During their earlier reincarnation, the Ottawa Senators considered hiring Mike Bossy to teach the team how to score.
Before we could imagine the scenario involving the retired New York Islanders sniper - "Now, you take this little black disk here and ." - the Senators opted to learn how to score the hard way: by suffering through the lean years while drafting scorers named Yashin, Alfredsson Hossa and Havlat.
Nearly 20 years later, the questions are being asked again: Where will the goals come from for the 2011-12 Senators? (Is Bossy still available?)
Maybe it's a misprint, a bad dream, but the numbers suggest the 2010-11 Senators, despite a $56-million payroll the early Senators could not have imagined, came within a goal of being the weakest scoring machine in franchise history. Only the 1995-96 Senators, with 191 goals, scored fewer than last year's team with 192.
Is it reasonable to expect the Senators will score more often this season MINUS veterans like Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev and Chris Kelly, dealt off last season as the rebuild was launched with gusto?
The Senators are left with just two players who have ever scored 30 goals at the National Hockey League level: captain Daniel Alfredsson, who topped out at 43 goals in 2005-06, and Jason Spezza, a two-time 34-goal man. While battling injuries and on a losing team, Spezza slumped to 21 goals last season, and Alfredsson had 14.
After those two, Milan Michalek is the only other established NHL scorer, and he hasn't been able to match the 26 he scored for San Jose in 2006-07, producing 24, 23, 22 and 18 in subsequent seasons, a trend he is keen to reverse.
If the Senators are going to survive, they will need someone to emerge from the next wave, a group of young forwards that includes Nikita Filatov, Bobby Butler, Peter Regin, Nick Foligno and recent sixth overall pick Mika Zibanejad.
While Zibanejad displayed good hands and a scoring touch in pre-season, making him the goal-scoring saviour is a lot to ask of an 18-yearold.
He will start the season as Alfredsson's centre, probably alongside workhorse Colin Greening on the left wing. Alfredsson is all in favour of mentoring the young Swede.
"I take it as a compliment when they put me with players that aren't as experienced," Alfredsson says.
Butler scored 32 goals combined in the American Hockey League and NHL last season (10 in 36 NHL games), but, for the moment, has lost the coveted spot on Spezza's wing to Filatov, the 21-yearold Russian. Filatov had a ton of chances in the pre-season, but buried none of them. He hasn't scored more than four goals in an NHL season and hasn't played more than 23 games in a season, failing to score for Columbus last year while contributing seven assists.
So, for now, pencil in Filatov as the first line rightwinger, alongside Spezza and Michalek.
"He hasn't played his way out of that opportunity yet," Senators head coach Paul MacLean says.
There's a good chance he will, however. Don't be surprised to see Butler back on a scoring line before long.
"Bobby Butler is a goal scorer," general manager Bryan Murray says emphatically. Murray dismisses Butler's ineffective pre-season as a lack of opportunity and suggests Butler will re-establish himself when the fur flies in the regular season.
Lined up on a fourth line unit with Erik Condra and Zenon Konopka this week, Butler told me he would "definitely" battle to get back to a scoring line.
"I have to be ready to play defence, and then the scoring will come," Butler says.
More likely, the scoring doesn't come from other sources, and then Butler gets his chance.
Like Filatov, Butler is a physical lightweight, not cut out for the robust duty of third-and fourth-line grinders like Chris Neil and Zack Smith. Filatov and Butler are offensive players, and, if they're not producing, they aren't of much use.
Do we make too much of the Senators scoring issues?
The captain doesn't think so, and he has been around the block in the NHL.
"It's a fair question," Alfredsson says. "But I think we approach it this way: We know we have to play good defence. If we can do that and get that foundation down, we're going to work more on the offence, but I think we can be a sneaky team in that way, that we might surprise. I hope so.
"Will we get enough goals? Who knows? We've got good goaltending (with Craig Anderson). Special teams are going to be very important for us to do well. That could obviously be a difference maker. If you get on a roll, things happen naturally. If you don't and start forcing things, we might struggle scoring goals."
Let's not forget the possibility of offensive support from the blueline. Veteran Sergei Gonchar, coming off a sub-par season, is an established power-play quarterback, and Erik Karlsson was second on the team with 45 points last season. David Rundblad and Jared Cowen will also be contributors as they mature.
MacLean, the new coach, is preaching defensive play and puck pursuit, but he was also working on drills this week that had defencemen joining the rush.
MacLean isn't sure how many goals the Senators will need to score, just as long as it's one more than the other guy, he says.
Sounds good, but he's surely prepared for more than a few nights when it's one or two less than the other guy.
