Don’t count out the Senators in the Stanley Cup playoff hunt
Many expected the Ottawa Senators, Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings to finally take that next step this season and join the mix at the top of the Atlantic Division and make the playoffs, and yet once again, none of them have. They currently sit in a respective fifth, sixth and seventh in the division, and while they’re still within five points of a wild card spot, they’d have to jump five Metropolitan Division teams to do so.
With all three teams’ playoff hopes looking bleak, Colby Cohen and Tyler Yaremchuk picked which one has the best chance of making the playoffs.
Colby Cohen: I guess maybe the Senators, certainly not the Buffalo Sabres. I just look at some of the pieces and I look at Brady Tkachuk and I look at Linus Ullmark, who, again, hasn’t been the guy who played for the Boston Bruins. Is that system, is that adjustment periods? When a guy gets traded and then signs a big deal, I like to give them somewhere between three and six months to really grade them and really judge them, because I do think there’s a human side to this. I do think there’s more hope there. They’ve got Shane Pinto, who I think has a lot to offer. They’ve got Brady Tkachuk. They’ve got a couple of pieces on the back end.
Sure, they’ve been wildly inconsistent, but if you’re making me choose between those three teams, I think I would probably lean into the Senators. But as it stands right now, I don’t have a lot of faith in any of them. On the DFO question we put up on X, I commented and I said, “D: none of the above,” because that’s kind of how I feel about these teams.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Yeah, I do think it’s fair to not be confident in any of them right now. And the other thing that’s complicating the whole situation is when you look above them. Columbus, I just kind of joke, but they’re ahead of them, and I don’t think Columbus is going to stick there. But Pittsburgh has found a bit of a groove here, 6-3-1 in their last 10. Philly is ahead of them. The Islanders have won two in a row. And then after all of that, you still haven’t caught the Rangers either.
So there’s a lot of teams in the mix in the Eastern Conference, and when you have to jump that many teams, it’s no longer a matter of just being like “if we can play .550 hockey or go above .500, we’ll get ourselves back in the mix”. Like you’re getting to a point with these three where you’re going to need like an eight-game heater to really thrust yourself back into the mix and into the playoff picture. And I’m not sure of any of those three, as much as I do like the pieces in Buffalo, and I think Ottawa still has a really good young core and Linus Ullmark, is it good enough to go and win eight games in a row at some point or seven or nine or whatever you need to get in? I just don’t think any of them have that level of upside.
Colby Cohen: Yeah, but if you had to pick one of the three because of the goaltender, do you have that type of faith in Buffalo’s goaltending situation? Yeah, UPL’s got his contract. He had had a good year last year. But let’s not forget Linus Ullmark is a few years removed from a Vezina. That’s the top dog in the NHL. And in Detroit, it’s been anything but consistency in net, and I know they’ve had some guys that have, again. they’ve come in they’ve given some good innings, but we’re talking about a bunch of middle relievers here. You’ve got a true starting pitcher and a bunch of middle relievers. If one of them is popping, it’s Linus Ullmark.
You can watch the full episode here…