Five Thoughts for a Friday - Making the Playoffs Isn't Everything

The Sens didn't do it cleanly last night, but they got the win in regulation and Montreal lost in regulation so you can't ask for too much more at this time of year. The Sens have put themselves in a relatively comfortable place down the stretch and obviously we'll keep watching from the edge of our seats until Ottawa officially clinches but that doesn't mean we can't find other narratives other than just clinching a playoff spot.

Please note that these stats don't include Thursday night's game (and that they come courtesy of naturalstattrick.com)

Improved Defensive Play

You can make the chicken and egg argument that having Linus Ullmark in the fold has given Ottawa the missing piece they sorely lacked in years past and that said acquisition has allowed the team to play more sound, defensive hockey. I would just as soon make the argument that a better defensive structure courtesy of Travis Green and the upgrade with Nick Jensen has had just as much to do with how drastically the Ottawa Senators have cut down on goals against. After all, Ullmark has missed a decent amount of time with injury and has also had some rather cold stretches (while Anton Forsberg continues his own Jeckyll and Hyde act). Either way, the Sens could finish top ten in fewest goals allowed (currently on pace with 201 in 70 games) including the fewest shorthanded goals against (two) while tying for the league lead in shutouts (eight).

Bottomless Powerplays

The Sens still take a lot of penalties for a team that doesn't exactly have a lights-out penalty kill (77%), but they've mitigated this by spending more time on the powerplay than any other team in the league (369 minutes and counting) and because they draw so many penalties, the Sens sit just four off the pace (56) for most powerplay goals in the NHL this season (despite a modest 24% conversion rate). I want to unpack a few things there in terms of post-season preparedness. The Sens need to cut down chances against on the penalty kill (duh). Playoff teams probably fare better when they spend less time shorthanded. And the Senators' powerplay needs to convert more (a good team may have very few minutes spent on the powerplay if they routinely convert in the early seconds of the skater-advantage).

12 Down, Three to Go

I don't want dwell on the losses that Ottawa has already suffered this season at the hands of Buffalo and Montreal. Suffice to say, Ottawa should really try to win their last game against each team respectively. The Sens still have yet to play against Columbus this season and have three opportunities to beat the Jackets (not only to solidify playoff positioning) to complete the sweep of all 15 eastern conference opponents. The fact that Ottawa has wins against Washington, Florida, and Carolina but not Buffalo or Montreal kind of summarizes how much progress this Sens team has made while still looking very much like a work in progress.

The Fountain of G(y)rou(th) (work with me here)

I want to confront a lot of the Claude Giroux haters in stating that Claude Giroux still rocks and is very cool. I know a lot of people worry about his physical condition and his skating in his late thirties but next time you see Claude around town take a long hard look because the guy has the type of dad bod we would all kill for. Anyway, the Sens have shot abysmally at five-on-five this season and everyone on this roster has to feel a little disappointed with their counting stats. The law of averages says that all these guys will put up better numbers next year. Claude Giroux has already surpassed Todd White and Clarke MacArthur in the necessary regular season stat columns to earn the title of best free agent signing in franchise history. He'll probably need another season at least to get into the top-20 franchise players overall in most counting stats but that's a problem for this summer. More than anything, I just want to see Giroux go off in a Sens jersey in the postseason. The man has been pacing himself this year, that's all.

Individual Achievements

Speaking of decisions to make this summer, what does Steve Staios do with Adam Gaudette? It really looked like the Gaud would finally get his first 20-goal season and then he just ran out of pixie dust. I would argue that the Sens can replace his production internally or find a better value player on the market but it drives me bananas watching players like Gaudette for whatever reason just never full put together all the pieces. Switching our focus to core players, Brady Tkachuk still has time to take the lead league in powerplay goals (one off the pace at 14) and all situation shots (11 back at 283). Brady will likely pass Wade Redden for fifth in points in franchise history (currently six back at 404) and he'll likely have his fourth consecutive 30-goal season. Both Tim Stützle (50) and Drake Batherson (37) could set new career highs in assists while Jake Sanderson (48) and Ridly Greig (26) will have their most productive seasons to date, individually speaking.