Ottawa Senators clinch berth in 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Ottawa Senators are heading back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs thanks to the Detroit Red Wings‘ 5-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

The Senators snapped a lengthy postseason drought when they made it in last year and fell short against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. Their inclusion this season marks the first time Ottawa has made the playoffs in back-to-back years since 2012 and 2013.

The Sens will look to earn their first win in a playoff series since 2017, when the best team of the Erik Karlsson era took the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins to double overtime in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.

Ottawa has played strong territorial hockey all season long. The Sens rank third in the NHL behind only the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes in 5-on-5 expected goals share, but for much of the season, they were done in by subpar goaltending from the trio of Linus Ullmark, Leevi Merilainen and James Reimer, all of whom have save percentages under .890.

Recently, when the playoff race reached its inflection point, Ottawa was able to rip off a 13-5-1 to overtake the Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets to take over pole position in the race for the wild card spots.

In that span, Ullmark has posted a .898 save percentage while saving 2.37 goals above average, giving the Sens the solid goaltending they needed to string wins together.

Up front, Ottawa has been led by a point-per-game season from first-line center Tim Stutzle, while Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk and Dylan Cozens have all put up at least 22 goals and 57 points apiece.

Defenseman Jake Sanderson has turned in the best season of his young career, surpassing the best point-per-game rate of his career by a wide margin and eating well over 24 minutes of time on ice per game.

As one of the wild card teams, Ottawa will square off against one of the division winners in the first round. One of those will be the Hurricanes, who have already locked up the Metropolitan, while the Atlantic looks poised to come down to the wire between the Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning.