Sens Writer: First-Round Playoff Observations

I think you are right on Florida. comments. Teams built for President's trophy success may not have enough grind for the playoffs.

Was surprised by the Rangers/Devils result. Thought Rangers goaltending and defence would have been too strong for fleet footed Devils.

Nice break down of the events of the first round.

As someone who watches a lot of Bruins hockey...to find out that the coaching/management staff allowed Bergeron to play in a meaningless final game of the season, catch the flu and herniate a disc is just plain irresponsible. Then to compound that by playing a goalie for 6/7 games who had some kind of painful mobility restricting injury? It just goes back to the fact that this is the Neely/Sweeny show and they're just not all that bright.

I'm a closet NY Islander fan and even I couldn't watch them play. Goaltending and defense are excellent but their lack of scoring and coaching to collapse and hope for the best mentality is brutal. Essentially their manager set this team up to try and half ass mid 90's NJ Devil trap hockey. It was bad. It didn't work. Fire everybody especially Lou.

I had gone out on limb and picked Minnesota as a dark horse to the WCF. Whoops. Dallas may be my new favorite to win it all. It certainly won't be Edmonton with that defense. Wow their top pair is bad. You could have Ken Dryden in nets and it wouldn't matter.

Something rotten in that Winnipeg locker room. I don't want Connor Hellybuck. they can keep him. He caves in the playoffs.

Carolina plays hard but still seems "thin". We'll see how they do. I still think the Sens should target Frederik Andersen in the offseason. They'll beat NJ and give Florida a run in the ECF but I think the Panthers are coming out of the east. By now we know exactly what kind people the Tkachuks are.....Brady, Mathew just beasts to play against. And how good is Montour?

Florida v. Dallas in the final.
And Stanley will end up in the state of Texas.

The Tampa is aging and lost roster narrative follows the mental path of least resistance.

The team (core) played the equivalent of an extra season compared to the rest of the league over the past 36 months. Compounded by the fact they were playoff games in a condensed schedule. They simply are/were exhausted.

They were 2 shots away from advancing again. And, as any honest observer would agree, were the better team for the majority of the series. Yes, kudos to the Leafs for getting it done, but they know they won by the narrowest of margins. They did not dominate Tampa at all.

Additionally the leafs benefited from Buntings jackass move concussing Cernak and the awkward Reilly Point play, injuring Point.

Only Stamkos 35 and Hedman 32 are getting older and outside of their prime.

This team will get much needed rest and will be a force next year. They are the NHL equivalent of the Patriots. Most everyone hates them, but they do everything the right way, with class and are the league standard, regardless of what fans think.

For comparison sake, in the modern salary cap/parity era, the Lightning have played as many playoff games over the past 10 years as the Oilers did during the 80's. Let that set in. Over the past 7 years, they have won as many games (86) in the playoffs as the next play teams have even played in that time.

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Lightning are hockey excellence.

Bruins simply lost, like the lightning did in 2019 because they experienced zero adversity during the regular season. As soon as you get hit in the mouth in the playoffs, you have to respond. They had not dealt with it, as the lighting did not vs Columbus.

Bruins will not make the playoffs next year.

The Tampa is aging and lost roster narrative follows the mental path of least resistance.

The team (core) played the equivalent of an extra season compared to the rest of the league over the past 36 months. Compounded by the fact they were playoff games in a condensed schedule. They simply are/were exhausted.

They were 2 shots away from advancing again. And, as any honest observer would agree, were the better team for the majority of the series. Yes, kudos to the Leafs for getting it done, but they know they won by the narrowest of margins. They did not dominate Tampa at all.

Additionally the leafs benefited from Buntings jackass move concussing Cernak and the awkward Reilly Point play, injuring Point.

Only Stamkos 35 and Hedman 32 are getting older and outside of their prime.

This team will get much needed rest and will be a force next year. They are the NHL equivalent of the Patriots. Most everyone hates them, but they do everything the right way, with class and are the league standard, regardless of what fans think.

For comparison sake, in the modern salary cap/parity era, the Lightning have played as many playoff games over the past 10 years as the Oilers did during the 80's. Let that set in. Over the past 7 years, they have won as many games (86) in the playoffs as the next play teams have even played in that time.

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Lightning are hockey excellence.
- TrueGrit

We'll just have to agree to disagree, because blaming the number of playoff games they played a year ago is pretty much the laziest mental path imaginable. In addition to all of Stamkos, Hedman, and Kucherov being on the wrong side of 30 next year, you can pretty much directly correlate the decline in their performance with the losses of players like McDonagh, Gourde, Palat, Coleman, Goodrow, etc. There's also further cap pressure ahead given that Cirelli, Sergachev & Cernak will cost them a full $7.3M more next year, which may cost them Killorn & Cole in the process. They also have no 1st round picks and just one 2nd round pick until 2026 available to trade, plus very limited talent in the pipeline.

