A big question heading into this season is whether or not the Senators will have player(s) reaching the 30 goal mark. Bobby Ryan, Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman all have a legitimate shot at reaching that plateau, whether it be from reputation or their proximity to getting there last season.
But is that too much to expect this day in age? Last season there were 15 players in the entire league who scored more than 30, only 3 topped 40, and only Alex Ovechkin topped 50.
Indeed, when it comes to goals in the NHL, 30 is the new 50.
There were 2 teams, Dallas (Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin) and Calgary (Jiri Hudler and Sean Monahan) that had 2 - 30 goal scorers so that means there were more teams without a player reaching 30 than with.
The League's top offensive team came the closest to having 3 players reach the mark, but the Lightning ended up with Steven Stamkos scoring 43 while Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov both missed the mark by 1.
The one thing that most of the elite scorers have in common, almost to a man, is that they have an elite playmaker alongside them to set them up. Whether that is a case of the chicken or the egg, having that set-up/finish combination seems to be the key to success for individuals.
However, six of the 16 playoff teams didn't have a player reach 30, including including half of the teams in the Eastern Conference. The Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks didn't have a player light the lamp 30 times, while their opponents in the final were the above mentioned Lightning.
What Ottawa did have, is a group of scorers who didn't mind dishing the puck as well as shooting it. Other than Hoffman, all of the top 6 forwards had more assists than goals, and in fact all had at least a 1.25:1 ratio of assists to goals. Five scored at a rate that would have netted 20 in a full season, with probably the biggest disappointment of the season being Ryan (supposed to be the team's elite sniper) failing to meet that pace.
So does it matter if the Senators have a 30 goal scorer if they have 5 or 6 (or even 7 when you add in Erik Karlsson) players in the mid-20's?
Other than individual accomplishment and being among the league leaders in a particular category, I would chose the balance over the elite numbers with this group. There is no perfect formula, and the Senators certainly don't have an Ovechkin. They have a well balanced lineup where there are threats to score all over the ice, and opponents can't anticipate with any great degree of success if a player is going to shoot or pass, which makes them more difficult to guard against.
And they will be even tougher if the third line can step up and contribute at least 10 goals per man as well, to create threats to score throughout the entire lineup.
So while having a 30 or even 40 goal man would be nice, not having someone reach the mark certainly isn't the end of the world, regardless of what the expectation of certain paychecks may dictate.