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Monday LNN: Trade Deadline Grades, Dorion Speaks, Flames Struggle and More

It’s your Monday edition of Links, News, and Notes

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NHL: MAR 04 Blue Jackets at Senators Photo by Richard A. Whittaker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Are the Ottawa Senators in the midst of a real play-off chase? The haters may say no, even the most optimistic models I’ve seen have the Sens at a less than 3-in-10 shot of making it to the post-season and most others are more like 2-in-10, but I defy you to look at this team’s current run and not feel like there is some real possibility with this group. What do you do even do when your favourite team is in the hunt? Are we at the stage of scoreboard watching? I almost don’t know what do with myself. Luckily, the Sens have four games this week that will help us get a real sense of what’s possible. Can’t wait.

As for the rest of the hockey world:

  • With the dust finally settling after last week’s deluge of trades leading up to the deadline, we can finally take a step back and take stock of everything that went down. Justin Bourne’s got you covered in case you missed anything with some thoughts on every single transaction. You might not be surprised to learn that he’s a fan of the Jakob Chychrun trade for the Sens.
  • From the Ottawa side of things, Ian Mendes had a comprehensive write-up on Friday over at the Athletic ($). The whole thing is worth a read, but this quote from Pierre Dorion, when asked about not having any picks in the first three rounds of this year’s draft, stood out to me:

“We’ve had a lot of years with a lot of picks. If we go one draft and we don’t have as many picks, it’s OK,” Dorion said. “You know, we’ve had a lot of years with multiple first-rounders, multiple second-rounders. After this year, we have most of our picks.”

As I wrote last week, the Sens are clearly going for it now. The core should be set for the next several years. Of course it’s always good to have draft picks available but one year without any high picks is an acceptable cost of doing business.