You could argue that even within the 2021 mini-season, the Ottawa Senators played two even smaller seasons. In the first half, their respectable shot metrics belied their record due to unsustainably bad goaltending. And in the latter half, they probably played slightly above their mediocre on-ice results and won thanks to some inflated percentages. For these reasons and more, we’ll have a difficult time projecting how well this team will perform next fall and beyond.
With all that considered, we can still attempt to extrapolate from the limited sample size how much success the Senators will have in their division.