Rising from the Dark Ages: All That Senators Fans Have Had to Endure Since 2017

No, you didn't dream it. Your Ottawa Senators are finally headed back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2025 after eight long years of waiting. It's been such a long journey that it's hard to remember everything that this fanbase has gone through over the years, but the list is exhaustive. And although the dark ages from the 2017-18 season to the 2023-24 season were incredibly depressing, seeing them get back to the playoffs has made following their path to the playoffs all worth it.

Let's go back to 2017 for a second.

The Senators were on a Cinderella run where they were 6-1 in overtime in the playoffs and were one goal away from the Stanley Cup Finals while playing in overtime of Game 7 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Nobody expected them to get there, but Erik Karlsson, Craig Anderson, and Bobby Ryan willed their way to get the Senators deep in the playoffs. All they needed was one more goal and they would have made it to the Finals for just the second time in franchise history. The Nashville Predators were a fine team waiting on the other side, but they were more beatable than the Penguins. Then Chris Kunitz scored in double overtime of Game 7 to send Pittsburgh to the Finals, putting a dagger in the Senators and their fans' hearts again.

I think fans knew that the run the team went on wasn't something to expect every single season, and it stung how close they got to winning it all. But the sentiment at the time was that they had a good enough core to surround with other players that they could perhaps get back to the Conference Finals in the near future. But from that day until this season, the Ottawa Senators were one of the few laughingstocks of the NHL. So much has happened since then, and it's impossible to go over all of it, but I'll do my best to recap the worst. And please, feel free to add all the other maddening things that have happened in those "dark ages" years:

• 30th in the NHL in points percentage from 2017-2024.
• Seven seasons without the playoffs.
• "Melnyk Out" billboards get put up in Ottawa.
• Monika Caryk and Mike Hoffman get into drama with the Karlssons.
• AGM Randy Lee pleads guilty to harassment and gets fired.
• Erik Karlsson gets traded after the team didn't want to sign him to a long-term deal.
• Eugene Melnyk and Mark Borowiecki release the most cringeworthy video of all-time.
• Matt Duchene, Chris Wideman, Chris Tierney, Thomas Chabot, Alex Formenton, and Colin White get caught bashing the coaching staff in a Phoenix uber and it goes viral.
• Ottawa finishes last place but loses the 4th overall pick because of the Duchene trade.
• LeBreton Flats falls through yet again, and Melnyk sues.
• Melnyk threatens relocation for the team and threatens Brent Wallace while being interviewed at the Centennial Classic.
• When asked what he likes about his team, Pierre Dorion paused for a while and said..."We're a team."
• Mark Stone gets traded because the team wouldn't give him a (more than fair) no-move clause. Dorion proceeds to say that day is his proudest day as a GM.
• Many executives and CEOs like Tom Anselmi, Nicolas Ruszkowski, Jim Little, and others come and go not long after being hired.
• Daniel Alfredsson leaves for the second time.
• Chris Phillips leaves the organization as well.
• The Sens Foundation is forced from the organization.
• Matt Murray is traded for and extended at 4x$6.25M. He immediately becomes an albatross contract.
• Pierre McGuire is hired and fired in one year.
• Tyler Boucher gets drafted 10th overall and has since put up 15 points in 63 career AHL games. I don't want to pile on the guy, but whiffing on a top-10 pick was yet another frustration.
• Alex Formenton gets charged with sexual assault and has since retired from hockey.
• Joey Daccord is lost to the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft, and Filip Gustavsson is traded for one year of Cam Talbot, only to see both of them become great starters on their teams.
• Joonas Korpisalo gets signed for 5x$4M and puts up an .890 SV%.
• Shane Pinto gets suspended for 41 games due to letting his friend use his gambling app.
• Senators lose a future first round pick because of Dorion not disclosing Evgenii Dadonov's no-trade clause. Despite the fact that the league initially didn't care...it wasn't until Vegas put up a stink again that they got punished.
• Such poor Octobers and Novembers that put the Senators out of the playoff race so early in the season.
• And so many other things I am missing.

But you know, those are just a few things that have happened, nothing crazy, right? It's truly asinine what we have had to go through as fans since the last time they were a good team. It hasn't been fun having no faith in the organization because even if they won some games, it never felt like we could trust the direction things were headed in. But after Michael Andlauer has come in, it feels completely different.

In 2017, I was 21 and finished my third year of University. Now I am 29 and have been teaching for five years. People who were in Gr. 6 in 2017 would have gone their entire teenage years without seeing playoff hockey in Ottawa, many people have probably gone from single to married to multiple kids, and the coolest example has to be SensChirp's daughter being born right after the 2017 run and now being 7 and old enough to cheer hard for the team:

So much has changed over the years, but what hasn't is Ottawa's passion for the Senators. Even if Ottawa gets eliminated in the first round (as the odds would have them favoured to do), I'll still be superemly proud of this season. They have work to do to take them to perennial contender status, but all you can ever ask for as a fan is to have a chance in the playoffs. You want to believe that your team can do anything, and for years, it felt hopeless.

Now, the organization has direction, the on-ice play has been the best it's been in years, and it feels fun to cheer for the Senators again. If you stuck with the team through the toughest of times, congratulations, you are a true "Sens Sicko" and deserve this success because of how sweet it tastes now. And even if you didn't stick with the team, I totally understand not following earlier, and I will welcome anyone on the bandwagon with open arms. Let's make the CTC as loud as possible these playoffs, and GO SENS GO!