By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

Buddy, can you spare a dime, eh?

"Once we signed our paychecks, every one, mailed precisely on time.

"Once we had the money, now there's none. Buddy, can you spare a dime.

"Say don't you remember, how we'd done, we got beat all the time.

"Now we're winning hockey, just for fun. Buddy, can you spare a dime."

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What to do with the Ottawa Senators, now they that they're up to their front dental plates in debt, and the players are getting only $80 a day, not counting any driveways they're shoveling on the side?

The last payday came and went with empty envelopes and promises. The upcoming schedule includes Calgary, Edmonton, and bankruptcy proceedings.

This would not be so noticeable, except the Senators are in first place in the NHL Northeast division. Major professional sport teams are not supposed to be in need of a loan shark, especially winning ones.

But the Senators have to raise some money. Fast. I am no hockey expert, but I don't think Saturday car washes and bake sales organized by the goalies' mothers are among the options.

The Senators' plight may not be fully recognized across the border, because a good many Americans don't follow hockey, and even fewer could find Ottawa on a map.

(Which shouldn't annoy the Canadians that much, considering that a recent study found some of them couldn't find the Mississippi River, either).

But I have a done a little research into the hockey history of the place and found it too rich and colorful not to save.

The city won one of the earliest Stanley Cups, back in 1905, against a team from the Yukon that needed 23 days to make the trip, part of it on dogsled.

The Ottawa hero was a guy who scored 14 goals in one game. Man by the name of Frank McGee, who had only one good eye.

I know of no U.S. team, any city or any sport, who can top that.

The current Senators are a plucky bunch, storming to one of the NHL's best records with a low-grade payroll of barely $30 million. They are the Minnesota Twins, on skates.

And you know how the Twins kept looking for Bud Selig to knock at their door, with an eviction notice in his hand.

The Senators' future seems a little watery, too. The team plays on, working for pocket change. But the players are not likely to go forever settling for their meal money allotment.

It is just another day in the strenuous life of the NHL, whose identity has long been under renovation, with no end in sight. Like a lot of highway projects.

I follow hockey only casually, enjoying the sport happily in my ignorance. But the NHL began to confuse me when I picked up the standings one day and noticed there was a team in Tampa Bay.

Then it became evident the NHL was trying to sweep across the American south like Stuckey's, to varying degrees of success and logic.

Even the nicknames are a little baffling. The Canadians sound like a hockey team. The Maple Leafs. The Rangers. The Black Hawks.

But the Phoenix Coyotes?

In any case, this urban sprawl has not been smooth for the league or for Canada, hockey's Garden of Eden but with only six of the 30 NHL teams - or just three more than California.

And if the dollar exchange rate was not bad enough, a Canadian city hasn't won a Stanley Cup in nearly 10 years.

Now the hockey team from the capital of a hockey country has become Eastern Airlines On Ice.

Not that such a belly-up would be unprecedented.

Washington, D.C., used to have a baseball team. They were called the Senators, too.

Notes

BRUINS: Center Joe Thornton has an infected left elbow and will miss Friday's today's game against Buffalo.

CANADIENS: General manager Andre Savard was fined $50,000 and coach Michel Therrien was penalized $25,000 for confronting game officials about a disallowed goal after Tuesday's loss to the New Jersey Devils.

AHL MIGHTY DUCKS: Cincinnati all-star right wing Jonathan Hedstrom was placed on injured reserve, retroactive to Dec. 28, because of a broken finger suffered against Grand Rapids on Dec. 27.

Hedstrom has six goals and seven assists in 22 games this season.