Senators ‘expect’ to defeat Rangers

The Ottawa Senators won’t be satisfied with just getting to Round 2. They’d like to see how far they can get.

Preparing to face the New York Rangers in Game 1 of their playoff series on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators actually had two straight days off — after knocking off the Boston Bruins on Sunday at the TD Garden — with no meetings before getting down to business Wednesday with a practice.

With only eight teams left, do the Senators have that ‘why not us?’ attitude?

“Absolutely. I think I’ve had that all year and I think everybody has had that all year,” said captain Erik Karlsson.

“It’s been a long process of getting to where we are today and I think we’ve worked extremely hard to be standing here today.

“We still have a lot left to do. We expected to win the first series and we expect to win this one.”

Karlsson is a big believer in this group.

“Throughout the year I believe we’ve been making a lot of progress and I believe in all the guys we have in our room to get things done,” Karlsson said.

“Even where we are today, I don’t think we’re happy with where we are. We still want to be move forward. I still think we should win this series.”

This test is going to be a lot different than the Bruins because the Rangers are a better team and they’re much healthier than Boston.

The Senators could be completely healthy for the series.

Tom Pyatt, who left Game 4 and hasn’t returned, could be ready to play. He skated on Tuesday with defenceman Mark Borowiecki, who has been out with a leg injury for three games, but might be ready to return.