Back-End Green? No Problem, Our Front Guys Have Been There/Done That!

There's been a lot of talk about how green the Ottawa Senators defense and goaltending is. This is true.

Other than Phillips and Volchenkov, who participated in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, only Andy Sutton has play-off experience (a whopping 4 games).

However, I don't think many of us realize how much experience Bryan Murray has assembled in the forward ranks.

Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly and Chris Neil all were part of Ottawa's run to the Final. Matt Cullen won a Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes. Jarkko Ruutu was part of the Pittsburgh Penguins 2008 trip to the Finals. Ryan Shannon was a fill-in on the Anaheim Ducks team that beat Ottawa for the Cup. And Shean Donovan was part of the Calgary Flames miracle 2004 run.

So, out of the 13 main forwards, 9 have been to the Stanley Cup Final. Two have won a Stanley Cup. One played an important role in that victory.

Not bad eh?

It doesn't make up for the lack of experience on the blue-line and in net, and it certainly doesn't compare to Pittsburghs core, which has 2 recent consecutive runs with mostly the same players.

But it's something!