"In seven years I expect to have three rings on my fingers — my engineering ring, my wedding band, and my Stanley Cup ring." So Dr. Bruce Firestone declared to me in a 1992 interview given at the Ottawa Senators office suites on Moodie Drive in Nepean.

        Firestone said it with the kind of quiet determination and tautly drawn resolve that got him — and his team — the Ottawa N.H.L. expansion franchise in Florida, December 6, 1990. This first landmark was to be followed by financing problems, fund-raising ups and downs, difficulties with the Ontario Municipal Board (O.M.B.) re-zoning of the Palladium site. All conditions were met in November 1991 and Firestone and his seasoned team moved towards the next targets.

         "When I got the news of the O.M.B. approval, the first thing I did — after telling my wife — was to phone Frank Finnigan. He had contributed so much to our bringing back The Senators."

          Firestone's love of hockey and association with the national game goes back three generations to a time when his grandfather, Sam Torontow, arrived from Russia in 1907, came to Ottawa, and began an immediate love affair with hockey in a town which in that era was a ferment of sporting activity. Sam passed this passion for what Firestone now calls "ballet on ice" on to his daughters, including Bruce Firestone's mother, Isabel.

          "I knew I didn't have the ingredients, the body build to play advanced hockey. But I have a son coming up who has ..."

          Firestone's resume reveals a distinguished academic training: Ashbury College in Rockcliffe, Civil Engineering at McGill, a Masters in Engineering at University of New South Wales, PhD in Economics at the Australian National University, and other studies at Harvard, University of Western Ontario, University of Laval.

         Why the Masters and PhD in Australia? "The beaches were great there," is Firestone's reply.

One evening in March 1988, he was playing pick-up hockey with Randy Sexton and Cyril Leeder at the Westboro arena. In the dressing-room after the game Firestone dropped his bombshell, one he describes as having been nursed for a year and a half and not even communicated to his wife, Dawn.

          As Firestone tells the story, "I told them that the N.H.L. is due for another round of expansion franchises and I think Ottawa is ready now. Let's put together a bid."

         "Both Randy and Cyril fell off the bench," Firestone added with one of his rare smiles.

          But an idea had been sown, a vision was being nurtured, and talks began among movers and shakers.

         "I had grown up in Ottawa," Firestone explained, "and I knew Ottawa had changed. It had grown much bigger, it was more diverse, and it was much richer. I simply believed that it was the logical choice in Canada for the upcoming N.H.L. expansion franchise."

         The fire had been ignited at that Terrace Investments game of shinny at the Lions Arena in Westboro in March 1988. For the next six months Randy Sexton and Cyril Leeder began to gather information about the N.H.L., its expansion process, financial details concerning the 21 teams, historical data on the original Ottawa Senators. Meanwhile Master Planner Firestone was laying out an overall strategy, the essence of which was:

         Buy a Site

         Win the Franchise

         Build the Building

And somewhere in here the team rallying cry became, "Don't Back Down," from the Tom Petty ballad.

         After Firestone had revealed his dream to Randy Sexton and Cyril Leeder and promulgated his three-pronged plan — "buy a site, win the franchise, build the building" — an earnest search began for land for the proposed Senators Palladium. And it was not so easy. There were few suitable sites along the Queensway and some of them were already owned by the National Capital Commission. Then the trio got their first real break; the Central Canada Exhibition Association allowed their options to lapse on land along the Queensway near the Kanata-West Carle ton town line, an ideal site. Six months of negotiations with the landowners resulted in a site for the home of the new Ottawa Senators.

          On June 12, 1989, a letter was sent to John Ziegler, Jr., President of the National Hockey League, stating the intention of Terrace Investments to seek an expansion franchise on behalf of the citizens of Ottawa. Terrace Investments announced publicly its bid for the new franchise, and on September 6, 1989, held a press conference at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa to announce its "Bring Back the Senators" campaign.

          At that watershed press conference, Finnigan was presented with a new Ottawa Senator word-logo jersey with his old Senator No. 8 on the back.

Back the Senators' campaign and it was known that we had begun actively seeking a new franchise, I was slapped with three law suits disputing our right to use 'Ottawa Senators,' one from surviving members of the Gorman family (old Tommy Gorman had been an original part-owner with Frank Ahearn of the old Ottawa Senators); one from the Central Junior 'A' League Ottawa Senators, and one other. We fought them all successfully and secured the trade marks for the name The Ottawa Senators."

