SENS GET JUMP ON THE PENS
Bobby Ryan nets OT winner in Game 1 of Eastern final.
Before the game, Bobby Ryan was asked: Given the state of Pittsburgh’s defence corps, would you — or any Ottawa Senator, playing their honey-trap style — be more likely to attack on, say, a 50-50 play?
“Not with our system,” said Ryan with a laugh. “I’m not getting caught with that one. When it’s 50-50, I’m going on the defensive side.”
A few hours later, five minutes into their seventh overtime of the post-season, Ryan got to a puck at the Senators blue line and took off, blew past Pittsburgh’s Olli Maatta and went forehand-backhand-top shelf, and the Senators took Game 1 by a score of 2-1. It was Ottawa’s sixth OT win of this post-season, and the first odd-man rush of the entire game. “Was that one 50-50?” said Ryan with a grin. The Senators came into this series as a heavy underdog, but that didn’t match reality in Game 1. The Penguins came in without No. 1 defenceman Kris Letang and also Trevor Daley. Washington’s biggest success was with forechecking the remaining survivors to death, but Ottawa’s strategy under Guy Boucher is to clog the neutral zone with his 1-3-1 trap, wait for the attack and force you to dump the puck in, where for about half the game Erik Karlsson is ready to swoop around and embark on one of his magical adventures.
Ottawa doesn’t forecheck much, and the first period resembled rope-a-dope, and it was unclear who was the dope. The Penguins controlled the early play. The Penguins hit a crossbar. The Penguins hit a post. The Penguins had four power plays. The Penguins attempted two shots for every one from Ottawa. They were in charge.
Except Jean-Gabriel Pageau forechecked hard 15 minutes into the period, and defenceman Brian Dumoulin was under pressure from Pageau, and his drop pass was basically a pass to a cutting Ryan, who found Pageau in front for his eighth goal of the playoffs: 1-0, Sens.
“I don’t think I could have made that pass,” said Pageau.
It was Dumoulin’s third bad turnover of the period, all of which led to shots from the slot. So it was 1-0 after one, and the Senators had ’em just where they wanted ’em. But it was 1-0 after two, because Ottawa was carrying the play. The Penguins applied brief and rare bouts of pressure, but so much of the time it was like they were skating through brambles. The Penguins power play, like many teenagers, stubbornly failed to live up to its potential. Passes bounced or hit Senators sticks; long, trap-busting passes didn’t connect; Sidney Crosby didn’t make an impact, and Phil Kessel was a mess, and Karlsson remained the best player of these playoffs.
More, the Senators controlled the play. For the game they controlled 59 per cent of the shot attempts at five-on-five; take away those Penguins power plays and Pittsburgh, which leads the NHL in playoff scoring, was muffled. When Ottawa forechecked well, Pittsburgh’s defence spat out chances the way Pittsburgh cigarette machines spit out smokes.
Finally, one of Pittsburgh’s attacks got home.
Defenceman Ron Hainsey, of all people, sliced through the trap and gained the zone; Chris Kunitz got to a puck on the boards and spun a shot; Evgeni Malkin deflected it between Craig Anderson’s pads with 5:35 left. Tie game. As Boucher put it before the game, “They can get something out of nothing, and that’s why they’re stars.”
Of course, he also said that if Ottawa didn’t negate Pittsburgh’s speed, “they’re going to go right through us.” He probably wasn’t talking about the 36-year-old Hainsey, but it worked out that way.
But overall, the Senators played one hell of a road game: it might have been boring, and there was a little luck involved. But that’s hockey, and it worked. The dynamic in Game 1, as we’ve seen all playoffs, is that Pittsburgh relies on its su- perstars up front to outweigh the problems at the back. And in this one, their superstars didn’t do enough.
“I’m so reluctant to say anything good, because you’re playing against world-class players, and if you give them any little opportunity, god knows, they may get a couple points next game,” said Ottawa defenceman Marc Methot.
“So, did I think we did a good job today? Yes. But that’s one game ... we’ve got to respect them, and if we can do that we’re going to put ourselves in a better position.”
By the end they had outplayed the champs, and Ryan got to grin some more.
He had just 25 points in 62 regularseason games, after two straight 50-point seasons; he admitted that it took him a long time to get used to Boucher’s defensive system.
“Game 82,” Ryan said. “It took me longer than most. There were some growing pains, which everybody saw . . . I said before I would trade all the offence in the world to be in the Eastern Conference final, so I’m pretty happy about it.”
He should be. His pass on the first goal was aces, and the game-winner was sublime. His team, after everything, is three wins from a Stanley Cup final. Not bad.
“I’m getting to redeem myself a little bit,” said Ryan. “That’s all I’m trying to do.”