We compare the 2023-24 Senator blue line to others from the past 20 years.

When they lift the curtain on the 2023-24 NHL season, the Ottawa Senators will go to battle with one of the best blue lines they've ever had. 

Thomas Chabot will return, healthy again after a wrist injury; Jakob Chychrun's hamstring injury is all healed up; and Jake Sanderson, who might already be the best of the bunch, is looking to build on his outstanding rookie season. 

Then you round things out with a pretty decent bottom three, which includes the ever-improving Erik Brannstrom, along with Artem Zub and Travis Hamonic. And don't sleep on Tyler Kleven, who looked good (and big) during his brief NHL audition last spring.

If their starting six can stay healthy (and keep improving), it's going to be an excellent group, supported up front by some top young forwards and what they hope will be improvements in goal.

But a loud, optimistic colleague of mine suggested over the weekend this might actually be the Senators' best blue line ever, period. 

So that inspired us to see if he's right – to look back and examine Ottawa's opening night lineups over the past 20 years. That takes us back far enough to hit the glory days of 2003-07. There's the odd injury omission here and there (Karlsson missed opening night in 2017 with his ankle injury) but it gives you a decent snapshot of the blue line quality levels from the past.

Senators Opening Night Defensive Lineup (listed by ice time on opening night, stats from HockeyReference.com)

First of all, we remain wildly intrigued about the circumstances that might have led to Brian Lee leading all defencemen in ice time (21:22) on opening night in 2011. Secondly, we're blown away by that 2020 roster and how much things have improved. Was that really only three years ago?

But let's call it. Which team from the past had a better blue line on opening night than the one we'll see on October 11th in Raleigh, North Carolina?

If we were holding a draft, we'd probably select the group from 2005 first overall. But make no mistake, we'd be thrilled to get this year's squad too. It's already better than most of the units on the list and still has all the potential in the world to change our mind.