The Ottawa Senators have earned their way to their first Stanley Cup Finals with outstanding offense, goaltending, defence, special teams, and a bit of luck.

Over the course of 6+ weeks and 15 games the Sens have shed their underachieving post-season label and have put all talk of their penchant for choking to bed. The top line of Heatley, Alfredsson and Spezza have baffled checking lines with their incredible playoff performance which has accounted for 48% of the team’s goals, and has seen the talented troika put up 58 points versus the 68 points put up by the rest of the team. Ray Emery has given this franchise their first level of supreme confidence in their postseason goaltending. And Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov have stepped up to become the most talked about backend since Jennifer Lopez’s heyday.

I know it’s cliché but the old adage that you need to be good to be lucky serves a purpose in this discussion of what’s needed to persevere through four grueling rounds enroute to the most cherished trophy in professional sports.

Call it a sign that this run was meant to be. Call it a gift from the hockey gods. Call it a reprieve from all the playoff performance futility and heartbreak the organization has suffered from through the last 10 seasons. Whatever you call it, the Sens have been the beneficiaries of some tremendous puck luck. This is not to say that the Sens are where they are because of luck alone, because their elite level of play and robotic like ability to shrug off the hint of struggle or panic in this post-season goes a long way in explaining why the Sens look like a deserving Stanley Cup champion. But when you consider some of the breaks the Sens have enjoyed it’s hard to argue against the notion that luck plays a significant factor in almost any team’s quest for the cup.

Here’s a sampling of some of the fortunate circumstances Ottawa has enjoyed thus far:

• On March 20, 2007 an empty netter goal by the Sens sealed a 4-2 win in St. Louis in which the Blues were robbed of two legitimate goals by shoddy officiating. The league came forward after the game and admitted fault. The extra win allowed the Sens to finish ahead of their first round opponent Pittsburgh Penguins and thus gain home-ice advantage. It was apparent in that first game that the crowd and Sens' amped start at home was a major factor in the Pens looking timid and shell-shocked for the better half of the game. Would things have been different if the Pens started the playoffs at home? Tough to say because the Sens do hold a 6-1 road record in these playoffs.
• In Game 3 of the Pens-Sens series Jason Spezza scores a truly bizarre and lucky goal that stands up as the difference in a 2-1 game. While trying to make a pass across the slot during a powerplay, Spezza's pass is intercepted by Pens super rookie and penalty killer extraordinaire Jordan Staal who stabs at the puck and inadvertently causes it to pop up in the air and change direction enroute to the net in a Phil Mickelson flop shot type manner. The puck completely eludes Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury who is caught looking the other way. Perhaps most fortunate is the fact that Chris Neil who is standing in front of the net takes a baseball swing at the puck and misses - if he hits the puck it's all but certain to be called back for high sticking.
• Game 2 of the Buffalo-Ottawa series, Joe Corvo scores an overtime winner that flutters and takes more bounces than Paula Abdul trying to walk a straight line.  As a result of a faceoff win that forces the puck to be on edge, Corvo steps into a shot that takes a baseball-esque short hop on Ryan Miller and gives the Sens a commanding 2-0 series lead.
• Game 3 of the Buffalo-Ottawa series: Despite an epic performance from Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller he gets beaten for the game's only goal by a shot that careens off the back boards, off his outstretched glove hand and back towards the net where Daniel Alfredsson is able to tap it in. The goal plays out like a Larry Bird, Michael Jordan Big Mac shooting contest: off the boards, off the glove, nothing but net.
• Perhaps the most shocking case of good fortune is the fact that the Sens have not suffered a single major injury that has forced any of their key regulars to the sidelines during this entire playoff run. Patrick Eaves missed several games after getting smoked by Colby Armstrong in the first round, but his replacement Oleg Saprykin stepped in and the team didn't miss a beat. Compare the Sens' empty infirmary unit to last year’s Sabres or the Calgary Flames of 2004 when injuries ravaged the team so badly that they were down to playing their ninth defenseman on the depth chart. Has there ever been a team that went through an entire Stanley Cup running without suffering a major injury? The Sens may be on the verge of it.

In addition to all the aforementioned consider this odd tidbit. A female Sabres fan from Buffalo was in attendance for Game 4 of the series in Ottawa when she was assaulted by a couple of cowardly Ottawa fans after she had some banter with them about how they can put away the brooms because Buffalo won't be sweeped. She was punched in the head several times before several Ottawa fans jumped in and tackled and held the assaulters until the authorities could get there. The name of the poor Buffalo women, Renee Luck.

The Sens themselves don’t dispute the notion of luck. Here’s a sampling of quotes collected from various media sources.

"I believe you make your own luck, and I believe if you work hard you're going to get your bounces." – Daniel Alfredsson

"A lot of it's luck, but a lot of the luck you cause for yourself" – Jason Spezza

"I've said it many times in the past. At playoff time, you have to be good, you have to be disciplined, you have to get good goaltending and you have to be lucky.” - Bryan Murray

Let me reiterate once again that the Sens are where they are because they have earned it with their outstanding play and domination of the opposition; luck has simply sped up their inevitable route to the Finals.