Again it's not luck where Skill is concerned. No team came together quicker, and played as a team more then the Sens. They played the system perfectly. I'm glad we agree on that. We just disagree on how they got there. In my humble opinion it was a perfect storm that created a perfect set of circumstances.
You do understand it takes luck for almost every team to make the playoffs right. Luck doesn't always mean good things happen. Sometimes bad things happen and it turns very good. It would have been very easy for the Sens to give up when Anderson wife was diagnosed with Cancer and he left the team. Instead the Sens battled, that impressed me more then any skill play.
From Jan 23rd i watched every single Sens game, I even posted in a few gdt but i was there. I'm willing to bet everything i own, No one wanted the Sens to win more then i did last year.
I'm not sure what team you were watching, but Ottawa took a good third of the season to actually figure out it's system. They didn't hit the ground running by any stretch of the imagination, so actually, there were a lot of teams that came together quicker, some though, faltered late in the season, while Ottawa managed to hang on.
To me, this coming season is different from last year in a couple ways;
1. We shouldn't have that ~30 game break-in period associated with learning a new system like we did last year.
2. The 4th line was atrocious to start the year (I've gone over the stats before, even bringing the 4th line to the standard of below average would have a huge impact, they were that bad), and was addressed at the deadline. This year, we appear to be going into the season with a 4th line similar or better to the one we had in the playoffs.
3. Ottawa lost MacArthur in training camp after all viable options for replacing him were off the table. Perhaps they should have had a better backup plan in place, but they appear better positioned this year in that regard. This risk of him not being available to start the season seems much less after seeing him competed in an extended playoff run.
They have however lost Methot, and appear to be replacing him with a combination of Oduya and Chabot. Obviously there a good chance that that combo won't be able to fully replace Methot's impact, though Chabot's potential long term exceeds Methot's, it's unwise to bank on him reaching that level so early in his career.
So, leading into the season, Ottawa to me seems better positioned overall for success. That's not taking into account things like Anderson's family issue that kept him out for a good stretch, Ryan's career worst season, or Brassard finishing the seasons ~20 pts below what he did the prior two years.
To me, Ottawa is highly likely to play better overall than it did last year. Yes, they had their share of good fortune in that the entire division was a bit of a mess, but I think that's offset by some very obvious bad fortune that seems to be ignored as just part of the game. If we are to say Ottawa's misfortune is just part of the game, then so is the misfortune of TBay and Florida. You can't have it both ways and say they were lucky one front but not address their misfortune on the other.
The real question though is how all the other moving parts that are completely out of their control affect their end of year positioning; If Tbay and Florida bounce back, how does that impact the standings? Will Buffalo improve? Carolina? The Islanders? Flyers? How will that impact things.
