Forget about the past, Cup final now in sight for surging Senators
After gaining confidence in Game 6, Ottawa is ready to repeat performance in Pittsburgh
Country music, or a country place for the summer? Those are the options for the Ottawa Senators as they prepare for Game 7 against the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday at PPG Paints Arena.
The winner advances to face the Nashville Predators in the Stanley Cup final, which opens Monday at the home of the Eastern Conference champion.
After staving off elimination with a 2-1 home victory Tuesday, the Senators headed for Pennsylvania with a chance to make their first trip to the Cup final since 2007.
“There’s no pressure on us — they’re the ones that are favoured,” Senators winger Mike Hoffman, who scored the winner Tuesday, told reporters.
“For us, we just take it as another hockey game. We know it’s a Game 7 and there’s a lot of us that haven’t played in one of those at this level, but we know the game plan: sticking to our system and trying to shut them down as best we can to give ourselves the best chance (to win).”
If the Senators can pull this off, they’ll prove the doubters completely wrong.
“We’ve answered a lot of people,” winger Clarke MacArthur said. “I remember coming back after we lost 7-0 (in Game 5), I was driving back talking to (defenceman) Dion (Phaneuf) and he was like, ‘We’re going to get this series,’ and I was thinking the same thing.
“How do you think that after you lose 7-0? We’ve got one of the two (wins) and now we have the job to do going into Game 7.”
The plan is pretty simple for Ottawa.
“Bore them out of the building,” MacArthur said.
Game 7 is always a flip of the coin and it really doesn’t matter where the game is played. The home team is 98-70 (.583 winning-percentage) in the history of Game 7s in the NHL, which isn’t an overwhelming number.
Head coach Guy Boucher knows what is at stake, and even though the Senators are playing their second straight elimination game, they won’t do anything different.
“They’re all must-win games since Day 1,” Boucher said. “Exhibition games were mustwins. We’ve approached every game the same, so we’re not going to change. I think it’s a great opportunity, just like (Tuesday) was, and I think the players have really stuck to the identity of when we have success.
“We gave ourselves a chance. There’s always things you can do better, but I can’t ask for any more from our players — they’ve given everything that they’ve got.”
The Senators did a lot of soulsearching after Sunday’s blowout loss. They talked about what went wrong, what they had to do to make it right and the fact that despite getting hammered by the Penguins, they were still two wins from the final.
Maybe the embarrassment gave the Senators a needed jolt. While Boucher talked about the importance of getting back to playing the style that made them successful all season, it was easy for the players to know they had to be better because they simply couldn’t have been much worse.
“(Game 5) was better for us to lose in a blowout situation than to lose in overtime and be upset about the loss,” centre Derick Brassard said. “I’m not saying we’re not upset with a 7-0 loss, but I think it was a slap in the face a little bit.
“I think it’s proven in the playoffs that every team that gets a lot of goals scored (against) or gets blown out, the next game you’re trying to answer for it and trying to show some character. That’s what we did (Tuesday).”
The game plan, though, isn’t to force Craig Anderson to make 45 stops again. The Senators know there’s areas to improve.
“We want to get on the offence a little more,” MacArthur said. “We don’t want to give up that much zone time. At the same time, we were deflecting a lot of things to the outside, a lot of perimeter shots, so we’ll do some slight adjustments, but what we got in (Game 6) is what we’re going to be looking at (Thursday).”
The Senators are going to try to enjoy the moment.
“Those games are so much fun to be part of,” Brassard said. “We’re in this with a really good hockey team, the Stanley Cup champions, and we have a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup final. We can’t ask for anything better, but we just have to have fun with that.”