This certainly will be a busy week for the NHL.  The Awards were last night, tomorrow we get the draft, later today the full regular season scheduled will be announced and last night the Ottawa Senators released their scheduled for the preseason.

Ottawa opens the preseason on September 19, on the road against Toronto. That means we officially have a day to count down to until the start of the next NHL season.

Is it just me or is this week is really dragging along? I have been looking forward to this Entry Draft since the final regular season game ended (probably before that) and now that we are in Draft Week, time seems to be standing still.

The fact is, in just two more days we will have all the answers to the puzzle that is the NHL Entry Draft.

With just a few days to go until the NHL Entry Draft, the Ottawa Senators are scheduled to depart for Minnesota at some point today.  Teams often like the get there a few days a head of time so they can begin to prepare for the busy days ahead.

With six picks in the first 66, the Sens will be one of the busiest teams this weekend.

It may be a Monday morning in June but hockey remains a priority as draft week officially gets under way.

There are still a ton of unanswered questions when it comes to this year's draft and there seems to be little consensus surrounding the order at the top. With plenty of trades expected and so many different scenarios that could play out in the Top 10 picks, this figures to be one of the most exciting and unpredictable Entry Drafts in a long time.

With the NHL Entry Draft now just five days away, there will certainly be some busy days ahead for the Ottawa Senators and for the site.  With that in mind I felt like this weekend would be a good time to take a little break and recharge the batteries.

As Twitter followers may know, I spent the last three night in Boston.  It was an amazing weekend that included a couple Red Sox games and a Stanley Cup Parade.

One way or another, today is the last day of the NHL season. With Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals set to go in Vancouver tonight, the last two teams will join the other 28 in the harsh realities of a long off season.  Even though the Sens weren't involved, having playoff hockey to watch helps ease the pain of the Sens season being over.

Tonight, the NHL off season starts for real.

The Ottawa Senators made it official this morning introducing Paul MacLean as the ninth head coach in the history of the franchise.  MacLean was given a three year contract.  There are no assistant coaches in place at this point in time but they do plan to fill the role in the near future.

Welcome to Ottawa, Paul MacLean.

(UPDATE 7:37 AM)- The Ottawa Senators will hold a press conference on Tuesday at 11:00 AM to make the hiring official.

It was a search that included more than seven interviews with a number of extremely qualified candidates. In the end the Ottawa Senators and General Manager Bryan Murray got the guy they wanted.