Fisher hopes to turn page on tough season

Mike Fisher still can't quite put his finger on what went wrong with the Ottawa Senators this season, but he's grateful for the chance of getting back to the playoffs with the Nashville Predators.

Fisher, 30, was traded by Ottawa on Thursday in exchange for Nashville's first-round pick in the June entry draft, as well as a conditional draft pick in 2012.

The centre had only played for the Senators in his NHL career, scoring 153 goals and 171 assists with 521 penalty minutes in 620 games after making his debut early in the 1999-2000 season.

"It was a crazy day [Thursday], just getting told the news and your flight's in two hours, try to process everything, say goodbye to all the guys," Fisher said on a media conference call on Friday. "It was crazy. A lot of different emotions, and it's tough when you've been [somewhere] so long."

Fisher said he didn't ask for a trade and that he loved living in Ottawa, but knew when the Senators began their slide that it was a possibility.

The Senators made the playoffs last season and hoped to repeat that feat this year, but never got untracked.

"I thought coming in we'd have a good solid team, a great chance to make the playoff with the addition of [Sergei] Gonchar through free agency. It looked like everything was set up to be a great season, but for whatever reason we got off to a bad start," Fisher said. "We had a few injuries and guys had off years, and we just didn't mesh as a team."

"We just didn't become a team," he added. "I can't believe what happened. It's definitely the most frustrating season for me that I've ever played being a part of that and losing is definitely no fun at all."

At the time of the trade, he was tied for the team lead with 14 goals in 55 games, with 10 assists and a minus-19 rating.

Fisher said once the Senators began to slump, they were probably guilty of trying too hard to fix things.

It could be the first of mutliple moves for Ottawa, which has plummeted in the Eastern Conference standings since December and spent close to the salary cap for this season.

The veteran already has a home in Tennessee with his wife, country music star Carrie Underwood, and said it was one of his favourite NHL cities even before he met her.

Fisher said that like him, Underwood had mixed emotions about the trade, with leaving Ottawa difficult.

Fisher will head to a playoff contender, with Nashville fifth in the Western Conference

He said it will be a "weird" transition to start, but he's familiar with defenceman Shea Weber, forward Matthew Lombardi (currently injured) and coach Barry Trotz from a previous world championship experience with Canada.

"The biggest part for me will be getting to learn the system and getting comfortable on the ice, which I think Nashville plays a system that's perfect for my game," he said. "It's intensity, a hard-working, good solid team game … I think I'm going to fit that mould very well."

Fisher will join the Predators at the beginning of a four-game homestand, and is expected to make his debut Saturday against Colorado.

The Senators signed Fisher to a $21-million US contract extension just weeks after he helped the team reached the Stanley Cup final in 2007. The deal runs through the 2012-13 season.