How Would You Grade the Ottawa Senators’ Season So Far?

This edition of our Weekly Question is a simple proposition: how would you grade the Ottawa Senators’ season so far? As suddenly as it began, we are now more than a third of the way through the abbreviated 56 game regular season and we’re starting to get enough of a sample to start forming some opinions about just how things have gone.

One thing that’s been made clear after 19 games is that, barring a miracle, the Sens won’t be participating in the post-season. This wasn’t totally unexpected, so maybe you won’t dock Ottawa too many points for what’s looking like another finish near the bottom of the league’s standings. Maybe the team’s resurgent play (Thursday’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs notwithstanding) since an abysmal start has you hopeful for the future.

Or maybe the team’s record never meant anything to you at all. As aforementioned, it never seemed like a realistic proposition that the team would be making a play-off run given the players one the roster when the season started on January 15th. It’s possible that your measure of the the season’s success so far is focused on the progression of the team’s litany of prospects. Certainly Tim Stützle has provided his fair share of highlights, and Josh Norris hasn’t seemed to miss a step in transitioning to the NHL. Perhaps you’re a bit bummed out that Logan Brown or Alex Formenton haven’t made their way into an NHL game just yet, and you’d like the team to lean even harder into the youth movement.

There’s also the matter of the mostly poor goaltending put forth by Matt Murray and Marcus Högberg. Like everything else, maybe their play will be graded on a sliding scale. Is it fair to expect stellar performances behind the worst team in the league? Or maybe part of the reason Ottawa resides where they do in the league’s hierarchy is in large part because of those very goalies.

What says you, Sens fan? How would you grade the season so far? What’s your criteria for evaluation?