At the halfway point of the season, we have a pretty good idea of the kind of team the Ottawa Senators are — and it’s more or less what we expected at the start of the campaign. The top six is good, although Josh Norris’s injury has significantly hurt the second line. The right side of the defense is bad, although the left side has been better than expected. The most glaringly obvious problem was also predictable: the bottom six is very bad.
(As an aside, it really is a sign of progress that the bottom six is the big problem instead of everything else, and I am very glad to be talking about this issue instead of the Sens’ draft lottery odds).