SENS SPRING RUN FEELS MIRACULOUS
Over the next few days, the temperature in Ottawa will again rise to the mid-single digits, melting away much of the remaining snow on the ground. The damp air will fill our lungs and the capital will begin to really come alive in anticipation of the warm summer months. Playoff weather.
That the Ottawa Senators are currently in possession of a National Hockey League playoff spot, and are thus adding a sporty tinge to the city’s emergence from hibernation, is almost impossible and nothing short of magical. In a league where post-season qualifiers rarely change after Christmas, a dwindling number of fans clung to the belief that anything could happen — appearing more and more delusional as their lads fell five, eight, 10 points short of the cutoff, and talk of maybe having a shot at a once-in-a-generation player at June’s NHL draft heated up. They have been vindicated. On Thursday night, when the Senators host the New York Rangers at Canadian Tire Centre, they’ll have a chance to improve on odds that currently give them a 70 per cent chance to make the playoffs — not a done deal, but certainly a nice place to be.
How unlikely is all of this? Even if we assume the Senators were a 50/50 coin flip to win each of the five games that started their miracle run, the odds of winning all five of those games consecutively would have been about three per cent. Except they weren’t a coin flip, they were often huge underdogs, and they didn’t win just those five games, they went on to win 10 of their next 12. The last time the Senators managed a streak like this was seven years ago, with a roster stacked with stars that had just played in the Stanley Cup final the previous spring.
Whatever flap of a butterfly’s wing kicked up this perfect storm, a hurricane of coaching changes and unsustainable save percentages and convenient injuries and young players suddenly performing like young stars, we are left with no choice but to throw out rational explanations and enjoy the spectacle of it all. And at the centre, the calm eye, sits quiet Andrew Hammond, the burger-chomping Everyman goaltender with the funny nickname who went from nearly quitting the game to leading every sportscast across the country.
There is nothing not to love about this story, even if the Senators don’t manage to qualify for the post-season. But here’s hoping they do ... playoff weather is all the more enjoyable when your team is actually in the playoffs, isn’t it?