Well, as we're advancing toward the semi-finals of the playoffs, I will be reviewing the seasons of teams as they're eliminated from the playoffs. Obviously, the last team reviewed will be the one that wins the Cup.
Now the second team to be eliminated from the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: The Ottawa Senators.
Season expectations: The team missed the playoffs last season and Dany Heatley came public with a trade demand. Alex Kovalev was signed to provide some offense that the departing Heatley would have provided while Heatley was moved for Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo (the former worked out great; the latter not so much.) Pascal Leclaire was signed to be the team's starter and provide some stability to the goaltending position in Ottawa. Cory Clouston would have his first full season with the team and the team is looking to get back to the form they had when they made the Stanley Cup Finals back in 2007.
My prediction: I predicted the team would finish last in the Northeast Division and 13th overall in the Eastern Conference. In hindsight, I think I overestimated the effect of the Dany Heatley drama on the team's overall morale.
The truth: The team finished second in the division and fifth in the conference. They were eliminated in six games against the fourth-seeded (and defending Stanley Cup champion) Pittsburgh Penguins.
What went right?: While the team didn't have any extensive dominant scorers, they did have enough production from everyone on the team to make themselves successful. The team had a legit amount of toughness to be successful, having Jarkko Ruutu, Chris Neil, and newcomer Matt Carkner to enforce, agitate, and intimidate. The goaltending was a little shaky at times, but there was a healthy enough competition between LeClaire and Elliott to where at the end of the day, they were a successful platoon. Matt Cullen was acquired at the trade deadline and was hot come playoff time while rookie defenseman Erik Karlsson had a breakout year and looks like he's going to be the point-producing defenseman of Ottawa's future.
What went wrong?: For the season the team could have stood to have more consistency defensively and in the crease. For their series against Pittsburgh, it was the inability of anyone other than the fourth line to defend against the Penguins (the fourth line, along with defenseman Chris Campoli, were the only plus players in the series.) It's great to generate offense but when you're playing a team like Pittsburgh, you have to significantly commit to defensive hockey; otherwise they will beat your team like they did here. Of course, it didn't help that two of their top six forwards (Michalek and Kovalev) missed the series due to season-ending injuries.
So what's next?: The Senators won't have much cap space to acquire a significant amount of free agents but they don't need to do a whole lot either. The big question is whether or not they can retain Anton Volchenkov and/or Matt Cullen before July 1st. And if they do, will they be able to qualify their RFAs? Should be interesting.
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