was the 13th season for the modern era of the
Ottawa Senators . With one of their franchise best regular seasons, the Senators made it to the Eastern Conference Semifinal, in which the
Buffalo Sabres eliminated Ottawa in five games.
, its name since January of 2006 since signing with
Scotiabank for a 25 year, $25 million contract.]]
On
October 5 ,
2005 , in a game against the
Toronto Maple Leafs , the Senators became the first team in
National Hockey League history to win in a shootout. Both
Daniel Alfredsson and newly acquired
Dany Heatley scored goals against Toronto's
Ed Belfour . Their sticks are subsequently on display at the
Hockey Hall Of Fame .
Heatley became the first Ottawa Senator in franchise history to reach 100 points on
April 13 ,
2006 , recording two assists during a 5-4 overtime loss to the
Florida Panthers and five days later became the first to reach the 50-goal mark. Meanwhile, defenceman
Wade Redden became the first Senator to win the
NHL Plus/Minus Award , tied with
New York Ranger Michal Rozsival , with a +35.
Before the season, Ottawa acquired the playoff-experienced goaltender
Dominik Hasek , but the team lost him midway through the season due to a hamstring injury he suffered while playing for the
Czech National Ice Hockey Team during the
2006 Winter Olympics .
Ray Emery took over the starting goaltender duties, who went on to become the first rookie netminder since Philadelphia's
Brian Boucher in 2000 to win a playoff series when the Senators defeated
Tampa Bay in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, four games to one. The Senators were then defeated by the
Buffalo Sabres in the second round, four games to one.
After that playoff failure, Eugene Melnyk (the team's owner) comforted fans in an open letter, by saying that their team would not only win the Stanley Cup in the future, but, once they had it, they would, he boasted, "hoard" it year after year.
1
- Green background indicates win.
- Red background indicates regulation loss.
- White background indicates overtime/shootout loss.
The Ottawa Senators ended the 2005-06 regular season as the Eastern Conference's first seed.
Ottawa wins series 4-1
Buffalo wins series 4-1
''Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/Minus; PIM = Penalty Minutes''
''Note: GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice (minutes); W = Wins; L = Losses; OT = Overtime Losses; GA = Goals Against;
SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against Average''
Ottawa's picks at the
2005 NHL Entry Draft in
Ottawa ,
Ontario .
