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CHICAGO — Training camp doesn’t start until September, but it’s not hard to figure out what Guy Boucher’s message will be to Ottawa Senators players.

You can’t rest on your laurels.

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Yes, the Senators made great strides this past season and they came up just a goal short against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference final, but that doesn’t mean they can just show up next season and think it will be easy to take the next step.

“The one thing we can’t do, and I’ve lived it before, is we can’t stay on last year,” Boucher said Saturday in an interview at the United Center before Round 2 of the NHL draft. “We’ve got to be aware of last year, but we can’t stay on it because it’s over.

“When you start the year, you always think you are what you were at the end of the year, but that’s not true at all. It starts back at zero. If you work hard and remind yourself of the strengths that you have, you’ll work just as hard, if not harder than you did the previous years. But you’ve got to have them faster and then you’ve got your identity quicker and you can add stuff to try to get better.