The Ottawa Senators broke their eight-season playoff skid last spring under new coach Travis Green and will look to take the next step this campaign.
In a season-opening Atlantic Division matchup Thursday night, the Senators will square off with one of the Eastern Conference teams they could meet in the playoffs, the host Tampa Bay Lightning.
Green’s group managed to go 45-30-7 for 97 points in 2024-25, falling just one shy of the third-place Florida Panthers, for the squad’s first playoff berth since 2017 as the No. 1 wild-card club. The Senators fell in the first round to the provincial rival Toronto Maple Leafs in six games.
The Canadian capital’s team shored up its back end and added playoff experience by acquiring former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Jordan Spence in the offseason for two picks in the June draft.
The 24-year-old Spence, the NHL’s first non-goaltender with Japanese citizenship, will likely be paired on the third line with Tyler Kleven.
“I think I’m becoming more mature, on the ice, on what to expect during playoff games, and what to do, and what it takes to win playoff games,” said the right-handed-shooting Spence, who was born in Australia, soon moved to Japan and ended up on Prince Edward Island at 13.
Top-pairing blueliner Thomas Chabot said there was great value in making the postseason and competing in the Battle of Ontario.
“We kind of set the standard of once you get in the playoffs, you want to just be back there every year,” said Chabot. “I think we all went through the process of being on that stage and playing there for the first time.”
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay had a fantastic but grueling preseason, posting a 6-1-0 mark that included two fierce matches last week against the arch-rival Panthers, who beat the Lightning in five games in the first round en route to their second consecutive Stanley Cup title.
However, Saturday’s preseason finale in Sunrise was a brawler, as the teams showed up to do anything but play hockey and demonstrated that the Sunshine State rivalry is as nasty as ever.
The clubs combined for a nearly unbelievable 322 penalty minutes — a fight-fueled amount that would have ranked ninth-most in NHL history had it occurred in the regular season.
Florida won 7-0 and went 4-for-20 on the power play, and 16 players were ejected in the blow-for-blow blowout.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety handed out a $100,000 fine to the Lightning and a $25,000 one to coach Jon Cooper. Top-pairing defenseman J.J. Moser’s two-game suspension will keep him out this week.
When Tampa Bay released its roster, it added two giant forwards — 6-foot-9 enforcer Curtis Douglas and 6-foot-6 Jack Finley — likely for a third straight postseason tussle with the champs.
“I look at it as guys sticking up for each other and doing what they feel they have to,” Cooper said of the Florida feud. “I guess you get that in a rivalry that’s built up over these two teams in the past six, seven years.”
Tampa Bay will again rely on Nikita Kucherov, the organization’s all-time assist leader (637) who has won the past two Art Ross trophies and is six points from reaching 1,000.
Another 80-assist effort would mark the fourth straight for Kucherov, 32, who would tie Wayne Gretzky (13 consecutive seasons) as the only players with at least four straight seasons of 80 or more assists.
