As we approach the 1 month countdown to the start of training camp, we are much closer to the end of the summer than the beginning.

As a team that missed the playoffs last season, the Senators had a bunch of questions heading into the offseason. Some were addressed (getting Mike Hoffman's name on a mid/long term deal) while others haven't been yet (top 6 forward depth, bottom end defense upgrade).

So, given what steps the new/old management group have taken, what is the biggest concern for you heading into the new season. I will throw out some ideas, but if you have more of your own feel free to add your own in the comments section.


1) Erik Karlsson's health - The captain has been remarkably healthy since the Achilles' incident. Obviously Karlsson is the straw that stirs the Senators' drink and given the added workload of the World Cup to kick the season off, can the Senators ease his ice time enough early on to keep him healthy and strong.

2) Depth - The Senators are once again treading a fine line in terms of risk of injury to top 6 forwards/top 4 blueliners. They added a top 6F in Derick Brassard, but it cost them one in Mika Zibanejad. Even if you consider Brassard an upgrade over Mika (which I do for now) that did nothing to address the depth. I still think the Senators would have been a playoff team if Kyle Turris had rested and recuperated his ankle as opposed to playing on it for so long and then finally shutting it down, but it goes to show that they couldn't withstand having 2 of their top 6 out of the lineup at the same time. The same will go for the defense when an injury strikes one of the top 4 of Karlsson, Phaneuf, Ceci and Methot. Freddie Claesson was inserted into Methot's top line pair last season and even though it might have been unfair, he wasn't up to the task in that situation. They are lacking a replacement for one of those guys, and if 2 happen to go down at the same time, forget about it. There is a large gap between 1-4 and 5-8 on this team.

3) Special Teams - The Senators' special teams was the worst in the league, and that really destroyed any playoff chances they might have had. No team was lower than the Senators combined 91.1% special teams efficiency. If you aren't over 95%, you can usually forget about the playoffs, and you would ideally like to be over 100% when you add power play and penalty kill percentage.

4) Shots against - Whether it was a strategy (to allow goalies to see shots instead of trying to block them) or not, the fact is getting outshot 60 times in 82 games is not a great recipe for success. It turned a good goalie into a below average one and it also meant that they allowed the first goal an inordinate number of times so they were constantly chasing the game and playing from behind.

A lot of this will be on the shoulders of new coach Guy Boucher and his assistants to create the system that works best with the skillset their players have. As much as Paul MacLean and Dave Cameron might have had some good ideas, there was obviously a disconnect between the style of game they wanted to play and what the players were best suited for. Hopefully Boucher doesn't have the same disconnect, and from all reports (including those from his interviews for the job) he won't repeat the same mistakes as his pre-decessors.

What else is concerning to you for the upcoming season?

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