Ottawa Senators
Following an offseason that saw the Ottawa Senators ship off Alex DeBrincat and bring in the likes of Vladimir Tarasenko and Joonas Korpisalo, they could be the Buffalo Sabres biggest challengers for a wild card in the Atlantic. Korpisalo is coming off of a season that saw him land a 0.649 quality starts percentage, a 0.914 save percentage, and a 2.87 GAA in the regular season, so he could be the answer in the net.
We also know the Senators have plenty of playmakers like Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, plus serviceable players like Drake Batherson and Thomas Chabot, and we can’t forget about Jakob Chychrun. On paper, Ottawa looks like a tough team and they will give the Sabres trouble like they did for each contest sans the first game of the season last year.
However, if the Blue and Gold show that they’ve grown from their solid 2022-23 campaign, then we will see some memorable outings between these two hockey teams. And while I think the Lightning will have another good season (as I noted two slides ago), I’m leery of the Senators.
Source: NHL season preview: Power Rankings, predictions, X factors by Ryan S. Clark
and Kristen Shilton, ESPN.com
(Data and additional statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)