The Ottawa Senators seemed to be doing well enough as professionals, but as recidivist amateurs ... why, they're the finest team on the planet.

	Senators owner Rod Bryden had a little surprise of a different sort in each of his players' paychecks this holiday season.

The Senators have the best record in the National Hockey League, and their reward for all this hard work and devotion was to discover dead animals in their pay packets this week.

It's all legal and fair, according to the league's collective bargaining agreement hashed out by the hired hands, and owner Rod Bryden swears on a stack of loons that he will make good on the salaries inside the allowable 10-day window.

And he probably will at that, although the timing of the pockets-out, boo-boo-kitty face this close to new labor negotiations is always a cause for well-founded suspicion.

But there's been a lot of that we-ain't-got-no-dough talk circulating around various league outposts lately, from the league's stegosaurii like Chicago's Bill Wirtz as well as relative young'uns like Bryden.

So you have to know what's coming next, especially if you've paid much attention to baseball lately.

There will be a press conference featuring the lovely and talented Gary Bettman, at which he suggests that the league might, for its own good, consider ... well, contraction.

After all, it was such a grand success for Bud Selig.

But art imitates life, unless it's life imitating art, or maybe it's just that there's no idea too stupid not to steal.

Either way, it's coming, and even if Bettman is too smart to stand up and propose it himself, it will be whispered, leaked and back-channeled into a thick gray paste of wet newsprint between now and bait-cutting time.

And here are 11 other teams you might be hearing about on a contraction shortlist:

Atlanta Thrashers
One of the least inspiring decisions during Bettman's mostly disastrous Retake-The-Confederacy campaign of the early and mid-'90s, the Thrashers are not just bad, but universally ignored in their own town. It could just be that Atlantans don't like winter sports. Combined, the Thrashers and Hawks fill barely 60 percent of Philips Arena on any given night, and neither has sold out a single game this season. Not for opening night. Not for Michael Jordan. Not for Allen Iverson nor Tim Duncan, let alone Mario Lemieux. If you believe in controlled shrinkage, this would be a place to look.

	Former Buffalo Sabres owner John Rigas found himself in court to explain where all the money went with his other company, Adelphia.

Buffalo Sabres
The Rigas Family spent last season wearing handcuffs and overcoats over their heads, leaving the team high, dry and lousy. Now, the league is calling the shots and the would-be owner, Mark Hamister, has been all but scared off by the immense amount of debt. One thing is clear: Buffalo is a town that will support a team that cares for it as much as it cares for its fans. In times like this, care means money, and money is the only issue at play.

Calgary Flames
Investors on every street corner, persistent grousing about the cruelty of the six-dime dollar, and a team that hasn't made the playoffs since Monica Lewinsky had a real job could mark the Flames for contraction. On the other hand, this allegedly decrepit operation is drawing at 93 percent of capacity in a perfectly useful building, and Darryl Sutter will make them better on the ice.

Florida Panthers
One Stanley Cup final does not hide the fact that this team is essentially irrelevant in Miami and in the league. Other than the population base, there is nothing in particular to offer in the Panthers' defense.

Nashville Predators
Halfway through their first season, the Predators were the subject of a Sports Illustrated story on this nascent hockey hotbed. Since then ... well, the Preds found the worst possible shade of yellow for its third sweaters, and only sell out at home when the Red Wings show up.

New Jersey Devils
Utterly resistant to the charms of a perennial Cup contender, as is the case with the Nets, as well. The complaint du jour is a bad building, although we all know what a shell game that usually turns out to be.

New York Islanders
New owners and some wins last year brought back the interest. The same owners and crummy results this year have chased it away again. The Islanders are always destined to be on the fringe of these lists, unless there is an undetected class full of Potvins, Bossys, et. al.

	That Wayne Gretzky is hockey royalty should keep the Coyotes off a contraction shortlist.

Phoenix Coyotes
New building on the way and Wayne Gretzky in a suit together still don't make this team a convincing sell, although America West Arena is about as hockey-suitable as a bog. Winning more than one playoff series every quarter century would help, too.

Pittsburgh Penguins
While Lemieux is involved, the Penguins are essentially bulletproof. The day he moves on to other fiscal challenges ... it's anyone's guess.

Tampa Bay Lightning
There is no clearly compelling reason why the league ever should have come here to begin with, although this is the most appealing Bolts team the franchise has yet produced -- even better than the '96 team that lost to the Flyers in the first round. Also drawing better, though still below the minimal 85 percent threshold.

Washington Capitals
One question for the general audience: Have the Capitals ever excited you as an entertainment vehicle?

Of these 12 teams, most could be helped dramatically by the simple art of winning, as Vancouver has been over the past two years. They all could benefit from more substantial ownerships, although there aren't as many hockey-mad billionaires out there as you might think. But even six straight postseason appearances and a payroll that ranks 25th in the league have not improved the lot of the cash-strapped Senators.

In the end, though, contraction is not a solution but a deathknell, something that weak leagues do a couple of years before they finally collapse under the weight of their own self-created ennui. It is the position of this rancid little corner of the World Wide Web that all these teams will survive, if not necessarily thrive.

And you may want to keep that in mind when you start hearing about how the Red Wings are hemorrhaging money, or that Toronto is ready to swear off hockey for curling, or that San Jose is going to play 22 games next year in Puerto Rico.

In the meantime, prepare for the rumor parade, and cheer on those Senators as they attempt to become the first team ever to win the Stanley Cup, pro bono.

Ray Ratto is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle and a regular contributor to ESPN.com