Are we going to be the new Buffalo Sabres? 5 years straight without playoffs.

[Joeyjoejoe]

Buffalo currently leading the league with the longest playoff drought of 10 years without playoffs.

Detroit is 5 years.

Ottawa is gonna be 5 years at the end of this season.

Ottawa's last 5 seasons:

32nd (currently)
23rd
30th
31st
30th

Senators standing average 29th placed team in the last 5 years of losing hockey.
In comparison to Buffalo who are 27th placed.

I never had any expectations of the team playing in the playoffs this year, I just wanted them to hover around the .500 mark and maybe finish around 17th-23rd. We are now again 32nd, worst team in the league, again.

How much more of losing hockey are we supposed to take? I get that we are in a 'rebuild' but other teams that didn't start off with the same assets that we had to trade away for the rebuild, are further ahead in their rebuild in a less time, while also playing some type of competitive hockey and somewhat approving year over year at least.

I can see this going the buffalo route of reaching 10 years because unlike other teams, ours has terrible management group with a horrendous track record, along with terrible pro scouting, combined with an owner unable to spend beyond the cap floor on external talent or on an experienced proven coaching staff.

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[armani]

No confidence they will with current management and ownership at the helm.

There are good prospects, but this management needs to figure out how to insulate the youth with "quality" NHL veterans. Melnyk needs to open the purse a little, and Dorion needs to be very smart with that budget to get quality players. As I say, don't buy donkeys at the price of old horses and call them race horses. That shit don't fly.

Happy Friday!

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I think it'll come around eventually, in one way or another. Could just end up being another long stretch of being a bubble team, but I do think they'll get somewhere. They've accumulated too much quality youth not to, even if Dorion has almost no ability to have a positive effect otherwise.

That said, their strategy seems to be to wait as long as it'll take with zero fast tracking (at least effectively) so far by acquiring external pieces that move the needle at all.

We're in year 5 now of lost seasons and next year looks to be another non playoff season albeit with more of a collection of who's expected to contribute, so in the end it looks like it may take 7-8 years of being at the bottom or out of the playoffs to get where they want to be. That would be insane if it comes to that, it's almost a decade.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Where's the "we already are" option?

 

[Emerica]

It will be the longest streak of non-playoff seasons in franchise history at the end of this season. The expansion team made the playoffs in their 5th season. It is crazy that some on here have the audacity to say the fanbase hasn't been patient with management, ownership and coaches.

I honestly believe we are maxed out budget wise with the Batherson and Tkachuk extensions, which is why we didn't do anything to improve the team. With how things have unfolded so far and with a few young guys that need new contracts, I would expect next offseason to be another money-in/money-out offseason.

Therefore I vote the last option.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

It will be the longest streak of non-playoff seasons in franchise history at the end of this season. The expansion team made the playoffs in their 5th season. It is crazy that some on here have the audacity to say the fanbase hasn't been patient with management, ownership and coaches.

I honestly believe we are maxed out budget wise with the Batherson and Tkachuk extensions, which is why we didn't do anything to improve the team. With how things have unfolded so far and with a few young guys that need new contracts, I would expect next offseason to be another money-in/money-out offseason.

Therefore I vote the last option.

This board is filled with management cheerleaders and even if we were to miss the playoffs for another 2-3 years, they would not veer away from their script.

 

[SensFactor]

It will take at least 1 more season of this one for play birth

 

[UglyPuckling]

Just reaching the playoffs is a pretty low standard.

I think about Melnyk's succession plan. He doesn't seem motivated to sell the team.

So, what happens when he dies? Will his daughters keep the team and their father's legacy alive?

Or, will they sell? If they sell, will the team move to a new location of the new buyer's choosing? Will the NHL allow a relocation?

As long as Melnyk owns the team, I maintain low expectations. Its rotten from the top down in Senator land. And, that rot works it way down through all of the lower layers. We can complain about Dorion, but who hired him? And, god knows what constraints on spending, etc. Melnyk has placed on PD.

 

[bicboi64]

Unless we luck into Wright or Bedard/Mitchkov and they end up being generational, i doubt we get out of bottom 10 given managements inability to bring in pro talent

 

[swiftwin]

Lmfao. When's the last time the Sabres made the playoffs? We made the conference finals two years after they drafted Eichel. We have a looooong way to go before we become the Sabres.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Right now I have zero confidence.

However that can change very quickly and maybe JBD and Sanderson will improve the outlook.