          In September the season ticket reservation drive began; in exchange for a $25 non-refundable pledge, subscribers received a "Bring Back the Senators" sticker and a registration number which reserved a season ticket for the Ottawa Senators first season.

          Announcement was made of the names of political figures and business leaders who would comprise the Senators Ad Hoc Advisory Committee. As well, Bruce Firestone continued to gather around himself a team of educated, articulate professionals — lawyers, MBA's, CA's — men and women who were very much in contrast to the old N.H.L. prototypes, self-made "macho" rednecks with short attention spans and faulty grammar but whose homegrown talents and aggressions combined with their love of the game had moved them to the top on all levels of the hockey pyramid, player to coach to manager to executive administrator. Members of The Terrace team began a systematic campaign to visit each N.H.L. city, meet with respective team owners, governors and officials, learn more about the N.H.L. inner workings, and promote the city of Ottawa. In September 1989, the architectural firm Rossetti Associates attended a Terrace press conference and unveiled "the white on white" model for the Ottawa Palladium.

           Meanwhile, behind the scenes, work was going on apace on written and visual promotional material. Terrace produced a 26-page color booklet illustrating the beauty and strength of the city of Ottawa for distribution to the N.H.L. Board of Governors. This was simply the forerunner for the 600-page leather-bound official application, a superlative production which was to play a major role in achieving the franchise for Ottawa and said by some to be the factor which tipped the delicate balance in favor of the Capital City.

           A few months later Terrace unveiled its plans for a long-term 600-acre development in Kanata surrounding their proposed arena, and including a 408-room luxury hotel, a shopping center, a hi-tech business park, several commercial office towers, two new residential neighborhoods, and a transit station. Just as with the Ahearns fifty years before with the old Ottawa Senators, part of the larger plan was transportation of ticket-holders to the hockey arena.

          On May 31, 1990, just a few days after Regional Planning Committee unanimously voted to amend the Official Plan to allow Terrace to build in Kanata, Terrace received an official invitation from the N.H.L. to submit an application for an expansion franchise in its "Plan of Sixth Expansion."

          On June 14, 1990, Terrace PR people proudly announced that 10,000 season ticket reservations had been received, buoying hopes for winning a franchise. The same day Cyril Leeder, Randy Sexton, and Charles Hamilton of Terrace arrived in Vancouver for the N.H.L.'s 1990 Congress and Entry Draft. It was very much a learning experience for the team.

         "We met with lots and lots of people," Randy Sexton said later, "from the governors of the N.H.L. to minor league officials. And we gathered data, valuable date, on expected revenues form board advertising, the market itself, the corporate market, the target audience, and the demographics of the audience."

          On August 14, 1990, ten precious 600-page copies of the Official Expansion Application of the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club were loaded into a limousine, along with Vice-President Randy Sexton and Jim Steel, Director of Marketing, all headed for the N.H.L. Offices in New York. The following day President Cyril Leeder was quoted in USA TODAY: "We believe we have the best hockey market not currently served by an N.H.L. franchise. If the N.H.L. said we could have any market, we'd still take Ottawa." Nine other cities had announced their intention to contest the franchises for two new N.H.L. clubs: Phoenix, Miami, Houston, Seattle, San Diego, Milwaukee, Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Hamilton.

The franchises were to be awarded at the N.H.L. board of Governors meeting in December in West Palm Beach, Florida. As the decision date approached, the Terrace Team was encouraged by N.H.L. executive response to the written application. The team was invited to a question-and-answer meeting with the League's Franchise and Marketing Analysis committee on October 18th in New York, at which Bruce Firestone stated: "We are not looking back. We really believe we are the leading bidder in Canada and in the U.S.A." By mid-November The Senators had 11,000 pledges for season tickets, an achievement which led Randy Sexton to declare, boldly, "We are more confident and optimistic with each day. We will be ready for the Florida meeting and we won't back down." On December 2nd the Terrace Team along with a delegation of 150 enthusiastic supporters and fans traveled to West Palm Beach to make a final presentation at the Board of Governors meeting. To the surprise of Bruce Firestone, The Senators were awarded a franchise on December 6th.

"I felt like I did on the night my son was born," said Randy Sexton, Vice-President of Terrace Investments Limited. National Hockey League Governors had awarded a conditional expansion franchise to the City of Ottawa and welcomed Terrace Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Firestone, President Cyril Leeder, and Sexton into the "big leagues" of professional sport.

