Ottawa no longer has to deal with an identity crisis

Situated between charming Montreal and high-speed Toronto is Ottawa, a quiet city of 860,000 and capital of Canada.

That’s right. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. Not Toronto. Not Montreal. But that fact is often lost on this side of the border, if it’s known at all.

Roy Mlakar, born and raised in Ohio, once was among those who didn’t know much about the city. That has certainly changed.

Mlakar is president of the Ottawa Senators, who will play the Ducks for the Stanley Cup beginning Monday night.

He recalls when the NHL was expanding.

“Some 17 years ago, when I was president of the Kings, I was there for the presentation in West Palm Beach. It seemed like they were the only people that did any homework on the application for the franchise,” Mlakar said of the group seeking an expansion team.

But he knew little about Ottawa and asked Glen Sather, then Edmonton’s general manager, if Ottawa had an airport.

“Slats said, ‘It’s the capital of Canada.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know that but where the hell is that?’ ”

The answer is too close to Montreal and not far enough from Toronto. And Ottawa’s almost invisible identity extends to its hockey team.

One of the first franchises to come out of the NHL’s expansion boom in the 1990s, the Senators spent much of the last 15 years fighting through sad-sack teams and bankruptcy, all the while trying to emerge from the long shadows of the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.

But now Ottawa is the center of the hockey universe. Not Montreal, whose Canadiens haven’t played for a Cup since 1993. Not Toronto, where the Maple Leafs last hoisted the trophy in 1967.

“This is a great step forward for that franchise to get out of the shadow of the Maple Leafs,” said Rick Bowness, the Senators’ first coach. “It really applies to the whole country. It’s like the rest of the country just falls under the shadow of Toronto.

“They have great hockey fans there, as strong as any city in this league, and now they get to have their own identity. But it’s been a long grind.”

The original Ottawa Senators were among the founding professional teams in Canada, existing under various names from 1893 until 1934, during which they won 10 Stanley Cups. But they couldn’t keep up with better-financed teams in Boston, New York and Chicago and had to sell off star players. The Senators eventually moved to St. Louis, only to fold after one season.

The Senators were resurrected in 1992 as an expansion team -- and were horrible. Over the first four seasons, the win totals were 10, 14, nine and 18.

This lack of success resulted in high first-round picks each year, but none worked out.

The honeymoon was over.

“The early years were tough not only on the players but very hard on the fans as well,” said Bowness, now a Vancouver Canucks assistant. “I give their fans credit. They supported it through some awful teams.” But, he added, “They’ve been able to keep that franchise.”

Financial woes almost took it away. Owner Bruce Firestone had borrowed heavily to meet the $50-million expansion fee and, with no government help, had to cede control to high-tech tycoon Rod Bryden.

Bryden managed to borrow enough money to pay for the $188-million Palladium, now Scotiabank Place, but incurred huge debt with creditors, one of which was the NHL. The team filed for bankruptcy in 2003 before being rescued by pharmaceutical magnate Eugene Melnyk.

Mlakar, who has been president since 1996, said one of the toughest days of his life was going into the dressing room and telling the players they wouldn’t be paid. “The players did get paid, but not on time,” he said. “But there wasn’t one guy that complained, led by our captain.”

Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa’s longtime captain, remembers that unstable period.

“It was hard times, no question,” said Alfredsson, the team’s all-time leading scorer with 758 points, including a franchise-best 291 goals over 11 seasons. “At the end of the day the best thing we could do is go out and win games to get people to jump on board.

“We felt we wanted to stay in this city, there’s no question.”

Alfredsson, their second pick of the sixth round in 1994, became the face of the franchise.

But he also became a symbol of their failure to win the Cup.

There were four playoff losses to the rival Maple Leafs in a five-year span. There was a gut-wrenching seven-game defeat to New Jersey in the 2003 Eastern Conference finals.

But the worst criticism came last spring after Buffalo’s Jason Pominville went around Alfredsson for a short-handed goal that clinched a five-game conference series win.

Last weekend, Alfredsson enjoyed payback with his series-clinching goal to oust the Sabres.

“It’s so refreshing to see him vindicated,” Mlakar said. “He’s been the face of this franchise, the heart of this franchise. No one is more involved in the community than he is. One thing about Daniel Alfredsson is he really cares.”

So does Ottawa. Thousands greeted the team at Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport when the team returned from Buffalo.

And quiet Ottawa isn’t so quiet thanks to the Senators.

“Hockey here is a passion,” Mlakar said. “At this point, this is Canada’s team.”

*

eric.stephens@latimes.com