As long as we keep missing with professional acquisitions/trades, it is very hard to believe that management will manage to level up this roster.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

This board is filled with management cheerleaders and even if we were to miss the playoffs for another 2-3 years, they would not veer away from their script.

Maybe people should stop feeding the trolls.

EDIT: some of the hatred flung at management/ownership is over-the-top and those trolls should also be ignored.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Just reaching the playoffs is a pretty low standard.

I think about Melnyk's succession plan. He doesn't seem motivated to sell the team.

So, what happens when he dies? Will his daughters keep the team and their father's legacy alive?

Or, will they sell? If they sell, will the team move to a new location of the new buyer's choosing? Will the NHL allow a relocation?

As long as Melnyk owns the team, I maintain low expectations. Its rotten from the top down in Senator land. And, that rot works it way down through all of the lower layers. We can complain about Dorion, but who hired him? And, god knows what constraints on spending, etc. Melnyk has placed on PD.

And what a legacy to carry on being one of the worst owners in pro sports.

 

[swiftwin]

Detroit is 5 years.

Ottawa is gonna be 5 years at the end of this season.

So what you're saying is we should compare our current season to Detroit last season? Even though we were ahead of them last season?

By your definition, we're doing as well if not better than Detroit in our rebuild.

I never had any expectations of the team playing in the playoffs this year, I just wanted them to hover around the .500 mark and maybe finish around 17th-23rd. We are now again 32nd, worst team in the league, again.

My dude.... We haven't finished 32nd this season.

 

[swiftwin]

However that can change very quickly and maybe JBD and Sanderson will improve the outlook.

Excatly. People are way too fixated on the wins and losses right now. We're keeping the games way closer than we were at this point last season. We're losing 1 goal games off rookie mistakes late in games.

The ingredients are there for us to turn the ship around quickly, just like we did last season.

 

[Tuna99]

A blessing this team has had if they haven’t been faced with having to draft a start player with poor character - image if a Eichel or Sequin was in Ottawa right now.

I guess we can consider ourselves lucky there isn’t an unhappy Eichel, Pettersson, EK or Duchesne on this team.

 

[UglyPuckling]

So what you're saying is we should compare our current season to Detroit last season? Even though we were ahead of them last season?

By your definition, we're doing as well if not better than Detroit in our rebuild.



My dude.... We haven't finished 32nd this season.

So, should we not look at consistency and the ability to repeat the same result twice in a row (2 years in a row)? I'm speaking of the seasons' results when it comes to the Senators and being able to show improvement 2 years in a row.

Should we also not consider that the divisions/conferences were realigned last year and we played in the weakest division in the NHL?

 

[Alex1234]

It will take at least 1 more season of this one for play birth

You mean we will go from 32th to playoff berth in ONE season?

 

[salomonster]

Uncle Eug' needs to get off his freakin' wallet and sign some quality vets that still have legs and can keep up with the Sens youth movement. He also need to hire more and much better pro scouts. They cannot keep signing re-tread UFA's.... our pro scouts needs to move along TBH.

Without the avove mentioned, they will continue to blow chunks.

Our prospect won't go very far is they are not insulated. AND if they continue to loose that loosing culture that has haunted the Sabres will make it's way to the 613.

Moreover, PD needs to keep his mouth shut when it comes to a rebuild being finished... this guy continuously puts his foot in his mouth.

Step away from the mic PD!!!! That was the other Pierre's job is...

It is very frustrating to see this team continue to loose.

 

[TheDebater]

Ottawa's last 5 seasons:

32nd (currently)
23rd
30th
31st
30th

 

[Alex1234]

Lmfao. When's the last time the Sabres made the playoffs? We made the conference finals two years after they drafted Eichel. We have a looooong way to go before we become the Sabres.

For this season you are right
They have 7 points on us
And for a team that has only 9 points total this season so far its a looong way to go to climb 7 points lol

 

[SpezDispenser]

Too much talent not to make it next year or year after latest and start our ascension. Good pieces, more coming.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

We're keeping the games way closer than we were at this point last season. We're losing 1 goal games off rookie mistakes late in games.

This is a good point.

Not enough to be excited about this roster unfortunately.

 

[NHL Dude 120]

I think we have the makings of a decent D-core of the future. Getting say a combination of Wright or Kemmel with our pick + another skilled guy like Nathan Gaucher puts us in a really good position in terms of prospects. We still however need that veteran presence.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

You mean we will go from 32th to playoff birth in ONE season?

I'm sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but it is a playoff berth.