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The Ottawa Senators, for a team so short in their life as an NHL club, have had more than their fair share of problems. In recent times, however, they seem to have waded into one deeper and stickier than any mess they have ever been faced with previously.

When old issues struck the Sens, they managed to brush them off and continue on, occasionally making a run at the great silver chalice, the Stanley Cup. This year, however, they are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since the 1996-97.

The Senators are very quickly becoming the laughingstock of the entire NHL. They have lazy, uninspired players. They have a roster that is remarkably top-heavy. They have the worst road record in the entire NHL, going 4-14-3 so far. They just suffered another black eye to the team's pride when aggravator Jarkko Ruutu got suspended for two games after biting Buffalo Sabres enforcer Andrew Peters' finger.

How did it get so bad? In the maelstrom that is the Ottawa media, a team's little mistakes become amplified to a significant degree. With the Senators, there are several guilty parties.

The first problematic figure that kickstarted the Sens' demise is former head coach John Paddock. After they made the Stanley Cup Finals two years ago, the team felt the need to reshuffle their front office and fired general manager John Muckler, moving head coach Brian Murray into the GM slot, and shifting assistant coach Paddock into the head coaching job. Paddock, however, was ill-prepared for the job. The team, which was a very disciplined group under Murray, did not adjust well to the new coach. After a torrid start to the 2007-08 campaign, Paddock loosened the reins, which let the team fall into habits of laziness and disarray that they haven't corrected yet. He was fired mid-season after nearly salting away a playoff berth, but the irreparable damage was done.

It's not as if Murray was such a saint, either. Hailed as a masterful general manager during his tenure at the helm of the Anaheim Ducks, he has looked anything but that as a Senator. Among his follies are the signing of offensively-challenged forward Mike Fisher to a five year, $21,000,000 contract extension, signing defensively-challenged forward Jason Spezza to a seven year, $49,000,000 extension, and one-dimensional Dany Heatley to a six year, $45,000,000 extension. However, his biggest mistake was a trade last season, where he gave away budding stars Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo to Carolina in exchange for two players (Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore) who left the team after the season and didn't help when they were there.

One can't honestly say that Murray was a downgrade over his predecessor, Muckler. A hockey lifer with a sterling reputation, Muckler could seemingly do no right in Canada's capital. The one off-season that sums up his entire tenure with Ottawa took place in 2006, where he made not one but two boneheaded moves that would haunt the Sens forever. In the first, he chose to re-sign Wade Redden over Zdeno Chara, then failed to even make an offer to Chara. Redden's play plummetted in the years following, while Chara matured into one of the best defencemen in the NHL in his new home in Boston. His second error came when he signed Martin Gerber to a three year contract at $3,700,000 each year. He has done nothing to plug the Senators' omnipresent hole at goaltender, and had a knack for disappearing in the most important moments.

Some of the blame must go to the players, though. Ottawa has managed to put together a squad with one highly-paid, "elite" line, three substandard lines, subpar defense, and brutal goaltending. The players quit on Paddock when his fresh message quickly wore off, dooming the Sens to mediocrity. However, the most galling part is the lack of production from the so-called top line of Spezza, Heatley, and Daniel Alfredsson. Spezza continually makes defensive errors by passing the puck behind his back to nobody, and is purely a liability. The only true skill in Heatley's repertoire is his shot, and he is nothing without a productive, playmaking centre. Alfredsson, the gutsy leader, seems to have lost a step, and is proving to be more susceptible to injury. Gerber has been abominable, Fisher and Antoine Vermette have been under-performing, and the rest of the roster just isn't talented.

The future for the Sens looks grim, as well. They very well may end up with a high draft pick, but it will all be for naught unless owner Eugene Melnyk wakes up.

Melnyk has said that he thinks the Senators can win a Stanley Cup. Melnyk has said the team is incredible. Melnyk has tooted their horn all across the Ottawa airwaves, and is demanding top-calibre play from his team. The problem is that they can't provide it for him. Until Melnyk gives Murray the green light to enter a rebuilding period, the Sens will be consistently awful.

The entire Ottawa Senators' organization is a classic case of mismanagement, haughtiness, and poor play. The core for the team has stayed the same, yet the supporting cast has become progressively weaker, with no young players standing out as future top-liners, a reflection on a poor scouting department. Unless things change drastically and quickly, the Ottawa Senators will remain in the NHL's basement for quite some time.