Like many of you reading this article, I went through a variety of emotions during the Ottawa Senators’ thrilling 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night. If you had a recording of me watching the game it would probably have sounded like a confused garble of joyful screaming, mournful wailing, and some occasional thrashing. In short, it felt like I was watching a play-off game for the first time since 2017. It was a lot.
Jakob Chychrun making his Sens debut, Derick Brassard playing in his 1000th game, the lingering high from the back-to-back thumping of the Detroit Red Wings — there were a lot of reasons that emotions were already running high before puck drop.