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Playoff Consistency Streak is Over

March 10, 2019, 1:58 PM ET [0 Comments]
Trevor Shackles
Ottawa Senators Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
You can follow me on Twitter @ShackTS

Well, it’s official. The Ottawa Senators will not be in the playoffs in 2019:




Shocking, right?

Even the most optimistic of fans knew that the playoffs were not going to happen this season, and it was only a matter of time before elimination was official. It’s crazy that there is still a month left to play though, because this official elimination is extremely early. Ottawa not making the playoffs is also the end of a long streak for the Senators, as they missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The last time they did that? In 1994/95 and 1995/96 before they had ever even made a playoff appearance.

This streak spans to just months before I was born, so literally my entire life I had never witnessed the Senators miss the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. From 1996-2008, they made it every single season, which is a very impressive streak that put them up there with other great teams of that era like the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils. Then from 2008-2018, they essentially alternated making it in and not making it in, with the only back-to-back playoff appearances coming in 2012 and 2013.

If you think about it, you could make a case that the last five times Ottawa has made the playoffs, they were not expected to get in. Furthermore, every disappointing season has been followed up with a playoff appearance except for this season. 2008-09 was another step back, but they were surprisingly solid in 2009-10 by finishing 5th in the Eastern Conference. 2010-11 was their worst since 1996, but the 2011-12 team sneaked in thanks mainly to Craig Anderson and Erik Karlsson.

There were high hopes in 2012-13, but with Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Craig Anderson, and others hurt for massive portions of the shortened season, not many expected them to survive, but they did. 2013-14 included even higher hopes, but they fell flat on their face. 2014-15 was looking just as bad until the Hamburglar run, giving them another surprise appearance. 2015-16 was the same team but regressed, and the 2016-17 team did not have many improvements, but they rode Guy Boucher’s “system” and a lot of puck luck into the playoffs again. Then the past two seasons have been horrendous.

The next time that Ottawa is expected to make the playoffs and actually does will be a weird time because it’s been eleven years since you could realistically say that. They have been following a strange pattern for so long, but that is finished now that they are in a complete rebuild of the entire team.

This “streak” of not missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons isn’t as impressive Detroit’s 25 straight playoff appearances but it is still interesting and a good accomplishment. If we isolate the final eleven years of that streak, it obviously doesn’t look as good because they only made the playoffs five times, but there’s something to be said for not being bad for a long time. Having said that, the next few years could and should be exactly that: being bad for a long time.

The 1996-2008 era was one of dominance and consistency, the 2008-2017 era was one of ups and downs but not much dominance, and the next era will be defined by struggles at first, but hopefully consistency once again at some point.
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