Lightning were hockey excellence in their prime. Now they're on the reality clock, same as any other team. Think 30+ doesn't matter? Take a good hard look at the only other teams in the NHL to have won >1 Stanley Cup in the salary cap era. CHI never won a Cup with both Kane/Toews in their 30's, LAK never won a Cup with both Kopitar/Doughty in their 30's, and PIT never won a Cup with both Crosby/Malkin in their 30's.

Tick tock.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, because blaming the number of playoff games they played a year ago is pretty much the laziest mental path imaginable. In addition to all of Stamkos, Hedman, and Kucherov being on the wrong side of 30 next year, you can pretty much directly correlate the decline in their performance with the losses of players like McDonagh, Gourde, Palat, Coleman, Goodrow, etc. There's also further cap pressure ahead given that Cirelli, Sergachev & Cernak will cost them a full $7.3M more next year, which may cost them Killorn & Cole in the process. They also have no 1st round picks and just one 2nd round pick until 2026 available to trade, plus very limited talent in the pipeline.

Lightning were hockey excellence in their prime. Now they're on the reality clock, same as any other team. Think 30+ doesn't matter? Take a good hard look at the only other teams in the NHL to have won >1 Stanley Cup in the salary cap era. CHI never won a Cup with both Kane/Toews in their 30's, LAK never won a Cup with both Kopitar/Doughty in their 30's, and PIT never won a Cup with both Crosby/Malkin in their 30's.

Tick tock.
- khawk

I did not argue your thesis, just your conclusion.

Losing in the finals in 6 games, 2 in overtime without Point and losing the first round this year 3 OT loses indicates what??

There is no doubt there are challenges to aging, but to suggest playing 25 more games a year then most every team over 3 years does not matter is laughable. You ignore the condensed schedules and minimal recovery downtime.

If a professional marathon runner runs 1 more marathon a year then everyone else does, do you not think it will affect their performance? Of course it will, otherwise everyone could run marathons every week with no impact.

Or Florida is just also a good team and the margin of error is super small in a league with this much parity.

Nice blog and thoughts on all series.

Florida is a team that might surprise people. One thing I noticed is that they take advantage of what is given to them. They hardly ever squander an opportunity. If they can get legitimate and consistent goaltending, they will be a force. They are surprisingly quick across all 4 lines. I am still picking the Hurricanes out of the East though. They just play such a complete game.

While the clock is ticking on Tampa, they deserved to win the series. Sometimes the hockey gods play dirty games. Leafs should have probably won other first rounds past, so they got away with one this year. There is just something off about their team and goaltending is a massive question mark. Samsonov never looked comfortable and was sub .900 in the series. Didn’t look great in game 1 of round 2.

My pick is the Oilers to win it all. Skinner hasn’t hit lightning in a bottle yet but if he does, Oilers should be good to come out of the west. Their star power is unmatched and finally have depth and ok defense. However, Dallas, like Florida in the east, will likely surprise people. An incredibly well, retooled squad.

Interesting reports regarding ownership of late. Seems to be a Ryan Reynolds and Snoop Dog horse race for celebrity ownership. Loved the messaging Snoop Dog was putting forth to get minority youth involved in hockey but too much emphasis on USA for my liking considering this is an Ottawa, Canada team. The Neko Sparks/Snoop dog combo would be brilliant for an expansion franchise, which sounds more and more likely with each passing day.

Rumours of the Remington Group and Reynolds ponying up $1 billion is exciting and the group has expressed wanting to grow the Ottawa community.

While these are a bit uncertain economic times in the world, it’s fun to see so much excitement over the purchase of the team.

I did not argue your thesis, just your conclusion.

Losing in the finals in 6 games, 2 in overtime without Point and losing the first round this year 3 OT loses indicates what??

There is no doubt there are challenges to aging, but to suggest playing 25 more games a year then most every team over 3 years does not matter is laughable. You ignore the condensed schedules and minimal recovery downtime.

If a professional marathon runner runs 1 more marathon a year then everyone else does, do you not think it will affect their performance? Of course it will, otherwise everyone could run marathons every week with no impact.
- TrueGrit

I didn't say fatigue wasn't a potential factor, but we're talking about a first-round loss where the team failed to win a single home game. Dismiss that if you want, but with an older roster, more cap issues, diminishing depth, and very limited picks/prospects to draw upon, the future may not be kind to TBL in the coming few years. Consider once again the relative decline in CHI, LA, and PIT in the 3yrs after their last Stanley Cup appearance...