          Firestone believed winning a franchise would be much like winning an election and the bid was designed accordingly. "Ottawa has a rich hockey history and that gave our campaign an edge on other cities," Firestone said.

Billboards, bumper stickers, and hats reminded hockey visitors that the Senators were "Winners of Nine Stanley Cups." If the printed message was somehow missed, the spoken (sometimes shouted) word was delivered by an entourage of 150 supporters who traveled south to help win a team.

         "We were just starting our presentation to the Governors when the band started up," recalled Sexton. "There was a crash of cymbals and trumpets, trombones and tubas started playing 'Ca-na-da' by Bobby Gimby. It was great!" "Are you the guys with the band?" joked one N.H.L. governor to Sexton. The Ottawa Fire Department Marching Band may have been too much for the conservative clientele at the posh Breakers Hotel, but the band was playing for the governors. The governors listened.

          After the formal presentation off the bid, the Ottawa entourage adjourned to The Senators hospitality suite. It featured a mock hockey rink, complete with boards, Senators merchandise and hockey videos. No other expansion candidate provided such a room and the Ottawa suite became a popular spot. It was another "edge" for Ottawa.

          Later that evening Senators supporters gathered at a local restaurant, but for Terrace executives the work continued. At a private dinner, they and other bidders had one last chance to lobby the governors.

        "One governor actually told us there was no way we would get in and that was devastating," said Cyril Leeder. The governors who supported Ottawa's bid advised Terrace to do nothing else. They said, "Let us handle it, you've done all you can."

         The next morning, December 6th, Bruce Firestone was out jogging when the governors summoned his team for a meeting. After a quick change of clothes Firestone prepared for the worst. "A governor's representative took us through a series of back hallways and the kitchen," said Firestone. "I was sure we did not get the franchise." But Jim Durell, then Mayor of Ottawa and now President of the hockey club, told Firestone, "We are going to get it because we deserve it." He was right. The N.H.L. governors decided it was time to bring back the Senators.

          Back in Palm Beach Randy Sexton was also thinking of family. He phoned his father. "My father always told me no matter what you set out to do in life, you have to see it through. You have to bring home the bacon." That night Sexton's father told him, "you took my advice, you brought home the bacon."

          High in the fourth tier of the Montreal Forum, a 62-year-old pensioner whose Gaspe family had been so poor he had never owned a pair of skates, never played a single game of hockey, sat shaking his head in amazement.

          Al Sexton's only son, Randy, was moving across the far end of the Forum ice surface, every eye, several television cameras, hundreds of hopes upon him as the chief executive officer of the brand-new Ottawa Senators moved to the microphone with his general manager, Mel Bridgman, and his director of player personnel, John Ferguson.

         The last time Al Sexton had sat in this hallowed sports arena and looked for his son he was nowhere to be seen, just another fourth-liner the Cornwall Royals had decided not to dress for the night even though his parents had driven down from Brockville to see him.

         Now the son was in the process of naming the most important player in the wild plans that had been mentioned three years earlier in the Sextons' Brockville living room, wild plans that Al Sexton at first took to be nothing but "kidding" but now were about to be broadcast live across the country, splashed across the front pages.

         Alexei Yashin, an eighteen-year-old Russian, would become the key building block in a team that was never supposed to happen.

         And Al Sexton, sitting with his wife, Pauline, high in the farthest seats away from the action, could only shake his head and speak for all of us.

        "Unbelievable"

        "Almost unbelievable."

         Months before the computer failed, months before the key page went missing, months before Phil Esposito did his unexpected about-face, there had to be a beginning — and Al Sexton was there as well.

         The wild plans that he had taken as "kidding" — the idea that Randy Sexton and Bruce Firestone and Cyril Leeder would redesign their Terrace Investments and go after a national Hockey League franchise — had somehow taken root. Through guile, luck, brass and simple determination, the three had managed what no one believed possible: the N.H.L. had awarded one of two new franchises to Ottawa, the other to Esposito and his Tampa partners.

          The mayor of Ottawa — then Jim Durrell, now The Senators' president — was throwing a celebration at the Civic Center for the victors. Al Sexton was having a hard time getting to congratulate his son, but when he did, he advised him he'd better start "thinking about what kind of a team you'll have.'

