With the 'Canes on the doorstep to a Cup Final and dismantling everyone, GM Steve Staios may be wondering if his team is closer to contending than they appeared last month.
For every NHL team, including the eventual Stanley Cup winner, summer is a time of change.
Naturally, the Cup-winning GM would love to stand in front of his team and make the Wolf of Wall Street speech: "We're not leaving! The show goes on!"
But the salary cap, free agency and maybe a retirement or two make that impossible.
For a GM like Ottawa's Steve Staios, after watching his team get swept in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and score just five goals in the process, he might have been thinking a month ago that he has some serious work to do this summer to help his team close the gap.
However, the way the Carolina Hurricanes have played this spring may be giving him some new pause for thought.
What if the team that spanked the Senators in Round 1 goes on to just completely trample everyone else and win the Stanley Cup? Doesn't that have at least some effect on Staios’ view of his club and how much change is actually required?
As the 2026 playoffs march on, it's becoming crystal clear that the Hurricanes are a wagon. As of this writing, the Canes are 11-1 in these playoffs, getting timely scoring, solid goaltending and, most of all, they boast an absolutely suffocating defensive structure that the Senators, the Philadelphia Flyers and now the Montreal Canadiens had no answer for.
The Hurricanes have taken a 3-1 series lead on the Canadiens and dominated Game 4, outshooting Montreal 43-18 in a 4-0 victory. Every time cameras cut to Martin St. Louis, he looked completely exasperated, like a man with no answers.
It was a game the Canadiens had to have, and yet they finished the third period with just three shots on goal.
Carolina is one win away from getting to the Cup final in just 13 games. The all-time NHL record (four rounds, all seven-game series) for fewest games needed to win a Cup is 18. That’s how good Carolina is.
Sure, no matter how you slice it, getting swept in round one was disappointing for the Sens organization and the fan base, but it's becoming obvious there's no shame in it.
The Senators were one of the best teams in the NHL in the second half of the season, but because they got off to a rough start thanks to poor goaltending, their punishment was getting pinned as the lowest seed and having to play the very best team right away.
Carolina isn't just good. They're hungry, they're filled with experience, and they're covered in playoff scars.
In 2019, they lost in the Conference Final. In 2020, they lost in the first round. In 2021 and 2022, they lost in the second round. In 2023, they lost in the Conference Final again. In 2024, the second round. In 2025, another loss in the conference final.
This is a group that is clearly being driven by the sting of all those past playoff failures, and all those hard lessons are now well-learned. They work hard, they sweat the small stuff, and they're doing whatever it takes to avoid reliving the heartbreaks of the past.
The Senators will have some of that motivation next season, too, though not to the same degree as 2026 Carolina.
The good news is that if the Hurricanes do win it all this year, there will be solace in that for the Sens. It sucks to be swept. It sucks less to be swept by the Cup champs. Meanwhile, the hunger fueling the 'Canes right now may become difficult to replicate next season, which could allow famished teams like Ottawa to close the gap.
There will be changes this summer because there always are. But the Senators may be closer to contention than they appeared to be a month ago.
By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
This article was first published at The Hockey News Ottawa Senators site. Read more at THN.com/Ottawa.
