IF THEY'D GONE WITH CHIARELLI, SENS MIGHTA BEEN A CONTENDAH

While writing our Year in Review, I stumbled across an May 16 post and a passing reference to the Ottawa Senators' general manager situation:

"The other irony in all this: if the Senators axe (John) Muckler, will they just promote from within and put untested Peter Chiarelli in the GM's chair? A cautious move to address a guy who was fired for being afraid to make a big move?"

Now Ottawa's only point ahead of Boston, who have four games in hand. Peter Chiarelli probably wouldn't have been able to find money to sign both Zdeno Chara and Wade Redden either, but Ottawa fans will never know what he might have done differently from Muckler last summer.