The 2012-2013 Ottawa Senators: The Contender That Never Was?

[Wallet Inspector]

Seeing some of the discussion of pre-Cooke injury Karlsson, and looking back at the 2012-2013 season as a whole, I unironically think the Sens would have been cup contenders if not for injuries.

-Karlsson was otherworldly, and would have easily won the Norris, and hell, even the Hart if not for his injury,
-Spezza was coming off arguably his best all-around season in 2011-2012, and was never quite the same after his back surgery.
-Gonchar had a very impressive season, and even Wiercoch looked good in his rookie year, so our defense as a whole would have been great with EK.
-Our goaltending was stupidly good. Granted, you could argue it was due to Paul Maclean needing us to play a goalie-friendly style due to all our injuries, but healthy Anderson was easily capable of stealing playoff series.

Lastly, while obviously a really small sample size, we DID start the year 5-1-1 before the injuries started to pile up, but what do you guys think?

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[bicboi64]

I remember the 14 games EK played were godly, he was on another level in terms of controlling the play. I think a healthy EK and Spezza would've allowed us to make some noise in the playoffs. Would've helped both EK and Spezza develop even more chemistry (maybe would have made Spezza a better captain since he'd be the most important forward on the team in terms of having to carry the offensive load and would have to deal with pressure a bit more.

Gonchar was an absolute joy to watch, dude anchored our D

 

[SlapJack]

They were a slightly above average team with everyone healthy. They got crushed in the 2nd round by a better Pittsburgh team who got crushed in the 3rd round by a better Boston team that ended up losing to a better Chicago team. Any run would've been predicated on some historical goaltending and they weren't in the same league as the real contenders.

 

[Wallet Inspector]

They were a slightly above average team with everyone healthy. They got crushed in the 2nd round by a better Pittsburgh team who got crushed in the 3rd round by a better Boston team that ended up losing to a better Chicago team. Any run would've been predicated on some historical goaltending and they weren't in the same league as the real contenders.

Karlsson and Spezza were nowhere near 100% for that series.

 

[SlapJack]

Karlsson and Spezza were nowhere near 100% for that series.

Pittsburgh was still a better team. Spezza was a full tier (or 2) behind either Crosby or Malkin.

 

[bicboi64]

Pittsburgh was still a better team. Spezza was a full tier (or 2) behind either Crosby or Malkin.

I think a fully healthy roster can take that Pens team to 7, not sure if we get past Boston tho

 

[Micklebot]

Pittsburgh was still a better team. Spezza was a full tier (or 2) behind either Crosby or Malkin.

Spezza was having a bit of a resurgence before hurting his back that year, coming off finishing 6th in Hart voting the year prior and flying out of the gate. Was he as good as Crosby or Malkin, no but he had been playing some of the best hockey of his career imo.

Boston didn't have anyone in Crosby or Malkins tier and they swept the pens,