyd | ![]() |
London Knights (OHL) |
6 | 131 | David Hruska | ![]() |
Banik Sokolov (Czech.) |
8 | 183 | Kaj Linna | ![]() |
Boston University (NCAA) |
8 | 184 | Ray Schultz | ![]() |
Tri-City Americans (WHL) |
9 | 231 | Erik Kaminski | ![]() |
Northeastern University (Boston) (NCAA) |
Farm teams
- Prince Edward Island Senators (American Hockey League)
- Thunder Bay Senators (Colonial Hockey League)
See also
Notes
- ^ Renamed during season to Corel Centre.
References
- "Ottawa Senators 1995-96 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com". www.hockeydb.com. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- "1995-96 Ottawa Senators Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- Garrioch, Bruce (1998), "Ottawa Senators 1992–93 to Date", Total Hockey
- Ottawa Senators staff (2006). Ottawa Senators Media Guide 2007. Ottawa Senators.
- NHL staff (2006). National Hockey League Guide & Record Book 2007. NHL.
- ^ 1996 NJ Devils Miss Playoffs vs Ottawa Senators - Chorske 2 Goals on YouTube
- ^ Yannis, Alex (April 14, 1996). "HOCKEY;The Devils' Playoff Chase Ends With a Whimper". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
- ^ "1995-96 NHL Summary".
- ^ "1995–1996 Conference Standings". National Hockey League. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
- ^ "1995-96 Ottawa Senators Schedule". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- ^ "Calder Memorial Trophy". records.nhl.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ^ "Postseason All-Star Teams". NHL.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ^ "1996 NHL All-Star Game Rosters". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved August 29, 2024.
- ^ "Alfredsson named rookie of the month - UPI Archives". UPI. December 1, 1995. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ^ "NHL Rookies of the Month". Hockey-Reference.com. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
- ^ Ottawa Senators 2014–15 Media Guide, p.162–82
- ^ "Transactions". prosportstransactions.com. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- ^ "Transactions". prosportstransactions.com. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- ^ "Transactions". prosportstransactions.com. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
- ^ "Transactions".
- ^ "Transactions".
- ^ "Transactions".
- ^ "Transactions".
- ^ "1995 NHL Entry Draft Picks at hockeydb.com". www.hockeydb.com. Retrieved August 28, 2023.