Once the playoffs begin...

This phrase seems to spark a lot of hope for the Senators fans 'round here. "Once the playoffs begins..." we should see the team rejuvenated; "As soon as the playoffs being..." they'll find their feet again; any variation on the hopes of playoff production will really fit into this lump, but unfortunately, this is a fan base that puts a lot of hope and prayer into their team.

Reading the posts on the Internet about the Senators and the woes that the team is dragging themselves through is tiring. The posts kind of remind me of those Q-Ray bracelets that you see mid-day on the crappy TV stations that attempt to hook in some slob without much of a hope in the world. Both are gimmicks to help encourage the user to believe in something that may or may not work.

Back to my remark about the Senators dragging themselves through these woes for a moment. On paper this team should be one of the best teams in the league. They have the top scoring line with some of the top defence both on and off the blue line and two starting goaltenders. Off paper and into reality they have very little focus and absolutely no determination. Sure, the interviews all sound amazing with promises of being better, but perhaps it's just simply time to stop doing interviews to give hollow hope to the Q-Ray fans and start actually doing something about it.

The playoffs are not a magic pill. The fans are saying it enough to lead me to believe that they are hoping for the cure to the disease known as the Senators Skid, but that cure isn't an externalized thing. To fix what has happened with the Senators from midway through November to the present day will come from within. They must look to themselves and sort out exactly what it is they believe in. It doesn't matter what that is, but each member of the team must buy into that belief and strive to grasp it. That sounds rather simple and in all truthfulness it is that simple ...

Perhaps the Ottawa Senators, like their fans, believe that getting into the playoffs will cure everything. With only a dozen or so games remaining in the regular season, however, the Senators and the fans need to come to grips with reality; this team may not make the playoffs if delusions continue.