from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

This morning, after a steady, opportunistic 4-1 win over the hapless, hopeless Edmonton Oilers, the Senators are owners of their second four-game winning streak of the season. So, who knows? Maybe they can duplicate their 24-4-4 run at the end of the 2015-16 campaign, and become Canada’s Team — our only playoff contender.

“Winning’s fun,” smiled Curtis Lazar. “Confidence is a scary thing. Momentum, as we saw last year…”

The standard refrain is that a hot streak like the one the Sens went on the season before is exactly that — a streak. Like a meteor, you see it once and then it’s gone. You never see the same meteor twice, right?

But in sports there is value in having been somewhere before. Most of these players were part of that 24-4-4 run that vaulted Ottawa into the playoffs last spring. Needing something similar 12 months later, this group doesn’t have far to go to recall the magic.

“It’s that mental side of the game. We know what it takes,” Lazar allowed. “It was kind of a miracle run last year, and a streak like that is never going to be done again. We know that.

“But the fact of the matter is, we are out of this [playoff] picture, and we have to win games to try and claw our way back. Hopefully we get some help from other teams, and let’s see what happens.”

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