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Does he think that’s odd?

“No, I go into every season wanting to win everything. It doesn’t matter what kind of team I have, whether I have a young one or an old one or that we’re not going to make the playoffs,” Boucher said. “I think you get lost in those, you really do.

“The power of being able to be in the moment is for people that are strong mentally, and we’re asking that of our players. If I’m not strong enough mentally to be in the moment, then I’m not leading well. The past and the future is where you get lost. It’s about today, and I know today our players are working extremely hard to get ready.

“You don’t want to reproduce last year. That’s the big mistake. Last year is last year. It went a certain way and we have different players on our team in different circumstances, and we’re going to play different teams. There’s so many things that come into play that make it totally different than last year.

“The good thing is it’s a white sheet. You want to do well, but you don’t want to reproduce because last year is last year. We’ve got to start back at zero. Our challenge is knowing that the last four teams (in the playoffs usually) have trouble starting. Nobody is where they were at the end of the year. The expectations should come from us wanting to do as good as we can, period, not (because of success) last year.”

The Senators haven’t made many changes and they’re still battling for respect around the league. Yes, they opened a lot of people’s eyes with captain Erik Karlsson’s leadership and goaltender Craig Anderson’s brilliant play, but there are few who feel the club can get back there again.