Since the Ottawa Senators entered the league as an expansion team in 1992-1993 they have won four division titles, one President’s Trophy, and made one Stanley Cup Final. They consistently topped 100 points a season and were a league powerhouse, albeit one that routinely fell short of expectations in the playoffs (“here’s Nieuwendyk again…scores again!”). Think of them as San Jose East.

However, the Sens put all that playoff baggage behind them when they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007 before being ousted by the Anaheim Ducks. In a little less than four years the Senators went from a Stanley Cup finalist to the disaster you see before you. What happened? Where did it all go so horribly wrong?

There were big expectations from the Bruins this year after two back-to-back surprising seasons. After posting a 35-41-6 season in 2006-2007 and being thoroughly lambasted by the media for dealing star-forward Joe Thornton to the Sharks the previous year, the Bruins finished with an unexpected 94 points. That was good enough to squeak into the playoffs as the eight seed. They even pushed a heavily favoured Montreal squad to seven games. Last year, the Bruins shocked many pundits by winning the Eastern Conference by a wide margin and narrowly missing the President’s Trophy by only one point. The Bruins were eventually ousted in the second round, but their young squad appeared set to contend with the elite teams in the Eastern Conference. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way so far this year. In fact, the Bruins sit tied for 9th in the East and just recently snapped a 10 game winless streak by beating the Canadiens in Montreal. So what’s wrong with the Bruins? What happened to last year’s powerhouse?