The Ottawa Senators’ eight-year, seven-season Stanley Cup playoff drought is about to come to an end. It’s not a matter of if but when. The Senators will face the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre, and if the Sens win in regulation, they could clinch a playoff spot as early as Monday night.
Good things happen in threes, and here are the three good things that need to happen:
On Sunday, the Senators need to beat the Blue Jackets in regulation, and the Detroit Red Wings need to lose to the Florida Panthers in any fashion. If those two things occur, then on Monday night, if the New York Rangers lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning in regulation, the Senators will clinch their first playoff spot in eight years.
The Senators enter Sunday’s game an impressive 12 games above the .500 mark at 41-29-6. They’re already guaranteed to finish with their best record since 2017, when they finished 16 games above .500 at 44-28-10 and in second place in the Atlantic Division.
As most fans remember, the Senators made it to the conference final that year, coming within one game and one goal of the Stanley Cup Final. Since then, Senators fans have endured a lot of bad hockey, poor decisions, and general nonsense.
Now that they’ve joyfully emerged from that – like Andy Dufresne finally climbing out of a long Shawshank sewer pipe – they’re ready to embrace the freedom from 8 years of misery and the third-longest active NHL playoff drought.
With the window now open to better days in both the present and future, here are five Sens trivia questions from the better days of the past.
If you’re reading this on The Hockey News, just scroll down for the answers. If you’re reading it elsewhere, you can find the answers in the comments section of The Senators Roundtable.
1. Who are the only four active NHL players who were part of Ottawa’s last playoff run?
2. Ottawa won five overtime games in the 2017 playoffs. Who scored them?
3. The 2017 Penguins playoff roster had one former Senator (who played here in 2010) and two future Senators. Name them (Ian Cole, who never played for Ottawa, doesn’t count).
4. Which player who played for the Sens in the 2017 playoffs most recently played for the Senators?
5. Who was the last goalie, other than Craig Anderson, to win a playoff game for the Senators?
By Steve Warne
Ottawa Senators Site Editor
The Hockey News
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