PIT - 2nd Round, 1st Round, 1st Round
CHI - 1st Round, 1st Round, Missed Playoffs
LA - Missed Playoffs, 1st Round, Missed Playoffs

This is the predictable down-slope of Cup-quality teams when they start losing their roster quality and having to deal with aging star talent. Not sure why you think TBL would be any different, but I guess we'll see.

"That said, there were clearly big health issues with BOS"

As I recall, Bennett (2C) and Bob (1G) were injured at the start of the series, Barkov (1C) had flu-like illness for first 3 games, and Lomberg missed the last couple of games with an injury. It's not like the Panthers were 100% healthy and taking advantage of a superior, best-team-in-history, but depleted, Bruins.

From a Sens perspective on the playoffs: Duclair has looked awesome for Panthers.

Ryan O'Rielly is a UFA. He is an outstanding all around player who excels in the playoffs. You want to win in the playoffs you need a guy who can play outstanding defence.

Ryan O'Rielly is a UFA. He is an outstanding all around player who excels in the playoffs. You want to win in the playoffs you need a guy who can play outstanding defence.
- spatso

Too bad their actual defense doesn't play "outstanding defense".
It was glorious watching them implode last night.

Bob finally earning that 10 million.

Too bad their actual defense doesn't play "outstanding defense".
It was glorious watching them implode last night.

Bob finally earning that 10 million.
- Octavarium

I have young family members that are huge Leaf fans and I need to contain my glee for fear of making them cry. So, I say nice things like "the Leafs outplayed them but just ran into a hot goalie." But my inside voice is screaming "so the blue kool aid has turned sour once again." Obviously, I would like to use the word "choke" but I am too polite and choose not to be so rude. So, choke is now translated into "underperform."
Instead of saying "loser" we call it "underperform."

I would never, ever allow myself to say "Leafs suck." Rather, we merely recognize that they might be "challenged."

OTT signed JIRI SMEJKAL, undrafted, 26YO, C/LW, 6'4" 223 lbs

OTT signed JIRI SMEJKAL, undrafted, 26YO, C/LW, 6'4" 223 lbs
- Mithos

Right - just saw that. Random but here's what I see

LEFT WING.

What % you guys think DeBrincat is back with Ottawa? I put it less than 30%

Anyone else watching these playoffs and thinking the Sens forwards aren't built for this? Nor ready for this? Nor have the goaltenders to steal a series?

Anyone else watching these playoffs and thinking the Sens forwards aren't built for this? Nor ready for this? Nor have the goaltenders to steal a series?
- GrimmdaGoalie

I think the opposite about the forwards. We have beasts. With talent. And a good mix of finesse.

Tkachuk 6'3
Batherson 6'3
Pinto 6'3
Kastelic 6'4

medium sized wingers around the 6-6'1 range.

Three of those four Center/wingers play with edge or are down right Richards. And Pinto seems to play like Mark Messier. DIRTY. This bunch will be nasty in the playoffs.

I agree with the goalie take.....for now.

Anyone else watching these playoffs and thinking the Sens forwards aren't built for this? Nor ready for this? Nor have the goaltenders to steal a series?
- GrimmdaGoalie

You need size. But, also need elite speed. I think the Sens are shaping up pretty good. I would like see one more power forward added. My favourite is Pierre Luc Dubois. I also like Tom Wilson. But, really warming up to Ryan O'Rielly who is a UFA and might be available in the $7m x 3 year range.

The new guy they announced today is also a big body. His European numbers are pretty good.

Anyone else watching these playoffs and thinking the Sens forwards aren't built for this? Nor ready for this? Nor have the goaltenders to steal a series?
- GrimmdaGoalie

Watching the playoffs, I think our top end forwards are fine. I think they actually would look right in place. The depth of most of the teams is much stronger than Ottawa’s up front. I also think the speed of the games is not something DJ Smith would be able to adjust to. Ottawa needs a year with their new d-core to gel but it looks ok on paper. Chychrun I think is a d-man built for playoff hockey.

The goaltending is not there but all you need is a hot goalie.

What would Ottawa give up for Carter Hart?

What would Ottawa give up for Carter Hart?
- hello it's me 2050

most likely a 2nd, and that is too much, his number have not been any better than Forsbergs over the last 3 years.

i would not give more than a 3rd for Hart

most likely a 2nd, and that is too much, his number have not been any better than Forsbergs over the last 3 years.

i would not give more than a 3rd for Hart
- Mithos

I think Forsberg and the kids are the best option to start the season. If it does not work they can look for a deal as the season progresses. I have no confidence in this management when it comes to signing or dealing for a goalie.

I really like the D going into next season. If the D is better, goaltending improves.