Bye-Bye B-Sens

The Binghamton Senators will be a thing of the past after this season. The Ottawa Senators are moving their AHL affiliate to Belleville Ontario starting next season. Even though I think this sucks, I understand business is business and now the Baby Sens will be a little closer to their parent club.

I will miss the Senators for a couple of reasons. One of the biggest is that so many of the players that played here in Binghamton made it to the NHL. I don’t have numbers to back this up, but I would bet the house that Ottawa has more players on their roster that played for their AHL farm club, than any other team in the NHL. It’s cool to see these guys up close and in person in Binghamton, and then see them making the highlight reels in Ottawa.

A lot of big names still playing in the NHL have come through Binghamton. Ben Bishop, Jason Spezza, Brian Elliott, Antoine Vermette, and Erik Karlsson are just a handful of names of players that were members of the Binghamton Senators and are huge stars in the NHL. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched an NHL game and thought to myself, “He used to play here in Binghamton”. Not to mention all the players I got to know on personal level and I still stay in contact with some of them.

Another reason I will miss the B-Sens is because they were the team that brought us to the Promised Land. In 2011, after being down three games to one in the opening round of the playoffs, the Cinderella team took that first step to making history. It might be the greatest come from behind playoff run in A.H.L. history. They faced elimination in a bunch of games, including trailing 3 nothing in one of the elimination games, but that team never gave up. Binghamton finally had won the Calder Cup. The Binghamton Senators were Champions of the A.H.L. And for that, I will always be grateful.

There are still three home games left for the boys before the season comes to a close, including this Friday and Saturday night. And even though they have had a rough season, I hope they get a huge standing ovation at the last home game next weekend. It’s not the player’s fault that they are moving.

Next year we will have a new hockey team as the Albany Devils pack up the U-Haul’s and move Two hours down RT 88. The Binghamton Devil’s history will start in October.