Can you hear the theme?? Duh-duh, dun-da... Dun-dun, dah-dah... Teedle-doo, teedle-doo, teedle-doooo, dah-doo! Making the playoffs seems to be like an episode of Mission: Impossible. Well, not impossible exactly, but definitely Mission: Extremely Difficult.



The cut-off for the playoffs for the past five seasons has been around the 92-point mark in the Eastern conference. The 2005-05 Senators finished comfortably with 113 points and were a shoe-in. In comparison, the Senators have been scrambling madly just to make the cut over the past three seasons. They barely made the cut in 2007-08 with 94 points, missed the playoffs entirely in 2008-09 with 83 points, and made the playoffs again last season 94 points.

Gone are the days of the 100-point seasons. As a matter of fact, if the Senators keep playing the rest of the season with the same win percentage, they will finish with 76 points, barely a point behind what is considered their last "bad" season in 1996-97 where they score 77 points.

So what does it take for the Senators to make the playoffs? It requires 52 points. About 26 victories or a mix of victories and tie games. Over 36 remaining games. That's a win percentage of 72 percent, just to make the playoffs. Impossible? Not so. The Philadelphia Flyers came back from roughly the same position last season to earn a berth in the post-season. They rode that opportunity all the way to a Stanley Cup final apearance.

Our Senators secured their own berth in the playoffs on the strength of an 11-game winning streak in December and Januarry of last season. A repeat of that performance over the next 11 games would catapult the Senators to roughly around the cut-off line.

So, impossible? No. But very, very unlikely unless their luck changes, and some of those great scoring attempts finally start hitting twine.

GO SENS GO!!