After an 82 game marathon the Ottawa Senators have now bowed out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs just as it felt like the second season was really getting going. Down 3-0 going into Game 4 on Saturday (Apr. 25) afternoon, the Carolina Hurricanes finished the job by securing the sweep with a 4-2 win at Canadian Tire Centre.
Moments after Dylan Cozens brought the Senators back within one, Sebastian Aho scores his second empty-net goal of the game 😳 pic.twitter.com/TIkWFrOmms
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 25, 2026
The positives to take out of this series for the Senators is that they were in every single game. Every game was decided by two goals or less, and Linus Ullmark was brilliant between the pipes. The downside is, the one issue that was brought up as a potential problem before the series began ultimately became the Senators Achilles' heel throughout the series—scoring goals.
It wasn't so much a Sens issue as it was an incredible strength for the Hurricanes. After all, the Senators scored the eighth most goals in the NHL during the regular season, but the Hurricanes had one of the league's stingiest defences, having allowed only 236 goals against during the year, the sixth best mark in the league. So naturally, the Senators were going to need to come up with a game plan that overcame that stinginess, and in four tries, they failed.
Now they'll have to spend the offseason searching for that minor tweak that will allow them to be better in that one specific area next season without sacrificing too much in other areas that helped them get to the playoffs in the first place.
Senators need to add a proven playoff performer
As currently constructed, the Senators proved they were a very capable regular-season team. They not only finished eighth overall in goals scored, but they also finished 13th in goals against. That's a pretty nice balance for a team that earned itself a Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. However, if they are hoping to move up another level after first-round exits in back-to-back seasons, they'll need to find someone who can guide them. Who has been through the ringer before. Someone they can lean on to show them how to win in the postseason.
The hope was that Claude Giroux could be that guy. He entered this postseason with 101 playoff games played under his belt. 85 of those are coming with the Philadelphia Flyers, whom he helped lead to the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. He also appeared in ten games with the Florida Panthers during their two playoff rounds in 2022, losing in the second round to Tampa Bay, who were the two-time defending Cup champions.
However, in ten playoff games with Ottawa, Giroux has managed just one goal and five points. Giroux has been a worthwhile pickup for the Senators with his 242 points in 327 regular season games, but as an unrestricted free agent this offseason they could be looking for a fresh face in the locker room.
They also hoped that maybe Lars Eller could be that guy. A Stanley Cup champion with the Washington Capitals in 2017-18, Ellers had 111 career playoff games under him going into this series, but like Giroux, wasn't expected to be a focal point of the offence and was held off the scoreboard entirely. Although it's hard to inspire guys when you're averaging less than 10 minutes of ice time per game.
Two guys they won't be moving on from but were just as effective (or ineffective) as Giroux and Ellers were during the series were Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk, neither of whom netted a goal in the playoffs. Last year, Tkachuk scored four goals and seven points while Stützle had two goals and five points in the first-round series loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As the team's two highest-paid players, the Sens need way more out of them. At least Drake Batherson and Dylan Cozens, who make a combined $12 million, found the back of the net a few times against Carolina, but between these top four players, the only playoff games they have played are the ten Sens have played the last two years, in which they have gone 2-8.
There also isn't a ton on the free agent market that likely lines up within the Senators' financial constraints, although if they want to really make a splash and land a proven playoff performer, goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is an unrestricted free agent. The 37-year-old had a decent season for a Florida Panthers team that severely underperformed, while having to overcome multiple injuries. The only problem is that the two-time Stanley Cup champion Bobrovsky also doesn't score goals. but it would be quite the splash to make him the 1B to Ullmark's 1A.
But the names the Senators may be chasing after in their search to add some playoff pedigree could include Patrick Kane, who is finishing his one-year $3 million deal with the Red Wings. He's a former Cup champion as well but will be 38-years-old next season, although he did produce 57 points in 67 games this year. If they can convince him not to resign with Detroit, this could be the fit they need.
So the Senators may have to turn to the trade route and get really creative this offseason. And there would be no better time to do it than now. Two years of heartbreaking playoff losses should motivate the front office to maybe think outside the box and fill the hole they need. It doesn't need to be a franchise-altering move that sends one of their young core players out, but if they don't like what they see on the market, a couple of deals after July 1 could go a long way to helping the Sens get further into next year's postseason.
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