PITTSBURGH (Apr. 16) -- There is a sense of purpose and confidence about the Ottawa Senators right now that I have not observed since the club began to craft its reputation at the turn of the century. I have covered at least one playoff round involving the Senators every spring since 2000 -- four of them against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Every year, but one, Ottawa has failed to attain its perceived level in the post-season, and that one year, 2003, seems to have gotten burried in the avalanche of disappointment. It is somehow easy to overlook that the Senators took eventual Cup-champion New Jersey to Game 7 of the '03 Eastern Conference final before bowing out in a thrilling series. The Devils then went on to edge Anaheim for the Stanley Cup. Would Ottawa have done the same? It's a bit of painful rhetoric Senators' fans have been considering ever since.
So, to call the Parliament Hill boys perennial playoff flops is not entirely accurate. But, the four post-season losses to the hated Maple Leafs -- against mostly inferior Toronto clubs that Ottawa dominated everywhere but in goal -- affixed the organization with a label it continues to try and shed. And, there's an unspoken weight on this particular Senators club that lies just beneath the surface. In fact, it's quite simple: If Ottawa fails to knock Pittsburgh out of the playoffs in the opening round, owner Eugene Melnyk will light a stick of dynamite and blow his club to smithereens -- erasing GM John Muckler, head coach Bryan Murray and any of a handful of core players that have been with the organization through its travails. This is not a mild-mannered person we're talking about. Melnyk, in fact, is a fuse waiting to blow (he's come close several times in the past), and an opening-round flop this spring will almost surely unleash his wrath.
Whether or not that's an overt factor in Ottawa's dominance of the Penguins through three games of the Conference quarterfinal can be honestly answered by only the coaches and players, themselves. And, it's not likely that any of them would touch the issue with a ten-foot pole. My feeling is that Ottawa has finally captured a sense of occasion. Murray talks about this being an entirely different squad than the ones that have previously fallen short, and I think he's bang on. By all rights, the Sens should have a 3-0 stranglehold on this series. They have controlled eight of the nine periods played so far, and it's a measure of the Penguins' upper-level talent that they were able to roar back and win Game 2 in the final frame. But, that's been it for Pittsburgh. The Senators are a vastly more experienced club -- particularly on the back end -- and there is no logical reason to believe that Murray's crew shouldn't continue its domination.
Best example of that was in the opening minutes of Game 3 at Mellon Arena Sunday night. The Penguins were coming off their late rally in Ottawa just 24 hours earlier, and the Nervous Nellies in the nation's capital were out in full force. Gary Roberts' goal, 52 seconds after the opening faceoff, probably sent many of them scurrying for the medicine cabinet, but the players were not to be denied. In what seemed like the perfect recipe for another Ottawa collapse, the Senators weren't at all fazed by the instant carry-over of momentum. Without missing a beat, they settled down, began to stretch the vulnerable Pittsburgh defense with long, accurate passes, and they gained control of the match with three unanswered goals in the second period. It's almost as if they yawned defiantly when Roberts brought the arena to its feet.
Not exactly the hallmark of previous Ottawa playoff teams.
It is therefore, and without question, the Senators' series to lose right now. And, there isn't an employee anywhere in the organization that wants to encounter Hurricane Eugene the morning after THAT happens.
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