By: Chris Nosek

There was a lot of turmoil surrounding the Ottawa Senators during the season. A lot of that seems to have been driven by media and social media. The players in the locker room seem to have always been on the same page, with each other and their coaching staff – and that’s what matters. Linus Ullmark seems to be back on his game while Carolina still has several goaltending questions.

All season, it looked like the Hurricanes finally found an answer in goal with Brandon Bussi. However, recently his game has shown signs of fatigue, and he has no experience playing in the NHL Playoffs. Meanwhile, Frederik Andersen has struggled mightily and is borderline unplayable. They also have Pyotr Kochetkov, who has been solid for them. However, he’s played three periods of hockey over two games for their AHL affiliate since returning from a three-month absence recovering from hip surgery. Carolina took the season series in the regular season, but were not dominant.

Linus Ullmark will be the key to this series for the Senators. He’s been winning games since returning from the Olympic break, and it really looks like he has found his form again. This will absolutely be a close series. However, the concerns I have about the Hurricanes out weigh the ones for Ottawa – again a lot of the discourse has been media driven this season.

Prediction: 7 games, Ottawa Senators advance