Five Thoughts for Friday: Sunshine and Rainbows Edition

After a 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins and five straight wins for the Ottawa Senators, things are looking great, and I wanted to touch on five positives of late because of how high the vibes are flying:

Very Doable Final Stretch

The Senators have a record of 35-25-5 (75 points) with 17 games remaining and are on pace for 95 points. The closest team out of a wildcard spot is the New York Rangers who have 70 points and are on pace for 87. That means the Senators might need just 13 points to book a post-season berth. That of course depends on if other teams like Montreal, Detroit, Boston, or the Islanders pick things up, but the playoff bar will probably be quite low. 13 points would be a record of something like 6-10-1 or 5-9-3, which is incredibly doable.

Furthermore, Ottawa's strength of schedule the rest of the way is still the eighth easiest, with 10 games being played at home. Moneypuck.com now has their playoff odds at 92.7% as well, which is the highest it's been all season. If they can't make the playoffs with this much of a lead and an easier schedule, they don't deserve to make it anyway. It's far from over, but we can taste playoff hockey.

Linus Ullmark's "It" Factor

Goaltending can be funny. You might look amazing one minute and horrible the next. Or off your game one minute and making the save of the year the next. The latter is what happened to Linus Ullmark last night, as he let in three goals on seven shots and appeared to be letting the Bruins back into the game. It's not as if they were bad goals, but it was disheartening seeing the Senators dominate and then allow a goal against. However, he then stopped 18 shots in a row to give Ottawa the win. And one of those saves was probably his best save of the year:

Boston had been pressuring a ton after Ottawa went up 5-2, and they could have easily tied up the game before the 2nd period ended, but Ullmark was there to shut the door. They had many other chances in the second half of the game that would have gotten past Ghosts of Ottawa's Goalie Past, but not Linus. We saw this on Monday against the Detroit Red Wings as well, as he stopped a whopping 48/49 shots, with many of them being highlight reel saves.

As was evident last night, Ullmark isn't always going to be perfect. But he was perfect when he needed to be and kept the lead for Ottawa. The Senators haven't had that since 2016-17 with Craig Anderson—the last time they made the playoffs. Ullmark has had the "it" factor this season for Ottawa, which is exactly what could help them make some noise in the playoffs. Great goaltending can carry you far, and it's amazing that it took them this long to finally bring in someone who can steal games.

Tkachuk Coming up Clutch

Brady Tkachuk took a lot of heat for playing in the Canada/USA Four Nations final and then missing two games for the Senators right after. I understood the complaints, although my thinking was always that we don't know the specifics of his injury and I'd rather have him well-rested for the stretch run as they try to make the playoffs. And boy has he ever looked rejuvenated.

In the seven games since re-joining the team, the Senators are 6-0-1 and have outscored teams 30-20. Tkachuk also has six goals and two assists in those seven games, heating up at the perfect time. A breakdown of those goals includes: an overtime game-winner, a tying goal with the goalie pulled, a tying goal to begin the 3rd period, two tone-setters within the first few minutes, and a first goal on a hot Igor Shesterkin. He's showing that he has the clutch gene and is exactly the kind of player they will need in the playoffs (a bit of a theme today!). You can tell how badly he wants this and how much he appreciates the fanbase:

Sanderson's Tear

Another player that I have been gushing about lately is Jake Sanderson. Can you sense the theme today? It's easy to take his offensive production for granted, but he has 45 points in 64 games and is on pace for 57 this season. That'd be the eighth most points by a Senators defenseman in a single season, with only Norm MacIver (once) and Erik Karlsson (six times) passing that mark.

Since January 25th specifically, he's been on another planet. In 17 games, he has four goals and sixteen assists, good for 20 points. That puts him tied for 16th in points in the league during that span and behind just Cale Makar (22) amongst defensemen. He's showing that he can be the offensive play-driver that we thought he could be, and not just a second-pairing two-way defenseman. It's also helped tremendously that he's no longer stapled to Travis Hamonic and has Artem Zub on his right side, as the two of them have a 55.13 xGF% (compared to a 44.07 xGF% with Hamonic).

The best part about all of this is he's just 22 years old and signed for $8M for the next seven seasons after this one. Thank you Pierre Dorion for the parting gift.

Perron Finding His Game

Ullmark, Tkachuk, and Sanderson being big contributors for Ottawa's success is pretty obvious, but it's great when other role players step up as well. And one of those players is David Perron, who had quite the rough first half of the season. He missed a lot of time due to family matters, and it was understandable that it was going to take him some time to get his game back on track. In the first 12 games, he was held pointless. In the last 15, he has four goals and five assists (nine points), which isn't amazing but it's a 49-point pace. Even more recently, he had three goals and two assists in six games before being held pointless last night, and he has looked much more like himself.

I don't expect him to look like prime Perron at the age of 36 (almost 37), but he can still be a contributor on the third line. Perron, Dylan Cozens, and Drake Batherson have had some great chemistry over the last four games as well, as in 33:30 (very small sample), they have four goals for and zero against, a 56.92 CF% and a 55.77 xGF%. Perron being able to play in the top-six would be enormous for the Senators for the rest of the season, as they have been desperate for more scoring. It's not a surprise that while Perron has been looking much better, the Senators have scored an average of 4.29 goals over their last seven games.

What an excellent week it's been in Ottawa, and they can top it off with a win in Toronto tomorrow.