Professional hockey, whether you like it or not, is rich with comparables. It’s the nature of the beast.
So, when the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres engage in an epic, energetic and ridiculously competitive second-round playoff tilt, the guys on the outside must be cringing in self-doubt, frustration and irritation.
They also must be wondering – are we ever, ever going to crest that same ridge?
Welcome to the summer of Ottawa.
Your Senators had another very brief visit to the post-season this year. Last season’s out-in-six to another Atlantic Division crony in the Toronto Maple Leafs showed progress but still was a disappointment. This year’s out-in-a-straight-four to Carolina was just plain nonfulfillment.
For the last three-to-four years there’s been plenty of chatter about ‘who’s next’ in the Atlantic. The debate circled around Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo and Detroit as to who could step up to divisional bullies Florida and Tampa.
Meatloaf wrote and sang Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad. In this instance for Ottawa: Two out of four is just plain bad (and a pain). Because let’s face it, for some time of those four wannabes the Senators were considered the front-runner.
After snagging a franchise netminder from Boston in Linus Ullmark, the table was supposedly set: A young, talented forward group anchored by some veteran chess pieces in Claude Giroux, Michael Amadio and David Perron; a young, talented defence corps led by Jake Sanderson and supported through vets like Thomas Chabot, Nick Jensen and Artem Zub; and the arrival of the former Vezina winner Ullmark.
This was apparently the year for the charge.
Again, of the four wannabes, only hard-charging Montreal was considered competition for Ottawa. (To their credit, the Habs brass simply did not make any mistakes in the trading and drafting departments during the past couple of years).
To the chagrin of many a chat room poster here in the capitol, those Habs are the pace-setters now of the up and comers.
So, with all that said are things as grim as they appear now . . . and feel now?
Unlikely.
Let’s look at how far Ottawa has come.
I’d like to start at the very bottom of the well. And for the Senators that came during a bitter pill of a western road swing that culminated in yet another loss in January 2024. After the game (I believe it was in Edmonton), captain Brady Tkachuk was the guest on Hockey Night in Canada’s After Hours.
Usually, a jocular and fun show for those up late following HNIC’s late Saturday game, the mood was distinctly different. Check it out here.
These were indeed the darkest of dark days. Ottawa finished 13 points out of the playoffs that spring.
The next season though (24-25), was a breakthrough. The team scratched its way into the post-season for the first time in seven years and lost to the Leafs in six games.
This past season? Ottawa improved by another two points, incredible considering some very tough stretches through the year’s first half, and entered the playdowns with an extra jump in their step. From January through to the end of the regular schedule, the Senators were near the very top of the circuit.
The came the ‘Canes.
Carolina has morphed into a juggernaut of consistency and hockey smarts. Under the leadership of Rod Brind’Amour, the Raleigh, NC, contingent is a well-oiled machine.
The Hurricanes are also veteran playoff warriors and well-versed in what it takes to win in the crunch and in the clutch.
Ottawa was toast in four straight.
But.
The series was not as one-sided as that 4-nil stat line would suggest.
Ottawa’s top talent (Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle stand out here) froze like bunnies in the head lights and remained snake-bitten through the sweep.
On the (very) plus side, Ullmark was exceptional in every game and if the club wasn’t so ravaged by injuries to the blueline, especially to Sanderson and Zub, the outcome might have been different.
The Senators are a lot closer to success than failure . . . unlike that team from two-and-a-half years ago that flopped in the Canadian west.
So then, while an exhausted Montreal club (Olé Olé Olé Olé!) pushes into a Carolina showdown which starts Thursday night, the Ottawans will undoubtedly sit and watch with clenched jaw and clenched teeth.
Comparison’s a bitch, right.
But next season?
The Senators enter an extremely big year and should make a further push.
We’ll have a lot more to write about that during the next few months, but if the organization can put all the pieces together (like what we saw from Ullmark down the stretch, a healthy Sanderson and a healthy Tkachuk . . . all at the same time), Ottawa can join Les Habitants in the ‘who’s next’ lineup.
thegrossgame@yahoo.com
Photo: Courtesy CTV
