Senators safe in knowledge they must stick to the plan
‘Scared to lose’ mentality to blame for Wednesday’s Game 1 loss to Bruins
It all comes down to the endless debate over protecting the lead or going for a win.
It was Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella who coined the phrase “safe is death” during his days with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
And if the Ottawa Senators don’t get back to playing the kind of hockey that helped them find success during the regular season, then their stay in the NHL playoffs will be short-lived after they blew a one-goal thirdperiod lead Wednesday, dropping Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarter-final series against the Boston Bruins by a 2-1 score.
As the Senators prepared Thursday for Saturday’s Game 2 at Canadian Tire Centre, they opted to hold an off-ice workout at the rink after a meeting to discuss how they let the first game of the series slip from their grasp.
Brad Marchand scored the winner with 2:33 left in regulation to complete the Boston comeback. A day later, the loss still stung Ottawa head coach Guy Boucher.
“Going into the third, they just stuck with what they were doing and we didn’t,” Boucher said. “We didn’t change our game plan whatsoever, we didn’t want something different at all but I didn’t think we managed it well mentally. We looked like we were scared to lose rather than hungry to win.
“We backed off for no reason, we weren’t going after them in their zone, the neutral zone and we packed it in our zone, kind of ‘cocooning’ in our (defensive) zone for no reason. That’s just a mental state for me. We were asking for trouble. We didn’t sustain what we were doing for 60 minutes and we paid for it.”
If the Senators head back to Boston down 2-0 in this series, they’ll be in even bigger trouble. It’s bad enough the Senators have already surrendered home-ice advantage, but they’ve got time to recover if they can even this up and get back on track with a victory in what’s now a pivotal Game 2.
The playoffs are different from the regular season because every victory is meaningful and every loss feels like it’s a disaster. Momentum plays a big role in every series, so as the Bruins hosted reporters at their Ottawa hotel on the off day, they were able to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
The Senators preferred to look at this two-day break as an opportunity to shake off the defeat and look ahead to what it will take to win the series.
“The sun came up today. It’s a new day today. My first junior coach and my only junior coach told me that. Brent Sutter said, ‘The sun comes up and it’s a new day,’ ” Senators alternate captain Dion Phaneuf said. “In the playoffs, you have to find a way to move forward and learn from what you did well and learn from what you didn’t do so well.
“It’s a new day for us. We’re going to use this break inbetween (games) to get ready for Saturday, but we’ll learn from the mistakes that we made.”
OK, we’ll agree with Phaneuf on his theory that the future still looks bright for the Senators. But you could argue dark clouds are approaching if they don’t win Game 2.
There are several theories as to why the Senators couldn’t get the job done in Game 1 and they were all being thrown around Thursday. The reality is if the Senators had been able to get more than one goal in the second, when they outshot the Bruins 12-0, the result could have been totally different.
“I don’t think we took advantage of the opportunities we had,” alternate captain Kyle Turris said. “We had a couple of opportunities that if we bury them, we go up 2-0 and it’s a different game then.
“We also need to generate more quality opportunities, but that could probably come by skating like we did in the second and third instead of just sitting back. We were really skating well (in the second), supporting each other, getting pucks and creating chaos in their end. We limited what they could get because we were so on top of them in our end.”
Boucher said the loss is merely a bump in the road.
“We didn’t do the job and we have to learn from it. We have to learn from our third period. That’s what playoffs are all about, moving forward. And what can you learn and get better?” Boucher said. “That’s the experience we need to gain game after game. I knew that, so whether it’s today or another day, we would’ve needed to learn that at some point or another.
“If it’s going to be the first game, then at least we know for the next game.”
The best bet for the Senators is to rise and shine, but it has to happen quickly.