The Ottawa Senators: The Off-Balance, 2023/2024 Season Preview.
Playoffs or bust.
Following their Cinderella run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017, the Ottawa Senators almost immediately collapsed.
They went from being just a win away from the Stanley Cup Final to so far removed from the playoff picture, they were outside the frame.
Rebuilding? It comes for all, eventually. But for Ottawa, it came with a vengeance.
Their core players? Traded.
Everyone else? Caught on camera in an Uber, harshly criticizing one of their coaches (listen, we’ve all done it, just make sure you’re not being recorded, hey fellas?)
Former owner, Eugene Melnyk? He mused openly to the media about maybe just cutting his losses and moving the team.
Ottawa fans are as passionate as any you’ll find, but as their team struggled though off-ice distractions and on-ice disappointment, nowhere to be found was the energy they so often display, that hard-won enthusiasm that you can’t help but respect.
But a lot can change in six years.
Perhaps their biggest reason for optimism?
On Friday, businessman Michael Andlauer was officially introduced as the team’s new majority owner.
Andlauer, a hockey-lifer, has steadily worked his way up the sport’s ladder over the past twenty-plus years.
From the OHL, the AHL, to being a minority owner of the Montreal Canadiens.
He seems poised to provide the type of stability the team lacked during much of Melnyk’s final seasons at the helm, as on the ice, the Senators have their eyes set on contention (Melnyk died in 2022: his daughters will retain a ten-percent ownership stake).
Yes, those same Senators, who, not too long ago stripped their team to the bone and now have a core that has emerged as one of the strongest in hockey:
Their engine, captain Brady Tkachuk. His two-way dynamism, while it may be a family staple, is also a unique hallmark of his individual game. His 35 goals in 22/23 were a career high. The easy money has him surpassing 40, while continuing to play his pesky, lead-by-example style.
Tim Stützle is already a superstar. Full stop. After his rookie campaign was truncated in 2020, the young German made his presence known last season, scoring 39 goals and 90 points. He kills penalties, continues to develop a full 200-foot game and displays a maturity usually only seen in the most wily of veterans. Still just 21, the sky is the limit.
Jake Sanderson has played all of 77 NHL games. But the Senators saw enough to sign the 21 year-old to an eight-year extension earlier this month. As a rookie last season, the defenceman played nearly 22 minutes a night, behind only fellow blue-liner Thomas Chabot.
Not content to simply rest on star power alone, however, Ottawa has continued to build the right way, complimenting their high-end talent with smart, secondary veteran players: most notably their off-season additions, Vladimir Tarasenko and Dominik Kubalík (who was traded from Detroit for winger Alex DeBrincat).
Others, like Jakob Chychrun, who played all of twelve games for Ottawa in 22/23 before his season ended due to injury, will be healthy and no doubt plenty motived to contribute to a team in the mix, after years of toiling on non-competitive rosters in Arizona.
Then, there is Claude Giroux, who will turn 36 in January and is entering the second year of the three-year deal he signed last summer. Last season, he played all 82 games, scored a career-high 35 goals and was universally respected in the room for his leadership.
But the hockey season? It is a grind.
For Giroux, even if his (old in hockey terms) age starts to catch up and he does lose a step, he no longer has to be “the guy” like he was during the peak of his career in Philadelphia.
Which ultimately speaks to the roster the Ottawa braintrust, led by GM Pierre Dorion, have constructed.
Balanced, grounded and eager to make some noise.
That’s the catch though, the hard part.
Actually booking their ticket to the dance.
Even with their many additions, even with another year of experience under their belts, for Ottawa, making it out of the East, out of the Atlantic Division alone, will continue to be a dogfight.
They came oh-so-close last season, ultimately finishing just six points out of the final wildcard spot.
Better prepared and able to contend with the ebbs-and-flows of the season?
Yeah buddy, you’d be ill-advised to count them out.
But that doesn’t mean the team is without questions as October looms, either.
Centreman Shane Pinto remains unsigned as exhibition games begin, something further complicated by the fact that Ottawa has virtually no cap space.
Pinto, after playing only 12 games in 2020 and having lost virtually all of the following year to injury, was a key contributor for the Sens last season.
Now, teams don’t need to be cap compliant until Opening Night but the quicker the team can get him signed and in camp, the better off they’ll be.
Uncertainty too, surrounds GM Dorion and head coach, D.J. Smith.
As noted by The Athletic’s Ian Mendes, they are first GM-coach duo in the salary cap era (2005 onwards) to start a fifth season together - that, despite their complete lack of playoff success.
The pressure is on.
Sure, the team was rebuilding, yes they were in flux, okay, the young players were just finding their way as NHLers but if the Senators are expected to be playoff contenders this season, those two men bear a great deal of that responsibility.
If they stumble out of the gate, which Smith’s teams have over the past few years, expect the calls for change in Ottawa to only grow louder.
And that, it seems, is where we find the Sens.
Dealing, for the first time in a while, with legitimate expectation.
All the pieces are there: a new, qualified owner, an exciting group of high-octane talent, a desire to bring playoff hockey back to the capital.
But it is never easy.
Let’s see how they do.