          When the younger Sexton and Firestone and Leeder finally sat down and thought about putting their new team together, they had only a few unpolished ideas and a single, overriding philosophy.

          They wanted to keep in mind three key franchises: Montreal Canadiens, Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins. The Canadiens because of decades of success; the Oilers because they had demonstrated how to build a modern franchise; Pittsburgh because they were the style of the moment.

          The Ottawa Senators, they decided, would have to be a team that could adjust. If the opposition wanted to skate, Ottawa would have to skate. If the game was going to be decided by finesse, Ottawa would have to Finesse. If grinding was the style, Ottawa would grind as well. If they were not going to win right away, they would not want to be humiliated.

         The emphasis would be on size, on toughness, on leadership and skill. Size no one can control. Skill is somewhat within a team's control But a team can exercise considerable control over "character."

         And character would come to count for most on this new club.

         In Sexton's mind, he wanted "to control those things we can control." They would establish an environment, "set the culture." If the Montreal Forum had an aura, if pulling on a Boston Bruins' sweater meant something, then being a Senator would have to mean something. The very first game, they decided, they would make a ceremony of hoisting the nine Stanley Cup banners that already belong to the Ottawa Senators of another era.

         They set down a five-year plan for the team. To build, slowly, the core positions. To build down through center. Strong in goal. A strong defence. Strong centers.

         In late August 1991, Terrace hired Mel Bridgman to become the team's first general manager. He had absolutely no experience. But then, neither did they. They hired him on the same basis they intended to measure their team: toughness and character.

Shown here at their

inaugural press conference,

Mel Bridgman 

and Rick Bowness

have taken on the task of

          Their one great oversight was Europe — which, ironically, would eventually become the team's first footing for its foundation. Bridgman, who had played briefly in Switzerland at the end of his career, made an arrangement with an old coach, and Castron was somewhat knowledgeable after having played in Scandinavia, but clearly this was not enough experience to keep up with the quantum change in style that is currently sweeping hockey.

           The Russian players they laughed at the year The Senators were awarded their franchise are no longer being ridiculed. The four most exciting players in the 1992 Stanley Cup were a Canadian (Mario Lemieux), a Czech (Jaromir Jagr), and two Russians (Pavel Bure and Sergei Federov). Don Cherry suddenly seems hopelessly dated.

           A few weeks later, after an emergency N.H.L. Board of Governors meeting in Chicago regarding the possibility of a players' strike, Firestone, Sexton, and Bridgman chartered a light plane home, stopped off in Windsor to pick up Ferguson, brought him on to Ottawa and, during a morning meeting at the Chateau Laurier, like what they heard. Ferguson was shortly named director of player personnel. His immediate responsibility would be the preparation for the upcoming draft.

            It was precisely this measure that led The Senators very early to the player around whom they would build their franchise. The early scouting reports on Czechoslovakian teenager Roman Hamrlik were outstanding, but it was only when Bridgman and Sexton traveled to the Four Nations Cup in Vierumaki, Finland, that they understood his character. On a leg he had just fractured blocking a Russian shot from the point, Hamrlik walked on icy street for a mile Co meet with the two, refusing a ride and refusing, as well, to admit he was in any pain.

           "Mel," Sexton said, "he's our guy."

            Hamrlik was instantly tagged as the first player they would draft. If they won the upcoming flip to decide which would select first, Ottawa or Tampa, they would have him for certain. But even if they lost the flip and had to go second, they figured Hamrlik would still be available.

            The Tampa Bay Lightning was having a very hard time selling tickets. How would Phil Esposito sell a single seat in aging, conservative Florida with a teenaged kid from a recently communist country who couldn't speak a word of English and, besides, is still a year away from being ready?

Ferguson directed the meetings and controlled the talk, whipping them through hundreds of potential players. They then integrated all the North American information, did their final rankings and emerged with a master list they believed, wrongly, would be their most crucial resource.

          At the same time, the National Hockey League was going through what may eventually amount to a paradigm shift in attitude. Europeans — more specifically, Russians — were suddenly the talk of the game. The strike over, there was further talk that the game itself would be changing: a new president might be in the works, stricter rules against fighting and stickwork were being discussed, "grinder" hockey was not only passe, it clearly did not work. Toughness mattered, yes, but nothing so much as pure skill

           In Seattle the backup choice — in the unlikelihood that one might be needed — was a huge giant from the Medicine Hat Tigers, Mike Rathje. If grinder hockey survived, Rathje was certain to be a superstar.

