This team may well live up to the "veteran team plays better in the playoffs" reputation if they can make the playoffs again next year and make another dent.
I don't think it's an automatic qualification though. This was a long and tough season for this team. The Atlantic is actually becoming very competitive very quickly.
On the one hand, the physical battering and challenging season could make them start off slowly. On the other, if the roster remains relatively unchanged, we have a comfort level with system and personnel that we didn't have at the beginning of last year. Tough to say.
While I agree that circumstances regarding our opposition were in our favour this year, not everything was.
We had Karlsson on one leg. Stone's "most obvious injury in the universe because he is our best forward and he couldn't do anything" performance was as bad as I've seen him ever play as a Senator. Our defensive corps was injured right up until the end of the season and never really recovered - allowing us some decent looks as Harpur and Claesson. Who knows how well Anderson was focused.
Ultimately, I think the team did very well under the circumstances. Ryan's rejuvenation was terrific, and MacArthur's flashes of true top six performance remind everyone that our skill isn't restricted to just 2 or 3 players. Karlsson finally delivered that playoff performance that we'd been wishing for, and then some.
Going forward, I'm not expecting miracles from White, but I think Chabot could be a game breaker very quickly and could completely transform this team in 2-3 years. Two transition defenceman of that calibre makes us very difficult to play against. Hopefully Anderson can stay good that long. Brown will be in the AHL I think. He's much more of a project.
Like others have said, dumping Neil and Kelly solves a lot of issues for this team, particularly if we can keep Pyatt and Stalberg on the 4th line. I think we have a pretty serviceable line-up that is pretty underrated at times.
Bottom line, while the division is going to get better, I think this team can play better over the course of a season.
This team is the anti-early 2000's Sens teams. Back then we were always the favorites, and always failed.
We did a halfsie rebuild in 2010 that still left us with Alfie, Gonchar and Spezza as core players, which meant we made the playoffs in 2012 and 2013 under their leadership. 2013-14 was a rough transition year (with Spezza as captain).
But I'd say 2014-15 was the year our current core truly came into being. Spezza was gone. Karlsson was made captain. Stone, Hoffman and Ceci became regulars. Turris stepped up to the 1C role. We went on a historic phenomenal run at the end of the season to make the playoffs despite turbulent coaching (Maclean getting fired & Cameron not being much better). 2015-16 was an aberration due to bad coaching and an insane amount of injuries. Then, of course, this year, with the new coaching staff we made the playoffs despite injuries and leaves of absences. Then put a crazy run on the playoffs and pushed a dynasty-like team to a 2OT Game 7.
That's 2 of 3 years of this core group's existence that they've shown unbelievable veteran-like resilience and clutchiness. Something we've never experienced as Sens fans. The best part? Much of this core is young and just entering their prime. For comparison's sake, to put things in perspective, our only players that are older than Crosby (and Malkin) are:
-Bobby Ryan (only by a few months)
-Marc Methot
-Tom Pyatt
-Viktor Stalberg
-Clarke MacArthur
-Dion Phaneuf
-Craig Anderson
-Alex Burrows
Everybody also talks about us being lucky or fortunate. What's fortunate about us beating the Rangers? They were basically fully healthy. In the last 5 years, the Rangers made the SCF once, ECF twice, 2nd round once and 1st round once. They have more playoffs wins than the Penguins in the last 5 years. And we beat them fair and square.
We're a good team with a solid veteran-like young core entering their prime, and have a truly generational player. This was year 1 of our window opening. **** the non-believers.