Senators: The Best That Canadian Money Can Buy

This is the good part for Roy Mlakar, watching the Ottawa Senators live up to their regular-season ranking as the NHL’s top team and take a 2-1 lead over the New York Islanders in their first-round playoff series.

Mlakar, the team’s president and a former King executive, has earned the right to enjoy the playoffs after guiding the club through financial woes that led to a missed payroll Jan. 1.

“It wasn’t a lot of fun, standing in the locker room and telling everybody they were not going to get paid,” he said.

Short of cash after the collapse of a plan by owner Rod Bryden to sell shares in the club, the Senators have been operating under bankruptcy protection since January. They’ve shown remarkable poise during the search for a new buyer, a process expected to end this week with the submission of a purchase offer to the court-appointed monitor overseeing the franchise. Toronto billionaire Eugene Melnyk has expressed interest in buying the club, and New York businessman Nelson Peltz reportedly might make an offer, too.

That step probably will be taken about the same time the Senators advance to the second round of the playoffs -- and they’re too good and have gone through too much to fall short now.

“We’ve got 16 players on our team we either drafted or this is their first NHL team,” said Mlakar, who’s in his eighth season in Ottawa. “They don’t know what it’s like to play for Detroit or the L.A. Kings. They’re Senators, and they’re sticking together and sticking with our plan.”

That plan is built on the strong goaltending of Patrick Lalime, a rugged defense and a corps of skilled forwards. It’s also built on a rare selflessness.

The Senators, like their Canadian brethren a victim of the country’s weak dollar, have a payroll of about $30 million -- tip money for the New York Rangers. To help the club afford the salaries of acquisitions Bryan Smolinski, Vaclav Varada and Rob Ray at the trade deadline, Varada, team captain Daniel Alfredsson and defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn agreed to restructure their contracts. Even then, Mlakar had to persuade the monitor that Smolinski was a good investment because Smolinski might lead the Senators on a long playoff run, leading to more home games and more revenues.

Draft pick Tim Gleason wanted a lot of money but the Senators said, see ya later, and traded him to the Kings for Smolinski.

“When Jason York became 31 [and an unrestricted free agent] it was, ‘Thanks and good luck in the future,’ ” Mlakar said. “If you’re Curtis Leschyshyn and you want to take less money because you bought a house here and it’s a great place to raise a family, here’s a three-year deal and this is what we can afford.

“This is how we have to do things. If there were ever to be a salary cap in the NHL, the Senators wouldn’t benefit because we’d be well below it. We don’t criticize anyone else. You do business the way you think you have to. To do what we’re doing, you have to have a general manager that’s on board and a coach that’s on board.”

Despite the fine work of Coach Jacques Martin and GM John Muckler, the Senators have a reputation for choking in the playoffs, having won merely one series the last four seasons. Mlakar, who last summer married former Laker vice president Tamara Vogel and bought a home in Ottawa, said the choker label is unfair.

“We shut out Philly three times and lost in seven games in the second round in the other guys’ building, without Zdeno Chara and Mike Fisher,” Mlakar said of the team’s second-round loss to the Maple Leafs last spring. “The reason it’s magnified is because it was Toronto.... One of the things we’ve tried to communicate to players is, you didn’t have problems in the playoffs with Philadelphia. I believe in the future of this team. The core has been together for a long time and we hope for a long time to come.”

Come Back, Shayne

In a bizarre move, forward Shayne Corson walked out on the Maple Leafs on Tuesday, apparently unhappy about not being in the lineup for their double-overtime victory over the Flyers on Monday.

Corson, once a physical force, struggled this season and had a career-low seven goals and 15 points. He has suffered from colitis, a debilitating stomach ailment, and in the past battled panic attacks. He credited his teammate and brother-in-law, Darcy Tucker, for helping him face the latter problem.

The Maple Leafs lead the series, 2-1, and will play the Flyers again tonight at the Air Canada Centre.

Singing the Blues

Despite losing defenseman Al MacInnis on Saturday to what was termed “an upper body injury” -- a common condition during the playoffs, when teams lie about injuries -- the Blues continue to find ways to win.

Coach Joel Quenneville mixed up his lines to put Pavol Demitra and Doug Weight together and match them against the Canucks’ line of Todd Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison. The Blues have had a huge advantage, holding Bertuzzi and Naslund to an assist each, while Demitra has two goals and Weight has contributed three. Demitra had a goal and an assist and Weight scored twice in the Blues’ 3-1 home victory Monday, which gave them a 2-1 series edge.

MacInnis was injured during the first period of Game 2, when Bertuzzi barreled into him and pinned his right arm against the unyielding glass in Vancouver.

Slap Shots

Pittsburgh General Manager Craig Patrick said he fired Coach Rick Kehoe because the Penguins were “moving in a new direction,” but the only direction they appear to be heading to is the bottom of the standings. Patrick will have a tough time finding someone to coach a team that sold off nearly all its talent this season because of a financial crunch and probably won’t have Mario Lemieux on the roster. It wouldn’t be surprising if Patrick tried to do both jobs, which would save money and be a reasonable stop-gap solution for a season that could be the last before a work stoppage in September 2004.

The same rationale might be behind the Flames’ decision to fire GM Craig Button and give both jobs to Coach Darryl Sutter. Why invest money in the future when there might not be much of a future if labor talks break down and the 2004-05 season is cut or canceled? The four other men who hold dual coach-GM roles -- Glen Sather of the Rangers, Doug MacLean of Columbus, Pat Quinn of Toronto and Mike O’Connell of Boston -- are expected to give up coaching, but there are no guarantees.

Interesting footnote to Button’s dismissal: His brother Tod escaped the ax and retained his scouting job.

An early playoff exit by the Red Wings, who are on the verge of being swept by the Mighty Ducks, would seriously damage their finances. They make about $2 million a home game and might end up with merely two home games, not enough to offset their $70-million payroll.