NHL Playoffs 2012: Ottawa Senators Must Rely on History for Major Upset

The Ottawa Senators don't have an easy battle ahead of them in this year's NHL playoffs, but if we learned anything this past season, it's that they can take down the New York Rangers.

This past season, the two teams met on the ice four times. Three of those times the Senators came out on top, outscoring the Eastern Conference's top team, 13-8.

Despite the results for when these two teams clashed, the Rangers played much better all season long as they outright earned the No. 1 seed. In the meantime, the Senators are the No. 8 seed.

While major upsets like these are extremely rare in the first round of a playoff battle, there is no doubt that the Senators have at least proven this season that they can potentially upset the top team in the conference.

The X-factor in this entire series has been the play of Senators goalie Craig Anderson, who was in goal for three of the four games. His strongest performance came in the team's 3-0 victory back on January 12, but he wasn't in when the two teams met up last on March 8.

Ben Bishop was in that game, but the team won't likely see much of him in the series. At least for the Senators' sake, they know they have a goalie who has shutdown their opponent in the past.

The Senators can score, as they have proven so this season averaging three goals per game. They will need continued strong performances from left winger Milan Michalek, who has 35 goals on the year. 

Jason Spezza is going to need to continue to come up big as well. The center has tallied a total of 84 points this season, which is one of the main reasons why they are here in the first place.

In the team's four matchups, Spezza put up a total of six points. In the meantime, Michalek has put up five of his own, but the team will definitely need the two to play with the mentality to go above and beyond that to sneak past the Rangers.

It won't be an easy battle, that is for sure. But if the team can rely on their past against the Rangers, as well as get solid contributions from everyone involved, there is no reason to think this upset isn't possible.