-Like everyone else I made pre-season predictions and it’s time to look at how I did. I kept my prognostication to the Eastern Conference (with publications cited alongside me, McK=McKeens, THN=The Hockey News), with their actual positions in bold:
1. Washington (McK 1st, THN 1st, TSN 1st) 8th
2. Boston (McK 4th, THN 3rd, TSN 3rd) 2nd
3. Philadelphia (McK 8th, THN 4th, TSN 4th) 5th
4. Pittsburgh (McK 3rd, THN 2nd, TSN 2nd) 4th
5. Buffalo (McK 2nd, THN 6th, TSN 6th) 9th
6. Tampa Bay (McK 6th, THN 5th, TSN 5th) 10th
7. Montreal (McK 5th, THN 9th, TSN 8th) 15th
8. New York Rangers (McK 7th, THN 7th, TSN 7th) 1st
9. Carolina (McK 11th, THN 10th, TSN 11th) 12th
10. New Jersey (McK 10th, THN 12th, TSN 9th) 6th
11. Toronto (McK 9th, THN 8th, TSN 10th) 13th
12. Winnipeg (McK 14th, THN 13th, TSN 12th) 11th
13. Ottawa (McK 15th, THN 15th, TSN 15th) 8th
14. New York Islanders (McK 11th, THN 11th, TSN 13th) 14th
15. Florida (McK 13th, THN 14th, TSN 14th) 3rd
So I was exactly right with three of my predictions (Boston, Pittsburgh, and the Islanders), and picked 5 of 8 playoff teams. My biggest error was the Florida Panthers. How does that compare to the publications? Here’s the breakdown (exact/playoff teams):
Eye on the Sens 3/5
TSN 0/5
THN 0/5
McKeens 0/5
All of us only predicted five of the Eastern playoff teams, each predicting Washington, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the New York Rangers correctly. McKeens had Florida highest at 13th, while I had Ottawa highest at 13th, and TSN picked New Jersey to be 9th.
–Katie Strang and Allen Panzeri predict the Sens will lose to the Rangers in seven, while Scott Cullen predicts the Rangers to win in six.
–Zack Smith talked about the biggest lesson learned during Binghamton’s Calder Cup run, “I learned that you have to control your emotions a lot better, too. It’s a seven-game series and you can’t get carried away.”
–ESPN‘s power rankings are out with Ottawa 16th (“Every season there’s a team that exceeds everyone’s regular-season expectations, and the playoffs come as a nice bonus. That’s Ottawa this year; there were few better stories in the NHL. Now the Senators need to prove they’re not just happy to be here. That they’re still hungry to prove more“).
-Elmira won 4-2 last night to eliminate Reading and move on to the next series. Brian Stewart got the win, while Corey Cowick scored twice and Jack Downing picked up an assist.
-Prospect updates for those still playing (their position in team scoring is noted in brackets, defence compared to defence):
CHL
Stefan Noesen (C/RW, Plymouth, OHL) 6-7-7-14 (1st) (injured; Plymouth trails Saginaw 2-1)
Shane Prince (C/LW, Ottawa 67s, OHL) 8-6-4-10 (2nd) (67′s tied 1-1 with Barrie)
Jean-Gabriel Pageau (RW, Chicoutimi, QMJHL) 6-2-6-8 (3rd) (Chicoutimi is tied 1-1 with Shawinigan)
Darren Kramer (C/LW, Spokane, WHL) 7-3-3-6 (4th) (Spokane is tied 1-1 with Tri-City)
Mark Stone (RW, Brandon, WHL) 7-2-4-6 (2nd) (Brandon is down 0-2 to Edmonton)
Jakub Culek (C/LW, Rimouski, QMJHL) 6-2-3-5 (8th) (Rimouski is tied 1-1 with Blainville-Boisbriand)
SEL
Jakob Silfverberg (C/RW, Brynas) 11-7-6-13 (1st) (Brynas plays Skelleftea in the finals)
Mika Zibanejad (C/RW, Djurgarden) 10-4-2-6 (3rd) (Djurgarden was relegated)
Fredrik Claesson (D, Djurgarden) 10-1-1-2 (3rd) (Djurgarden was relegated)
Allsvenskan
Marcus Sorensen (RW, Boras) 7-2-0-2 (12th) (Boras survived in relegation)
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eyeonthesens 
[…] why THN doesn’t fully embrace being wrong about the Sens last year–it happened to most predictions. There’s no need to qualify the error by saying the Sens were “sneaky”. I […]