There’s no denying that last season was a down year for the Atlantic division. Ottawa finished with 98 points, but all they needed was 96 to get the second seed. Even Montreal only had 103 points, which was the lowest of the four division winners.
The Senators took advantage of an odd year where there weren’t that many super strong teams, but this year could be different.
It seems inevitable that a few teams will bounce back and improve, which could make things really hard on the Senators. With that in mind, let’s look at the other seven teams in the division and where they stand after the off-season to get a grasp of who the Senators will be competing against.