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Smith returned Friday, when the Senators lost 5-4 in a shootout against the New Jersey Devils, and Boucher praised his players for the way they had battled the odds, especially when “experts” hadn’t given them much of a chance.

“When you look at the overall picture, there’s so many things that could have gone wrong for us,” Boucher said. “Right now, we’re ahead of Toronto. People don’t put us in the playoffs and now we’re right up there with two favoured teams, Tampa and Toronto.

“We’ve got the same number of points as Pittsburgh, the Stanley Cup champions, and, with everything that’s been happening to us, it’s pretty impressive what the guys have been able to do.”

In case you didn’t believe Boucher yet, he backed up his argument by pointing out the Senators were: No. 1 in the 31-team NHL in blocked shots; No. 2 in faceoffs; No. 5 offensively; No. 8 defensively; No. 3 in penalty killing; and No. 17 on the power play. All of those have been factors in their success.

“In the big picture, I’m never satisfied, but I definitely have to be impressed by what our guys have been doing since the beginning of the year and, even with a full team, we’ve had an impressive start,” Boucher said.

“I’ve never had that in 20 years. I’ve had some teams that have broken records, but I’ve never had a team that had a point in 10 of its first 11 games. That’s really impressive. I have to give (credit) to the players. I don’t want to sit on it or get cocky about it, but I have to be honest. It’s a tribute to the leadership, the character and the collective soul of our team. I’d love to say we’re surviving, but we’ve done more than survive.”