3 Reasons to Believe the Ottawa Senators Will Make the Playoffs

We’re five days away from the Ottawa Senators continuing their season. That’ll give Sens fans the chance to once again cheer for, and not against, Brady Tkachuk, who’s been causing a ruckus while playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off.  Once Tkachuk gets back to captaining the Sens, he’ll try to lead the team to their first playoff appearance since 2017. The Sens have 26 games left, and currently sit in a wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference.  It’s a tight battle for those wildcard spots, with several teams still in the mix. So, what needs to happen for the Ottawa Senators to finally enjoy some playoff hockey? Let’s dive into three reasons why the Sens will make the playoffs!

READ MORE: Examining Jake Sanderson’s Resurgence

Favourable Schedule

Based on strength of schedules, the Senators have the second easiest remaining schedule. Not only that, but the Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and New York Islanders are all in the top seven hardest remaining schedules. All of those teams are of course competition for the Senators in the Wild Card spots.

Perhaps even more important is that the Senators will finish the season by playing 16 games at home compared to just 10 on the road. Eight of their last nine games are at home. The Sens currently have a 16-7-2 home record, compared to a 13-16-2 road record. Last season, the Washington Capitals were the eighth seed in the East with 91 points, while the Detroit Red Wings missed while ending up with 91 points as well. The year before that, both the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins missed the playoffs with 91 points. The good news for the Senators is that when you factor in the home-heavy schedule and how they’ve played at home this season, they are on pace for 93 points. That puts them a little above the typical cut-off for making the playoffs. Now it’s simply a matter of taking advantage of all those home games.

Strong Goal Prevention

The Senators currently sit 10th best in the NHL in goals against per game. At 2.77 goals against per game, they are 0.66 goals against per game lower than last season, a remarkable improvement. To make it even more impressive, Linus Ullmark has only started 24 of the teams 56 games so far, and Artem Zub has only played 31 games. Last season, nine of the top 10 goals prevention teams made the playoffs. The season before, it was all 10. It’s also worth noting that Travis Green’s defensive system didn’t see immediate success. It was around the end of October when the Senators started to limit teams offensively. Since October 29th, they’ve allowed just 2.6 goals against per game, the sixth best mark in that time. With the Senators core group committing to the two way style of hockey that Green has demanded, there’s no reason for them to fall out of the top 10 in goal prevention.

Hungry Stars

Speaking of the Ottawa Senators core group, they are undeniably desperate for playoff hockey. The likes of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Thomas Chabot, Drake Batherson, Jake Sanderson, Artem Zub, Shane Pinto, and Josh Norris have yet to play in the playoffs. Claude Giroux’s played plenty of playoff hockey, but there’s some desperation there as well for a veteran closing in on the end of his career.

The three guys that stand out the most are Tkachuk, Stützle, and Sanderson. Tkachuk is showing the type of fire he’d bring to the playoffs with his current play at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All three of these guys have played with obvious passion since they started their careers. Now with the right support around them, it’s time for them to play the best hockey of their careers. That means 26 games of hungry hockey to allow them to finally enjoy some playoff hockey. Heck, we might even get a battle of Ontario out of it.