As many of you know our first lucky player is the Senators own Mike Fisher. As for the picture above, that sums up just how gritty and good this player is.
Mike Fisher was born and raised in Peterborough to parents Jim and Karen. A fun fact about Mike Fisher is that he is currently dating country music star Carrie Underwood. Most Sens fans will remember her as the girl that ducked when the camera went on her. Anyway lets get to the great career of Fisher.
Fisher grew up playing minor hockey in the Minor Petes program. Fisher was drafted out of Junior A in the OHA for the Peterborough Roadrunners to the OHL for the Sudbury Wolves 2nd round 22nd overall in 1997. In Fisher first year with the Wolves he noticed 49 points in 66 games which was good enough to get him picked in the NHL entry draft. With the 2nd round 44th pick overall in the 1998 NHL entry draft, the Ottawa Senators selected Mike Fisher of the Sudbury Wolves. Fisher was sent back for one more year in junior that year were he recorded 106 points which put him 5th in league scoring that year.
Fisher debuted with the Senators in 1999 were he was limited to just 32 games in which he had 9 points. It was not about the points for the Senators, because they saw the player that Fisher really was, aggressive and two-way. This is what really must have stood out for the Sens, not the 9 points in 32 games, but the way he actually played the game. Fisher did however show the Sens that he actually does have some scoring in his game when in his fourth season in Ottawa Fisher scored 18 goals along with 38 points.
During the lockout year of 2004-2005, Fisher played hockey over seas in Europe for EV Zug in the Swiss Nationalliga A. This was a good learning curve for Fisher. He came back to the NHL with the Sens and scored a career high 22 goals and 44 points proving that he was good secondary scoring for the Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley line. He helped the Sens to a Conference title heading into the playoffs. That was short lived when the Sens were eliminated by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round. Fisher finished the regular season with a plus 23 which was good enough to get him nominated for the Selke Trophy, he would end up losing to Rob Brind'Amour of the Stanley Cup winning Carolina Hurricanes.
The following season Fisher duplicated his goal output with 22 and posted a career high 26 assists for 48 points. The Senators made it to the Stanley Cup final, first in modern day history, were they lost to the Anaheim Ducks in 6 games. Fisher had career playoff highs in both goals, 5, and assists, 5, for 10 points in 20 games.
In his final year of the contract, Fisher re-signed with the Senators to a 5 year 21$ million dollar contract. This would prove to be great for him. Fisher finished with a career high in goals with 23 goals, but would unfortunately miss the playoffs after a knee-on-knee hit with Toronto's Mark Bell.
This past year, the knee injury from Fisher had shown and people thought his career would go downward from here. He finished the regular season with just 32 points. Those people would be put in their of how Fisher has picked up his game this year.
Fisher has 13 points in 13 games and is on the radar for Team Canada for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Lets hope Fisher gets that chance for Team Canada and continues his great career in Ottawa!
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