Bruins vs Red Wings

The Ottawa Senators were the best team in the NHL from Feb. 10 through the end of the season. It stands to reason they can continue to be the best in the NHL until the middle of June.

Every team wants to be playing its best hockey going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Senators certainly can say they are.

Ottawa went 23-4-4 in their final 31 games to climb from 14 points out entering their game against the Buffalo Sabres on Feb. 10 to make their way into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Ottawa went on its run because it got surprisingly elite goaltending from Andrew Hammond and used the confidence gained from that to play fast and aggressive in all three zones, particularly through the middle of the ice.

In doing so, the Senators got some luck on their side and turned a bad trend of losing one-goal games into a positive trend by winning them. They were 10-12-9 in one-goal games through Feb. 8; they went 11-0-4 in one-goal games from Feb. 10 through the end of the season, including 7-4 in games extended past regulation.

There are four big reasons the Senators went on their big run, and why they have it in them to take this the distance in the spring.

In spite of a goaltender's importance, they are rarely included in the conversation when trying to determine the best player in the NHL.

Elite point-producers have such a significant impact on their teams and are generally the only category of player considered in that debate.

But that discourse has changed this season, and Carey Price is the reason.

The Ottawa Senators were rewarded for their incredible late-season surge toward the Stanley Cup Playoffs with what might have been the best possible matchup in the opening round.

The Senators won their past three games against the Montreal Canadiens by a combined score of 13-5, including a 4-2 win at home on Feb. 18, the first NHL start for goaltender Andrew Hammond.

He would go on to win a few more after that.

The only playoff series the Senators have won since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2007 was against the Canadiens in 2013.

That five-game series got nasty right away, with Senators defenseman Eric Gryba knocking Canadiens center Lars Eller out of the series with an open-ice hit in Game 1.

The teams had no real rivalry prior to that series despite Ottawa and Montreal being 125 miles apart. They did after that, and the Senators have given the Canadiens trouble ever since winning that series.

Aside from the history between the teams, this series will feature compelling matchups at key positions.

In goal, Hammond will continue his storybook ride by matching up against the favorite to win the Vezina and Hart trophies, Carey Price.

MONTREAL -- P.K. Subban doesn't understand where it comes from, but he's not complaining.

Almost every time the Montreal Canadiens defenseman plays in a visiting NHL rink he is booed, a phenomenon that grows in intensity during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

And Subban thrives on it.

Except if you ask him about the booing, Subban acts like an innocent victim.

An innocent, perfectly willing victim.

"We always use Boston because we have the most games against them in the playoffs, but I didn't go there and ask them to boo me," Subban said. "I didn't ask them to do that. They started doing that. I didn't ask them to hate me."

The snow in Montreal has thawed, and so has Lars Eller's game.

The Montreal Canadiens center completed a regular season remarkably similar to the previous one in terms of his disappointing offensive production.

Now Eller is hoping he also can perform as well in the Stanley Cup Playoffs as he did last season. If he does, he could be the difference between an early exit and another deep run for the Canadiens.

Eller was ninth in scoring last season for the Canadiens with 26 points in 77 games but led their forwards with 13 points in 17 playoff games, helping to propel Montreal to the Eastern Conference Final.

This season, he finished ninth in scoring with 27 points in 76 games.

OTTAWA -- Rookie forward Mike Hoffman led the Ottawa Senators with 27 goals this season, and that was after being demoted to the fourth line at times down the stretch.

The Senators are going to need the 25-year-old, who was chosen in the fifth round (No. 130) of the 2009 NHL Draft, to give them scoring depth if they are going to have success in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

That might sound like a funny thing to write about Ottawa’s leading goal-scorer, but consistency and play away from the puck have been issues for Hoffman.

When he hasn't been going hard to the net or paying enough attention to defense, that's when coach Dave Cameron has shuffled the lines.