Lars Eller shook his head in disbelief.

An hour and a half after he scored the game-winning goal in a plucky 3-2 defeat of the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday, the 36-year-old centre, deep in thought, pondered what the Ottawa Senators had just pulled off.

“I thought it was outstanding,” Eller told the media in Detroit. “Outstanding effort, character, willingness … I think we have just such strong character on this team. You know, when a lot of things are going against us, we’re losing guys, important players in our lineup, and we just don’t make excuses. We find a way to dig a little bit deeper, lift each other up.”

In his first season with the Sens, Eller has seen this group of players come together like few teams could.

They kept the faith when historically bad goaltending was tanking their season. They stood up for Linus Ullmark when “outside forces” attempted to “disrupt” the hockey club.

And, down five defencemen on Tuesday — including two $8-million blue-liners in Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot — the Senators put it all on the line against the Red Wings.

The night previous, in a similar position after Chabot and Lassi Thomson left a tilt with the New York Rangers early with respective injuries, Ottawa held on to win 2-1 at Madison Square Garden, allowing just 10 shots.

Analyst praises the Senators

That performance prompted former NHL goaltender Steve Valiquette, now an analyst for MSG Networks, to call the Senators “one of the best teams that we’ve seen in a really long time.”

“Ottawa is dominating the NHL right now like I haven’t seen before,” Valiquette, wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs hat, told Sportsnet’s Real Kyper and Bourne. “I was pulling these numbers before the game last night: They are on a stretch now of 13 games where they have only lost the high-danger battle in one of them. They are smoking teams.”

Are a couple of those statements from Valiquette slightly hyperbolic?

Maybe.

But he’s actually not far off.

Since Jan. 25, the Senators (15-3-2) are tied with the Buffalo Sabres for the best record in the NHL. In that time frame, they have the best goal differential in the league (+29) and have allowed by far the fewest shots per game (21.3).

What is behind the Sens’ strong form?

What makes this stretch of dominance so convincing — and feel repeatable — is that the team’s success is built off of structure and buy-in, not purely individual achievements.

Tim Stutzle and Brady Tkachuk have been point-per-game players during this run, but the offence is coming from nearly everyone in the forward corps, as seven forwards have five or more goals in the past 20 games.

Ullmark and James Reimer have held down the fort, but their combined save percentage of .899 is just three points above league average.

Coach Travis Green and his staff have the Senators playing a brand of hockey that perfectly suits the roster. Outside of Stutzle, Sanderson and Chabot, there aren’t many elite skaters, making it difficult to compete in track meets, games that involve a ton of rushes.

Instead, Ottawa plays a chip-and-chase style, often opting to dump the puck into the offensive zone and relying on its dogged forecheck. With pickpockets and grinders galore on the roster, the more 50-50 battles the better.

It’s a methodology nearly every team is forced to move towards once the postseason begins and time and space becomes scarce.

Could it carry over to the playoffs?

If the Sens do get in, there’s no need to adapt. Rinse and repeat. Play the exact same way you have for months.

The Senators woke up Wednesday in a playoff spot for the first time since Dec. 3, 2025.

With 11 games remaining, they genuinely are in a good spot.

Ottawa controls its own destiny — winning out guarantees a postseason berth — and has the tiebreaker (regulation wins) over pretty much any other team seriously vying for the two wild cards in the Eastern Conference.

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And while the road ahead is daunting — the Senators have the fourth-hardest remaining schedule base on opponent points percentage — seven of the final 11 regular season games will be played at the Canadian Tire Centre, where last change is a cheat code when you have the NHL’s best shutdown line in Shane Pinto, Michael Amadio and Nick Cousins.

Ottawa’s most likely first-round match-ups are the Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Each of those teams will begin the post-season with home-ice advantage.

But by mid April the nation’s capital is gearing up for its second straight playoff run, avoiding the Senators might be the greatest advantage of all.