Anything beyond this would have been playing with house money.
Because of who they played in the first round, the Ottawa Senators would always want to say they had a realistic chance of winning the latest postseason Battle of Ontario, and given the randomness of the sport, they did to a certain extent. But realistically, ehhh, the Toronto Maple Leafs were always the most likely winner and that's just how it goes for a team making the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
The good news for the Sens, though, is that they are still a relatively young team — the 10th-youngest in the league — and seem poised to consistently return to the playoffs for the next several years or more. Even in a tough, top-heavy division.
But part and parcel with being a seventh-place team in the conference is