The Ottawa Senators have me eating my words from earlier in the season.
They had two wins in their first 15 games. They were horrible. They were being outscored 5-1, 4-1, 8-5 and were rarely in games.
It was some of the worst hockey we’ve witnessed from a team.
But then, a young team found what works. The young team started to show promise and it helped that their patchwork goaltending was starting to stop the puck.
What happened after so many, myself included, thought the Sens were heading for one of the worst seasons of all time? They won 21 of their final 41 games.
Their 46 points in that stretch was way better than the Vancouver Canucks, better than the Calgary Flames, better than the Montreal Canadiens and better than the Winnipeg Jets.
Yes, in the final 41 games of the season, Ottawa had the third-best record in the North Division.
So give credit where credit is due. D.J. Smith and Pierre Dorion may have something brewing in the nation’s capital, though we’ll have to see if they can carry this over to next year when they return to a division with Florida, Tampa Bay and Boston.