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Ottawa Senators winger Fabian Zetterlund, left, and Carolina Hurricane William Carrier battle for position on Feb. 3, 2026. (James Guillory/Imagn Images/Reuters)
The top team in the NHL’s Eastern Conference now awaits the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs.
Boston’s win on Tuesday means Ottawa will head to Raleigh, N.C., to play the Carolina Hurricanes.
Carolina is making its eighth straight playoff appearance under coach and former player Rod Brind’Amour. The Hurricanes have lost in the conference final three times in that span.
Carolina headed into Tuesday with seven 20-goal scorers on their roster compared to Ottawa’s five, but the Senators’ top scorer Tim Stützle had them all beat with 34 goals prior to his team’s final game of the regular season on Wednesday.
Carolina’s goaltending this season has been a near-even split between 27-year-old rookie Brandon Bussi and 36-year-old veteran Frederik Anderson. Ottawa has favoured 32-year-old Linus Ullmark on either side of his mental health leave.
Bussi and Ullmark have near-identical save percentages of .892 and .891, just below league average.
Ottawa’s Dylan Cozens has his shot blocked by Carolina goaltender Brandon Bussi on Feb. 3, 2026. (Karl DeBlaker/The Associated Press)
As a team, the Canes had scored 19 more goals than Ottawa this season, and allowed six fewer. Their 294 goals for is second only to Colorado.
When it comes to more advanced statistics, the gap between the two teams narrows. Moneypuck’s expected goals metric, or the quality of their unblocked shots for and against, has the two teams ranked second and third in the 32-team league.
A playoff 1st
Ottawa has won one of its three meetings with Carolina this season, with one of those losses coming in overtime.
The Senators and Hurricanes have never met in the playoffs.
As the lower seed, Ottawa will host games 3, 4 and if necessary Game 6.
The schedule has not been released, but tickets go on sale Thursday morning for Senators season ticket holders and Friday for the general public.