1432 days. Three years, eleven months, and one day. That is how long it has been since the Ottawa Senators last took to the ice for a Stanley Cup playoff game. Before the days of Brady Tkachuk, Thomas Chabot, and Tim Stützle, there was Mark Stone, Erik Karlsson, and Craig Anderson.
As the players that valiantly fought to a seven-game Eastern Conference Final in 2017 have faded into the annals of Senators history, so has the team’s ambitions of contention. The team’s subsequent historic teardown has yielded a crop of young players that show nothing but promise, and an abundance of cap space to provide them with reinforcements.