           By this point, "character" had taken on almost religious proportions. One extraordinary Junior prospect was even expunged from The Senators' list on the basis of spelling and grammar mistakes he had made on the hand-written report each junior must fill out for the N.H.L. Central Scouting Office.

           Back in Ottawa they continued to meet — Ferguson and Jim Nill handling the rankings for the June 18 expansion draft of fringe N.H.L. players — and Ferguson, Bridgman and others working on the June 20 expansion draft, in which Europeans were daily becoming more of a presence.

          "There's no denying it," Sexton said at the time, "we don't have as good a handle on Europe as we should." By the next draft, he promised himself, The Senators would have as much staff concentration on Europe as they have on North America.

           Already impressed with a young Russian named Darius Kasparaitis, The Senators made an effort to see another young Russian named Alexei Yashin at the Prague championships, but schooling had kept him at home, so Yashin was not high on any Senators list. And The Senators were beginning to get calls from other teams: Toronto Maple Leafs trying to find out whom Ottawa would pick and whether or not anything might be done to land Ryan Sittler, former Leaf captain Darryl Sittler's son, in a Leaf uniform, Detroit and New Jersey to talk possible deals, Phil Esposito to see if he could find out whom Ottawa was after.

           They expected Minnesota to offer up Bobby Smith, the former Ottawa Junior star and a sentimental fan favorite, but they had no interest in his contract. If, on the other hand, Edmonton were to offer equally aging Craig MacTavish, The Senators were determined to take him. After that, they would have to see who was available.

           The Senators tried to put a brave face on it, claiming they had won "one out of two," but no one was fooled. They took consolation in the growing certainty that Esposito would go for the good-looking, highly marketable young Windsor scorer, Todd Warriner.

           They were headed for Montreal with confidence. It was all on computer, all available on paper. It would probably happen as predicted.

          "I remember one coach saying to me," Al Sexton recalls, "that Randy's moves would never make anybody too dizzy."

           They were talking about him on the ice as a player, not as an executive.

           Before the Montreal draft was history, the Ottawa Senators would leave a lot of heads spinning, including some of their own, and more than a few heads turning.

           On Monday The Senators' brand-new head coach, Rick Bowness, was driven by Bridgman down to Montreal. Bridgman briefed Bowness on the way. Tuesday morning they gathered over a breakfast of fruit in Room 1322 of the Bonaventure Hotel. An Apple computer held all the information for both drafts. A fax machine was taking messages. The JVC ghetto blaster was silent, the stack of CDs offering a choice of irony: Crash Test Dummies, Tears for Fears.

           Bridgman was extremely nervous. At noon the N.H.L. was supposed to release the final list of players the other teams would make available. At that moment — in theory — the guesswork would be over, the strategy could begin.

           But already the strategy was taking on a life of its own. The Senators had a chance to sign a free-agent goaltender no one else seemed much aware of, Lake Superior State's Darrin Madeley, who'd just been named college player of the year by The Hockey News. Signing him would immediately shift the plane to go for two quality goaltenders in the expansion draft. They could now afford to take the one they most wanted, Peter Sidorkeiwicz, and perhaps do something with the other choice.

           So far Bridgman had refused to indicate whether Ottawa would select the first and fourth goaltender or the second and third. The thinking had been second and third — but Madeley changed all that.

           Bridgman and some of the others were also rattled by a rumor that Tampa had signed a free agent, but no one knew whom. And they still didn't have the N.H.L. list.

           Bridgman sat on the couch, Higgins to his left, then Ferguson, Bowness, Castron, and Nill. Chico Resch arrived late, stood around for a while, and eventually pulled up a chair between Higgins and Ferguson. They passed the time going over their own computer lists and bringing Bowness up to scratch.

           Finally, too edgy to concentrate in the hotel suite, they moved operations over to the Sun Life Building where the N.H.L. set them up in the ninth-floor boardroom where they waited under the stares of the only four presidents the league has so far had — Frank Calder, Red Dutton, Clarence Campbell, and John Ziegler. On the wall were paintings of the way it's supposed to be: Montreal and Boston facing off, a goaltender making a remarkable save, a player firing the puck so hard it leaves a blurred tracer as it moves across the canvas, the packed and excited crowd rising in anticipation.

