This is a team that shocked everyone by taking the Penguins to double overtime of Game 7 of the ECF. Karlsson looked like the best player in the world, Anderson looked unbeatable, the system was tight and effective (the only criticism opposing fans had against it was that it was "boring").
Basically none of those things hold true so far this year.
There's a reason so many people thought the Sens would miss the playoffs this year. Last year they had that typical hard working season after missing. You rarely take nights off and stay focused. Combined that with a new coach that had everybody buy in and perfectly executed made the Sens not fun to play against. Their best players in key positions played well and they managed to win a lot of tight games.
Their run in the playoffs was good, although i thought they had some things going for them. Ever since the last meeting between Ottawa and Boston in 15-16 regular season when the Sens knocked Boston out of the playoff race, they seemed to get a mental stranglehold over Boston and completely dominated them. Bruins finally won in the 1st playoff game and that was a big boost that definitely brought the excitement of playing Ottawa back, but ultimately they had too many injuries (didn't they miss like 3 of their regular dmen?). Maybe with a healthy lineup it's a different story considering all those OT games they played.
2nd round.. well.. i still think the Rangers kind of shot themselves in the foot. Those late blown leads were unbelievable and something that doesn't happen 10/10 times if you replay those games. I'd even argue they don't all happen 50% of the time. And when you lose games like that ultimately it takes the wind off your sails and that's exactly what happened.
Pens came into the ECF having lost 2 of their last 3 games against the Caps (in those 2 games they got outscored 4-9) and after the Sens won the first game, you just knew it was going to be a tight series.. Pens were fighting it, not just Ottawa's frustrating style, but also themselves, during that series. Think back to game 3 which was embarrassing and complete lack of focus and effort.
So ultimately their playoff success was a combination of their opponents not being at their best and confidence in winning those tight games that they created for themselves during the year. It was a good run, and even though some people will disagree with me, when we say "team that got the Champs to double OT game 7 of the ECF", to me it wasn't as glorious as it sounds.
Back to this season, i mentioned the typical hard working year they had last year. Well as typical as that was, it's also very common to follow that up with less hard working season. It's the true test of are you good enough, because you're going to have to win a lot of games where you're not playing that well. It's a season where your quality of roster gets tested a lot more and thus teams (like Colorado that everybody keeps pointing back to) that might've had a surprisingly good year before fall back to earth.
And so far, overall they've been mediocre. Which isn't that surprising considering all the numbers from last year and lack of superstar outside EK who is struggling. Even when they were playing well they blew a lot of leads which showed the focus isn't at the same level like i mentioned. Im still not a fan of their defense, Anderson seems to keep going with the pattern of good year-bad year, Duchene looks disappointing so far, Ryan is quiet again..
Ottawa isn't as bad as their last 10 or so games would suggest, but they also aren't a 100 point team in a normal year. To me they're a team that should be in 90-95 point range and that's a team battling for WC spot or 3rd in the Atlantic depending on how the division does. But if they underachieve, they're guaranteed to miss. And so far they have underachieved which shows in their record.
