Almost from its inception, the Senators have always had a player that was the target, rightly or wrongly, of most of the ire of the fan base when things didn't go right, and still even more curious, when they went right.
Starting with Alexandre Daigle, to Alexei Yashin, to Daniel Alfredsson, to Wade Redden, to Jason Spezza to Jared Cowen and a lesser extent Colin Greening. Of that group, only Alfredsson was able to shed that label, and shed it he did going on to become the most popular player in club history. Alfie got to the point that people forgot about the holdout, the questioning of a Euro captain being able to lead and other things that dotted his earlier years with the club, and eventually forgave him for jumping ship and going to Detroit.
Now all of those guys are gone, and the fan base is looking for a new goat.
Enter perhaps contenders 1 and 1A for the crown - Mike Hoffman and Bobby Ryan.
Hoffman's entry into the Senators' version of the dunk tank came via a benching, where all of a sudden there was a renewal of the "he can't play defense" mantra, where apparently everyone is now expected to play a 200 foot game and be captain material. There are plenty of pure goal-scorers who go though prolonged dry spells, and Hoffman isn't the first and certainly won't be the last. The benching and demotion resulted in a split decision of support for him and an almost equal faction of those who used the situation to turn on him.
The other contender is Bobby Ryan, who by virtue of his contract should be leading the team offensively and has pulled another disappearing act down the stretch. Two seasons ago, it was the sports hernia that gave him an excuse. Last year, despite his statements to the contrary, most figured the slowdown was due to another injury of some sort, because his game couldn't possibly fall off the earth like that, could it? Well this season we are seeing the same thing. Earlier on, he was playing the game of a power forward, adding a physical dimension to his arsenal and putting up points. Then it is like the switch got turned off and I beg you to remember the last game where he was truly an impactful player. I can't off the top of my head. When you have that long term, big money contract on a budget team you can't have prolonged lapses like he has every year he has been a Senators. It got to the point yesterday when talk of protected lists came out that he was hardly mentioned unless it was in the context of an expansion team gratefully plucking him and his contract off the roster.
With the playoffs a pipe dream, whether it was expected or not many Senators fans are frustrated and unhappy, and there are plenty of places to point the finger.
Senators fans seem to need one, and those two guys are in the unfortunate situation where they could be next in line for that dubious distinction, that of the Senators' whipping boy.