           But on the huge boardroom table the game slowed to a snail's pace. Some lists arrived and The Senators congratulated themselves on how accurate their forecasts had been. There were few surprises. They had expected the Montreal Canadiens to leave forward Mike McPhee unprotected, but then, so did everyone else.

           Bowness talked about what it is like in the Forum when the top picks have gone and the entry draft has dwindled down to the last few rounds, and how team managers have to sit there and stare up into the stands where kids and parents are beginning to stare so desperately down, some of them openly weeping, and he talked about how he once saw a kid picked at the very end come down and seek out the general manager who had chosen him and who was just packing away his notes. No sweater or cap for this kid, but all he wanted was a handshake, and when he reached out to meet his new boss the manager would only growl, "Who the hell are you?"

             None of them wanted that to happen to anyone they picked.

            Clearly the N.H.L. had run into a glitch. A mistake had been made in the first list sent in by the Edmonton Oilers. New lists were being drawn up. New lists would continually be added as the first draft grew closer — an annoyance, but no one in The Senators group realized it would soon also be their greatest embarrassment.

            Finally, the N.H.L. delivered its master list to The Senators on Wednesday morning. The list was photocopied and entered into the books each scout and executive carried. At 2:00 in the afternoon the list was handed out to the media.

            The morning list contained the name "C.J. Young" of the Calgary Flames, a player The Senators had tagged as one they would like if he were made available. The afternoon list had no such name.

            Bridgman met in the evening with the press, but there was nothing to say and virtually nothing to ask.

            At one point he jumped up and used his sleeve to wipe clean a scheduling chart that was taped to the wall, fretting that someone had seen details of tomorrow's meetings.

            "I'm not really nervous," he said. "Anxious."

            Thursday morning they met and reviewed the situation and the strategy. They had decided that Ottawa would select first but refused to tell Esposito just to make sure they didn't "give Phil an edge."

            A potential deal might also be possible with New York. Now that The Senators weren't so worried about their second goal-tender, they might do the Rangers a favor by taking young Mark LaForest, whom the Rangers hadn't been able to protect, and then perhaps return LaForest to New York for another prospect.

            The Senators felt they might even get two players down the road for such a favor.

            New Jersey also might lead to a future deal. Word was out that several teams, including Detroit, were after veteran defenceman Viacheslav Fetisov, whom New Jersey wished to keep. The other teams had been after Ottawa to do them a favor — but Ottawa was forbidden by league rules to enter into any formal agreement until the draft was over. Ottawa, however, would do New Jersey the favor by taking defenceman Brad Shaw, whom they wanted anyway, and thereby ensure that New Jersey, under the draft rules, could not lose two defencemen.

           With the expansion draft scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The Senators organized early. They would have their lists in their binders and they would bring in a laptop computer to access their files. The computer program would cross index players. Data entered would allow the team to track the progress of the draft. The computer would help them make decisions, keep them from making mistakes.

           At 5:45 p.m. John Ferguson was handed an envelope by a young N.H.L. "runner" as he entered the draft room. Inside was yet another up-to-date list. No indication was given that there were changes. Ferguson stacked it with his other papers.

           The laptop computer was brought out and plugged in and turned on, but nothing happened. Frantically, they checked the power line: no electricity. They checked the battery: no power.

           They were now without the computer. They had to rely completely on their printed lists. And the list in their notebooks was already out of date.

          "We are approaching the witching hour," announced N.H.L. Vice-President Brian O'Neill.

           He had no idea how right he was.

           Ottawa selected first, taking Sidorkiewicz, and after Esposito took two goaltenders, The Senators stalled, slowing the televised proceedings to an embarrassing crawl. Yet while most observers thought it was indecision holding them back, it was actually the complicated deal worked out with New York.

           With Jim Nill hurrying between The Rangers' personnel and The Senators' center table, the television audience was forced to wait. New York was willing to talk about future considerations, but was also looking for a late-round selection. Nill returned to his seat and a message came down from the N.H.L. officials at the podium: no fiddling with the process. The Senators gambled on a future deal and took LaForest anyway.

           For a while the draft went smoothly. Esposito appeared to be aiming for older players, for rougher players, and Ottawa was pleasantly surprised to be getting more or less the players they had targeted.

           As planned, they selected Brad Shaw from New Jersey. They got three of the six defencemen they were hoping for, and six of what they had determined to be the top nine forwards, including potential star Sylvain Turgeon.

