OTTAWA – The on-again, off-again idea of an NHL arena near downtown Ottawa has evolved into one of the following: a) A cruel boy-cried-wolf joke designed to irritate long-suffering Senators fans. b) A big-money concept that just couldn’t fly in a government town. c) A realistic, life-saving move for a reinvigorated ownership that could just catch the last train to the scattered plan and open plain of LeBreton Flats. If that last one feels like a longshot, it is. But is it any more of a longshot than the concept 31 years ago, on Dec. 5, 1990, of the Senators landing an NHL franchise? On the LRT ride to Parliament Hill, just past the Bayview Station, passengers are suddenly struck by an open expanse of nothingness. Did they fall asleep and wind up in an urban wasteland? This can’t be the pathway to the heart of the Nation’s Capital – except that it is. Other than the Canadian War Museum to the south, at the edge of the Ottawa River, there is nothing here but vacant lots, bits of ...