One of the more puzzling aspects of this strange season for the Ottawa Senators has been their relative successes and failures against their opponents in the North Division. For whatever reason, Ottawa is a very respectable 3-3-1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs; the best team in the division by a non-trivial margin. Against their opponents tonight, the Edmonton Oilers, the Sens are 0-7 with a shocking 15 goals for and 34 against. I don’t think it’s totally unfair to say that the Sens fully deserve that terrible differential, either: for whatever reason, they just cannot handle the Oilers
Sometimes there are deep tactical reasons for why one team struggles against another, and sometimes it’s as simple as one team’s best players have been better than the other team’s best players.