Before we could imagine the scenario involving the retired New York Islanders sniper - "Now, you take this little black disk here and ." - the Senators opted to learn how to score the hard way: by suffering through the lean years while drafting scorers named Yashin, Alfredsson Hossa and Havlat.
Nearly 20 years later, the questions are being asked again: Where will the goals come from for the 2011-12 Senators? (Is Bossy still available?)
Maybe it's a misprint, a bad dream, but the numbers suggest the 2010-11 Senators, despite a $56-million payroll the early Senators could not have imagined, came within a goal of being the weakest scoring machine in franchise history. Only the 1995-96 Senators, with 191 goals, scored fewer than last year's team with 192.
Is it reasonable to expect the Senators will score more often this season MINUS veterans like Mike Fisher, Alex Kovalev and Chris Kelly, dealt off last season as the rebuild was launched with gusto?
The Senators are left with just two players who have ever scored 30 goals at the National Hockey League level: captain Daniel Alfredsson, who topped out at 43 goals in 2005-06, and Jason Spezza, a two-time 34-goal man. While battling injuries and on a losing team, Spezza slumped to 21 goals last season, and Alfredsson had 14.
After those two, Milan Michalek is the only other established NHL scorer, and he hasn't been able to match the 26 he scored for San Jose in 2006-07, producing 24, 23, 22 and 18 in subsequent seasons, a trend he is keen to reverse.
If the Senators are going to survive, they will need someone to emerge from the next wave, a group of young forwards that includes Nikita Filatov, Bobby Butler, Peter Regin, Nick Foligno and recent sixth overall pick Mika Zibanejad.
While Zibanejad displayed good hands and a scoring touch in pre-season, making him the goal-scoring saviour is a lot to ask of an 18-yearold.
He will start the season as Alfredsson's centre, probably alongside workhorse Colin Greening on the left wing. Alfredsson is all in favour of mentoring the young Swede.
"I take it as a compliment when they put me with players that aren't as experienced," Alfredsson says.
Butler scored 32 goals combined in the American Hockey League and NHL last season (10 in 36 NHL games), but, for the moment, has lost the coveted spot on Spezza's wing to Filatov, the 21-yearold Russian. Filatov had a ton of chances in the pre-season, but buried none of them. He hasn't scored more than four goals in an NHL season and hasn't played more than 23 games in a season, failing to score for Columbus last year while contributing seven assists.
So, for now, pencil in Filatov as the first line rightwinger, alongside Spezza and Michalek.
"He hasn't played his way out of that opportunity yet," Senators head coach Paul MacLean says.
There's a good chance he will, however. Don't be surprised to see Butler back on a scoring line before long.
"Bobby Butler is a goal scorer," general manager Bryan Murray says emphatically. Murray dismisses Butler's ineffective pre-season as a lack of opportunity and suggests Butler will re-establish himself when the fur flies in the regular season.
Lined up on a fourth line unit with Erik Condra and Zenon Konopka this week, Butler told me he would "definitely" battle to get back to a scoring line.
"I have to be ready to play defence, and then the scoring will come," Butler says.
More likely, the scoring doesn't come from other sources, and then Butler gets his chance.
Like Filatov, Butler is a physical lightweight, not cut out for the robust duty of third-and fourth-line grinders like Chris Neil and Zack Smith. Filatov and Butler are offensive players, and, if they're not producing, they aren't of much use.
Do we make too much of the Senators scoring issues?
The captain doesn't think so, and he has been around the block in the NHL.
"It's a fair question," Alfredsson says. "But I think we approach it this way: We know we have to play good defence. If we can do that and get that foundation down, we're going to work more on the offence, but I think we can be a sneaky team in that way, that we might surprise. I hope so.
"Will we get enough goals? Who knows? We've got good goaltending (with Craig Anderson). Special teams are going to be very important for us to do well. That could obviously be a difference maker. If you get on a roll, things happen naturally. If you don't and start forcing things, we might struggle scoring goals."
Let's not forget the possibility of offensive support from the blueline. Veteran Sergei Gonchar, coming off a sub-par season, is an established power-play quarterback, and Erik Karlsson was second on the team with 45 points last season. David Rundblad and Jared Cowen will also be contributors as they mature.
MacLean, the new coach, is preaching defensive play and puck pursuit, but he was also working on drills this week that had defencemen joining the rush.
MacLean isn't sure how many goals the Senators will need to score, just as long as it's one more than the other guy, he says.
Sounds good, but he's surely prepared for more than a few nights when it's one or two less than the other guy.
