The official beginning of the end for the Senators began on Thursday when the team sent forward Mike Fisher to Nashville in exchange for their first round pick in 2011 and third-rounder in 2012 – second if the Predators win two or more playoff rounds. Despite Fisher being a fan favorite and staple of Senators hockey for the past decade, it signals a changing of the culture in Canada’s capital and serves as notice that nobody on the Senators roster is untradeable leading up the NHL trade deadline.

Fisher is not going to light the lamps too frequently in Nashville. He scored a career high 25 goals and 53 points last season, prompting the Senators to sell high with him. The real reason the Predators may have been interested in Fisher is because of his ability to deal with other forwards. He can shut down an attack in his defensive end and that will come in useful with the Predators, who already have a bevy of goal scorers on the roster.

Many are blaming Fisher’s country superstar wife Carrie Underwood for prompting the trade. While Nashville may be a country music haven, keep in mind that Underwood is actually from Oklahoma, more than 400 miles away. Regardless, Fisher was going to be moved by Ottawa; there’s no need to keep him with his $4.2 million contract around during a rebuild. That and he’ll be on the back end of his career by the time the Senators are ready to challenge again.

It’s too bad they couldn’t save this deal for the trade deadline. As ultimately irrelevant a trade as this is, it’s still worth more discussion than the majority of the 25-30 deals that will go down on Feb. 28. Still, it’s sad news for the Senators fan base, who just four seasons ago watched their team make it to the Stanley Cup Final but are now watching the start of a massive rebuild operation. There’s a lot of blowing up left to do, but the Senators have the brains upstairs to make it an efficient one.