It’s Week Two of our cross-country trek through the NHL, profiling each of the Canadian franchises and trying to figure out how they’ll do in the upcoming season.
After yesterday’s stop in the epicenter of everything, we’re off to the nation’s capital for a look at the Ontario team that could actually be a factor in the Eastern Conference this coming season, the Ottawa Senators.
Last year, the Sens finished seventh in the conference, registering 99 points and falling in six games to the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round of the playoffs in what was an unexpected season in Ottawa. This wasn’t a team that was tabbed to be in the playoffs, but they got hot down the stretch and made the most of teams like Boston and Philadelphia having disappointing seasons to move forward in their on-the-fly retooling at a quicker pace than anticipated.
While that can always lead to a “two steps forward, one step back” in the follow-up season, this Ottawa team shouldn’t be too worried about that happening this year.
Let’s look at their offseason and what’s in store for 2015-16.
Outgoing: F Erik Condra (Tampa Bay), F David Legwand (Buffalo), G Robin Lehner (Buffalo)
Incoming: Not a soul.
Prospects: F Curtis Lazar
I know what you’re thinking: how can a team that didn’t bring anyone new in during the offseason and has just one prospect of note listed above be a team that could contend in the Eastern Conference this year?
The answer is simple: Ottawa has spent the last couple years getting younger and rebuilding on the fly, shuffling out veteran stalwarts like Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza while allowing their prospects to garner valuable experience at the NHL level.
In terms of their age, guys like Mark Stone and Cody Ceci would still be considered prospects on several clubs, but they’ve been key pieces of the Senators line-up over the last couple years, so they’re excluded from consideration. The same goes for 22-year-old Mika Zibanejad, who registered 46 points in his second season as a full-time member of the big club last year.
This is a team that feels like they have the right mix of veteran talent and young upstarts to be a factor over the next couple years.
Erik Karlsson is the reigning Norris Trophy winner and one of the top defencemen in the league, Bobby Ryan can’t be as bad as he was last year, when he tallied just 18 goals, and the squad is flush with glue guys like Clarke MacArthur, Marc Methot and Chris Phillips.
On the flip side, you’ve got emerging players like Lazar, who played 67 games with the big club last year as a 19-year-old, Stone, who caught fire in the second half and was a Calder Trophy finalist, and Mike Hoffman, who took a major step forward and collected 27 goals in 2014-15, up front, with Ceci, Jared Cowen and Patrick Wiercioch on the blue line.
They’re solid between the pipes too, so long as Andrew Hammond’s play from last season doesn’t turn out to be a complete “lightning in a bottle” situation.
“The Hamburglar” came from out of nowhere to post a 20-1-2 record, 1.79 GAA and .941 save percentage as the Sens made their successful push to the playoffs, allowing the club to ship Lehner to the Sabres for a first-round pick. Provided he can be a consistent running mate for the always solid, but oft-injured Craig Anderson, Ottawa should be fine in net this year.
Looking at the Eastern Conference, the Senators should continue to be in the mix for one of the opening round road team positions in the playoffs this year and could even exceed that expectation if things fall their way. The trouble is that they play in a tough division where Boston could rebound and Florida continues to get better, leaving them with little room to stumble.
Having said that, this team got white hot down the stretch last season and though it didn’t carry over to the playoffs, going on that kind of run should bolster their confidence heading into this year where they’re another year older, another year wiser and have another year of experience under their belts. If a couple teams backslide and the Sens play up to their potential, a top-four seeding in the conference isn’t out of the question.
