Ottawa’s Breakout Stretch Changes Their Playoff Chances
The Ottawa Senators’ season was a wild ride, and they made it even more exciting. After a shaky start, they flipped a switch on Jan. 12 and never really looked back. Their 23-8-5 stretch turned what could’ve been a wash into legit playoff momentum. You could see the difference: the team started winning the little things that matter, and those add up fast.
Give credit to the Senators’ defence.
A lot of the credit goes to the defence-first framework that’s been bubbling under for a while. The Senators weren’t supposed to be a total surprise; on paper, they had the pieces to limit chances and create offence, but consistency was always the question. This season, they finally put the puzzle together. They’ve been stingy in their own end more often than not, and when you pair that with chances coming the other way, suddenly you’ve got a formula that works.
Goaltending was a huge part of the turnaround. When the goalies find their groove, it takes pressure off everyone else and builds confidence across the lineup. Add a better penalty kill, and the team stopped shooting itself in the foot in tight games. Special teams’ improvements felt like the difference between scraping by and actually contending.
The Senators’ offence was effective as well.
Offence didn’t flash every night, but it was effective. They didn’t always light up the scoreboard, but they got timely goals and found secondary scoring when needed. That’s the mark of a team maturing. They didn’t need to blow out teams to win; they just needed to be reliable and smart. And that’s exactly what they became during that stretch.
You can’t ignore the coaching job either. Travis Green deserves a ton of credit for steadying the ship and getting players to buy into a system that asks for discipline and structure. If the Senators keep this up, his name should absolutely be in the Jack Adams conversation — he coaxed a lot more out of this group than many expected.
There’s a chance the Senators might do well in the postseason.
The bottom line is that the Senators showed they could be more than a project. They were a dark-horse contender when it mattered. Although they still have some wrinkles to iron out (including depth, consistency, and staying power), they proved they could hang with the better clubs. If they keep building, this won’t feel like a one-off anymore.
If they get good goaltending, watch out.