As you may have heard, we have an NHL model now, which is fun because we can say things like, “How good were the Senators at the end of the year?” and have an answer that’s objective if of unknown soundness (we don’t really know how good the model is).
Anyway, the Sens are, per the model, the sixth-best team in Canada.
*pause for applause*
They check in right in between the Stars and the Flyers, who are in turn between the Jets and Flames up top and the Canucks underneath. Oilers, Leafs, and Canadiens, as you’d imagine, are above the Jets and the Flames.
Overall, the read on the Sens is that they finished the season as the 20th-best team in the league, which is slightly better than where the standings had them (our model cares about recency but also had the North Division down a good chunk as a whole given the results of recent seasons). Not sure what all that means except that we have another way of saying that the Senators were a decent team there at the end.
One fun thing: The Senators were actually ahead of the Canadiens in gelo at regular season’s end. Behind Calgary, behind Winnipeg, behind Edmonton and Toronto, but ahead of Montreal. Hilarious. The Canadiens, of course, have surged past our guys, but still pretty great.
The only other big Sens news this week is that the team’s foundation is in some light turmoil. I’ll let you read SensChirp’s take on it, since they know things and this is a situation in which I should cede the floor to those who know things. Doesn’t sound good, though, and doesn’t give good vibes about Eugene Melnyk at a time when you’d ideally like good ownership of your starting-to-bear-fruit franchise.