           It was when The Senators began pursuing their own "tough guy" that the lack of computer caught up to them. They selected Montreal's Todd Ewan, only to be told Montreal could lose no more players. Someone at the table hadn't been counting. They selected a Toronto Maple Leaf immediately after two Leafs had been taken in a row by Esposito, meaning a third could not be selected. And finally, they tried to take C.J. Young, whose name wasn't even on the list.

           Furious, Sexton, Ferguson, and Bridgman all approached the podium to argue the point. They carried with them the master list with Young's name. The N.H.L. pointed out that the working master list held no such name. No one else in the room had Young's name on a list.

          Esposito, turning toward the Tampa area media, rolled his eyes back in his head.

          It was, all agreed, "unbelievably embarrassing."

          And unfortunate, for if the results had not been clouded with the long delay and three faux pas it might have been reported that The Senators did a far superior job on the expansion draft than had Tampa Bay.

          Jim Nill had done his job. The expansion picks weren't much, but they were certainly worth more than Esposito was taking back to Florida.

           By Friday, however, the hotel corridors were filling with rumors that Esposito was beginning to move toward taking Hamrlik in the all-important entry draft. His own scouts were rating Hamrlik highest and the other scouts moving about the Bonaventure and Intercontinental and Radisson hotels were raving about the big youngster with the "killer instinct" and the astonishing skills.

           Ottawa was beginning to worry. It was clear, as well, that the Europeans were having an impact. As John Ferguson was saying, "You gotta have them." And coming into Montreal, Ottawa had been thinking about a 6'5" kid from Medicine Hat if Hamrlik wasn't available.

           In a matter of hours they completely changed strategy. Thanks to a large contingent of Russian prospects, they were able to do some fast interviewing, including Alexei Yashin, whose name was being heard more and more often.

            They met Yashin and were most impressed with his intelligence, his demeanor, and his intent. While Hamrlik was walking

around telling reporters he would soon be buying a Porsche, Yashin told The Senators his goal was "to play in the National Hockey League and move his parents and brother to a cleaner environment.

All named Yashin as the leader. When it came to skill, many names were mentioned, including the highly-rated Darius Kasparaitis but just as much they talked about Yashin.

           Friday evening Rick Bowness and Sexton took the young Russian out to dinner and were very impressed. Sexton came to the conclusion that Yashin should have been the chosen one all along.

           But there was still one slim chance to get Hamrlik. Esposito had offered a deal. The Senators could get the player they wished if they would give him a draft pick. The Senators refused. They would go with Yashin.

          "Even if in the end Phil had gone with Warriner we would have taken Yashin," says Sexton.

           Esposito went with Hamrlik.

           Ottawa took Yashin.

           Rathje went to San Jose.

           And Warriner, who was expected to go first, ended up with Quebec.

           The laptop computer worked fine.

           Ottawa made no more mistakes.

           On the computer and in the yellow folders each Senator carried at the table, Chad Penney of North Bay and Patrick Traverse of Shawinigan were both listed to go in the first round. They picked up Penney in the second, Traverse in the third.

           The reason was the very charge Ottawa and Tampa launched when first one then the other went for a "European." From that point on, Sexton says, it became "trendy."

          When it was over, Ottawa had five players from the top 25 they had tagged in their folders.

          And as a bonus, they had one final pick courtesy of The Rangers for future considerations.

          And they used it to take another European: a nineteen-year-old Swedish goaltender none of them has even seen but who has, according to scout Kent Nilson, great potential character.

          "They're all futures," John Ferguson said as he packed up to leave.

          "We don't have to rush any of them. That's what this is all about — building your stockpile for the future."

           As for Al and Pauline Sexton, they were coming down out of the stands after a long, long day, anxious to head back to Brockville and home, two hockey parents who finally got to see their son play in the Montreal Forum.

           "Unbelievable," Al Sexton concluded.

           "Almost unbelievable."

How well this team will perform in the N.H.L. cannot be predicted with certainty. We do know that the new Senators will be inspired by the achievements of the old Senators. This team has some old scores to settle with N.H.L. rivals like the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the Boston Bruins, the New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks — even with teams from Quebec, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Edmonton, and perhaps especially St. Louis. The team also has several new goals, but none greater than winning The Stanley Cup for the tenth time in history of The Senators. The Montreal Canadiens may be well-advised not to boast of any Stanley Cup record victories. The Senators would like nothing better than to trump their rivals from down river.