How did Ottawa get within 1 game of the Cup Final last year?

[GordieHowsUrBreath]

Why don’t more teams do this?

they like to think they have the talent to beat them fair and square

to give ottawa any credit at all, at least they knew better

 

[Shakey Rustie]

Playoff format.

 

[Common Sense]

Because Karlsson on one foot was still the best defenseman in the league.

 

[Nadal On Clay]

They didn’t traded Turris.

 

[Pi]

Trap worked.

 

[Laveuglette]

One game? You mean one OT goal. One lucky bounce. Anything.

 

[Sureves]

Easy: Karlsson was the best player in the league, Ryan/Brassard actually played well in the playoffs, Anderson wasn't horrible, and the Sens played badly injured teams in Boston and Pittsburgh (particularly their blue lines).

 

[Colt.45Orr]

Last year Krug was Boston's #1 LHD and Carlo was their #1 RHD... they both got hurt in the 81st and 82nd game and didn't play a minute in the series. McQuaid (#5) got hurt late in the year too.

Krejci got hurt early in the series with a dirty knee check.

So, yeah, Boston was missing 2 of their top 3 Dman, another top 6 D and their #2 C.
Without some late, bad-luck injuries, Boston takes out Ottawa in 5.

 

[Analyst365]

So much hindsight on here people be running into walls

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Ottawa wasn't a bad team last year. Goaltending was good. EK was amazing. They had pretty good depth up front with balanced lines and probably most importantly they had a lot of things to rally around during the year that built character. They deserved to be in the playoffs.

But i don't think their run in the playoffs was as magical as some people made it out to be.

Boston was injured on the back-end, a team that 100% healthy was probably evenly matched

Rangers pissed away leads in Ottawa in embarrassing fashion, and they were mediocre leading up to the playoffs

Pens were mentally drained from the Caps 7 game series that i thought was evident in the first 3 games, they only scored 3 goals in those 3 games and even got blown out in one of them, then they woke up and scored like 15 goals in the next 4 games, so yeah i don't think the Pens were playing to their level at the start which ultimately played a big part in the series going to 7

Simply put i don't think Ottawa were this amazing team in the playoffs. They were mentally strong for the most part and battled hard, but i don't think any of their opponents were that great in any of their series, and i don't think teams in the East were that great in the playoffs. I think Washington would've beaten Ottawa pretty easily - unlike vs Pittsburgh they have great confidence and swagger against Ottawa and looked evenly matched against the Pens to say the least.

If you ask me this year the East looks a lot better at the start of the playoffs. I don't think last years Ottawa would even get to the ECF.

But yeah as far as this years collapse i don't know what exactly happened. They looked fine at the start of the year but then it just all fell apart after the Duchene trade.

 

[1967th Heaven]

The Atlantic bracket was absolute ass, not sure how they took the Pens to game 7 OT though

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

The they were lucky analysis is hilarious. That’s really just terrible insight and you should just rest your fingers for a very long time.

 

[Tonka]

This is a question I always ask myself regarding the Predators, how does their team consistently make the playoffs and go past the first round.

 

[Mr Positive]

maybe... ditching Methot and Phaneuf made them look so bad this year compared to last

 

[TomasHertlsRooster]

-Random variance
-Strong goaltending playing well. Pittsburgh played against the last 3 Vezina winners (Rinne easily won this year's Vezina please don't nitpick) and torched them all, but struggled against Craig Anderson
-Karlsson was the most valuable player of the playoffs
-I'm not sure how they won against Boston, but the Rangers were a butter soft opponent
-2017 Pittsburgh is actually one of the more flukey/lucky teams to win in recent years, which is funny considering the 2016 Pittsburgh team was the most straight up "by the book, good hockey team that is much better than the opposition"

 

[MessierII]

NHL is volatile. Crazy amounts of playoff turnover this year.

 

[3074326]

Their goaltending was outstanding vs. Pittsburgh. I was more concerned about losing that series at the time than any series during the last two cup runs.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

It's a very fine line between winning & losing in the NHL.
You cannot win in this league with substandard goaltending. Period, end of story.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

This is a question I always ask myself regarding the Predators, how does their team consistently make the playoffs and go past the first round.

They don't.
Nashville Predators Playoff History | 1999 - 2017

 

[MVP of West Hollywd]

Guy Boucher system frustrated teams. Going from 11th to 30th in goals against makes me think opponents figured it out.

 

[Reality Check]

The same way that the North Stars reached the finals in '91. Cinderella run.

People then overrate them based on what happened the prior year and are dumbfounded when they crash back to earth.

 

[Hire Sather]

Alain Vignault

 

[c9777666]

How good WAS Karlsson vs. Boston and the Rangers for perspective?

 

[McGarnagle]

Let's be honest, refs handed them the Boston series and the Rangers were a wild card team.

How they brought the Pens to OT of game 7, that I have no answer for.

 

[SensNation613]

Some posters are portraying it as luck but it truly wasn't. The 2016/2017 Senators played great hockey and the 2017/2018 Senators played terrible hockey. The real Sens are somewhere in the middle (playoff team). If we buy into the idea that anything can happen in the playoffs, then it can't just solely be attributed to luck. A lot of players stepped up and unfortunately they didn't this year (Ryan, Phaneuf, Brassard, and others). Hell even Burrows was alright in the playoffs...