That’s a headline I never thought I’d type heading into this year’s playoffs, especially in a series against the Buffalo Sabres, and one I’m betting denizens of “Leafs Nation” never hoped to see.

I don’t mean that disparagingly, Senators fans, just being honest. After years of watching this team come up small in the playoff so often, it was an easy assumption to make going into the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs.

But once the Sens got past the Penguins (yes, I picked the Pens to upset them) and after their strong showing against the New Jersey Devils, my opinion changed, leading to my at-the-time bold prediction that they’d upset the Sabres.

And this should be considered an upset, except that for most of this series, the Senators were the dominant team. This victory in five games over the Sabres was not a fluke, nor was it lucky. Ottawa deserved to win this series.

Their penalty killing was incredibly aggressive. They constantly forechecked and were responsible defensively. That defence corps is scary-deep, with guys who can move the puck well and chip in offensively (Redden, Corvo, Preissing) and those who can play a tough, physical defensive style (Volchenkov, Phillips, Schubert).

Volchenkov in particular has emerged as my personal favourite with his bone crushing hits and shot-blocking ability.  Anyone who still believes the myth of “weak Russian players” need only watch “the A-Train” to have their minds changed. This guy is the epitome of "old time hockey".

Ray Emery may not be winning many fans with his cockiness, but his play has given the Sens the confident goaltending they’ve lacked for years in the playoffs. When you're doing as well as he is, you can afford to be cocky.

Their best players were just that, their best players, particularly Daniel Alfredsson (my candidate to win the Conn Smythe Trophy), Dany Heatley and Jason Spezza, who were only shut out once in this year’s playoffs.

Alfredsson has been silencing his critics this spring by doing what a great captain does, leading his team to victory. Whether it's scoring or setting up goals, working the PP, killing penalties, blocking shots, or playing the body, "Alfie" has been unusually aggressive this spring, and it's made him Ottawa's best player in this year's playoffs.

Their secondary forwards, notables like Mike Fisher, Antoine Vermette, Chris Kelly, Dean McAmmond, Mike Comrie and Oleg Saprykin, have been tremendous in their work ethic and their two-way play.

The Senators were simply too good in the little things that win games.

It has to be heartbreaking for the Sabres and their fans. This was supposed to be “the year” when finally a championship would come to Buffalo, but it was obvious to me in their opening round series against the lowly New York Islanders that something was wrong with this club, that this year’s playoffs was going to be a hard road.

Ultimately, my concerns about the Sabres, which I expressed in earlier posts on this blog so I won’t waste time repeating myself, were justified.

Something was different about the Sabres this season compared to last year’s playoffs, when they came so agonizingly close to going to the Finals.  

Perhaps they put too much pressure upon themselves, or maybe not enough. Whatever the reason, they’re now heading into an off-season filled with as much uncertainty as there was a year ago.

Last summer, the casualties were Jay McKee, JP Dumont and Mike Grier. This year, it could be Daniel Briere, Chris Drury or perhaps a couple of other players will be dumped to free up salary to retain those two.

This unexpectedly short Eastern Conference Finals appearance will definitely influence the off-season plans of Sabres management.

They can make no excuses since they were simply beaten by a much better team, one that deserves to be in the Stanley Cup Finals. Hopefully, the Sabres have learned some valuable lessons from the Senators, lessons the Sens themselves took years to learn.

The Ottawa Senators deserve to be Eastern Conference Champions.

With the 2006-07 NHL regular season now over, some teams are wasting little time getting the jump on some contract signings. Here’s the latest signings and analysis:

- Detroit Red Wings re-sign forward Pavel Datsyuk to a seven-year, $46.9 million contract on April 6, 2007.

The length and amount of this deal was surprising, given the news out of the Detroit since last summer of how contentious at times negotiations between Datsyuk and the Red Wings reportedly were. At times there was apparently so little talk between the two sides that it appeared as though Datsyuk might become an unrestricted free agent in July.

The main issue appeared to be the amount of money per season being sought by the talent Russian forward. GM Ken Holland scoffed last fall at reports of the Datsyuk’s camp seeking over $6 million per season, claiming the forward might have to look elsewhere for that kind of money, yet Holland eventually agreed to pay Datsyuk an average of $6.7 million per season.

The length of the deal also came as a surprise, particularly given the concerns over Datsyuk’s playoff stats. While he’s had two straight 87 point seasons, and 328 points in 363 NHL games, his playoff numbers are underwhelming: only 15 points in 42 post-season games heading into the 2007 playoffs.

That gave rise to some criticism that the Wings were overpaying for too long a strong regular season player who comes up short in the post-season.

Holland, however, when the deal was announced that team owner Mike Illich and former Wings captain Steve Yzerman pushed hard for Datsyuk to be re-signed, believing it was important to lock him up to a long-term deal.

That’s quite a measure of faith from Illich and Yzerman in Datsyuk, with the former putting up considerable cash to back up that faith. However, if Datsyuk can start coming through in future post-seasons as well as he does in the regular season, it’ll be seen as a savvy move by the Wings.

- Colorado Avalanche re-sign team captain Joe Sakic to a one-year contract on April 9, 2007.

The Denver Post reported Sakic and the Avalanche agreed to a “deal in principle” over the final weekend of the season.

Unlike the Datsyuk signing by the Red Wings, this one is no surprise. Although Sakic was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in July, few hockey experts believed he’d test the market, let alone that the Avs would actually let him go.

The Denver Post reported Tuesday the contract is worth $6.75 million, a $ 1million raise over last season's contract, reflective of his strong performance in 2006-07 (100 points in 82 games, the sixth time in his long career he reached the one hundred point mark).

That’s a considerable amount of coin but given Sakic’s performance and his value to the Avalanche, he’s earned it. Besides, if the Avs had been unwilling to pay him that much, somebody else would’ve.

The Avalanche had plenty of available cap space to do this, having less that $20 million committed to payroll for next season prior to re-signing Sakic. It still gives them plenty of room to re-sign other key players plus to get into the bidding for some of the top talent in this summer’s UFA market.

- Ottawa Senators re-sign defenseman Anton Volchenkov to a three-year contract on April 9th, 2007.

As of this writing there’s no word on how much Volchenkov will earn in his new contract, but considering he earned $1.3 million last season it could between $1.5 million and $2 million per season.

Volchenkov, known as the “A Train” to Senators fans for his energetic, hard-hitting style, was one of four blueliners up for new contracts after this season. He and Christoph Schubert were restricted free agents, whilst Chris Phillips and Tom Preissing are eligible for UFA status this summer.

The Senators had over $34 million committed to next season’s payroll, and Volchenkov’s signing, while affordable, does limit the amount of available space to re-sign the other three, especially Phillips, whom the Sens reportedly hope to re-sign before July 1st.

It remains to be seen if Volchenkov’s signing has any significant impact on the Senators attempts to re-sign their other key free agents.

- The New York Rangers re-signed defenseman Thomas Pock to a two-year contract extension on Monday, which will keep Pock off of this summer's unrestricted free agent market.

According to the New York Daily News, Pock's new contract pays him " $650,000 in 2007-08 and $685,000 in 2008-09.

This signing scarcely puts a dent in the Rangers cap space for this summer, as they now have less than $24 million committed to next season, giving them plenty of room to re-sign key players like Brendan Shanahan, Michael Nylander and Sean Avery, and still leaving enough to pursue some free agents this summer.