Ottawa Senators set for their 1st-ever playoff series against Boston Bruins

For the 16th time in the past 20 yearsthe Ottawa Senators are off to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And after a wild final weekend of regular season play, the NHL roulette wheel stopped on the Senators matching up against the Boston Bruins in the first roundstarting Wednesday at the Canadian Tire Centre.

• Where to watch the first round of the2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Both teams finished the regular season with losses on the weekend but under far different circumstances.

With a lineup filled with American Hockey League call-ups, in a game that meant nothing in the standings, Ottawa fell 4-2 to the New York Islanders on Sunday night.

Islanders close out season with win over Senators

7 years ago

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New York finished with 4-2 win over Ottawa after being eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday.

Boston on the other hand lost its final two games, both important in the final standings, and only avoided facing the Presidents'Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in the opening round of the playoffs when Toronto failed to earn a point against Columbus in their final home game.

So it's the Leafs who head to the U.S. capital while the Bruins travel to Canada's.

No recent playoff history

The Boston Bruins are one of five Eastern Conference teams that the Senators have never faced in their modern day post season history (Florida, Columbus, Carolina andDetroit are the others), so we only have regular season matchups to to draw on.

Recently, that favours the Senators.

Ottawa won all four of its games against Boston this year,the first time they've ever done that.

Going back to last season the Senators have now won their last sixstraight games against the Bruins and sevenof their last eightoverall.

Boston is like Ottawa, a veteran team.

They are led by star forwards Brad Marchand, who will return for the playoffs after sitting out a two-game suspension, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci along with emerging star David Pastrnak, who finished second on the team to Marchand in goals, assists and points.

Former Senator Zdeno Chara heads up a defence corps that might have to start the playoffs minus high scoring Torey Krug who left TD Garden on crutches after being injured early in the Bruins loss to Ottawa last Thursday.

Rookie defenceman Brandon Carlo was also injured in Boston's last game of the season.

In nets, 30-year-old Tuukka Rask finished top five in the league in goals against average and goaltender wins this year.

Credit to the coaches

Ottawa native Bruce Cassidy also deserves a lot of credit for turning the Bruins season around when he took over as interim head coach from Claude Julien on Feb.7.

Since that time the club has gone 18-10-1 to make it back to the NHL playoffs for the first time in three years.

The Ottawa Senators are also back in the post season after missing out last year and no one is more grateful for that than owner Eugene Melnyk, who will welcome the added revenue after seeing the team's average attendance dip below 17,000 this year for the first time since 1998.

Head coach Guy Boucher deserves consideration for the Jack Adams Award for coach of the yearafter successfully implementing a system that saw the teamdrasticallyimprove its defensive play.

It led to a 2nd place finish in the Atlantic Division with 98 points, a 13 point increase over last year.

The club had its share of adversity over the course of the season,most notably dealing with the two-month absence of number one goaltender Craig Anderson while he attended to his wife Nicholleafter she was diagnosed with a rare form of throat cancer.

They also played the bulk of their season without forward Clarke MacArthur who made an emotional return to the game last week after missing 18 months due to concussions.

Clarke MacArthur's return to the ice

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Ottawa Senators forward Clarke MacArthur returned to the ice last night less than three months after the team said he was done for the season.

Despite a rash of injuries late in the year, the Senators expect to have most of their players back for the playoffs.

Captain Erik Karlsson, who is having an MVP-type season, should return after missing fiveof the club's last sevengames with two separate leg injuries.

After missing time, Chris Neil and Bobby Ryan returned to play the final regular season game of the year and Zack Smith should be ready to go.

Only defenceman Marc Methot, still recovering from a Sidney Crosby slash to the finger on March 23, is questionable for the start of the Boston series.

Lots of appearances, not as many series wins

Overall, the playoffs have not been very kind to the Senators.

Since their return to the league in 1992, they've played in 24 post season series but have only won nine.

They have just one series win since their run to the Stanley Cup final against Anaheim in 2007 and, for the first time since ErikKarlssonjoined the club in 2009, the Senators willthis weekbe the home team to start a playoff series.

Sens fans are due for a good long run.

Round one begins with games at the CTC on Wednesday and Saturday of this week before shifting to Boston and the TD Garden for Games 3 and 4 on April 17 (a Monday) and 19 (a Wednesday).