Pen-ultimate win exposes Sens
Canada’s last hope facing elimination after butt-kicking
“We know they’re a better team,” said Ottawa Senators coach Guy Boucher, after his team was smashed by the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-0 in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final. “Everybody knows that on the planet. They’re the Stanley Cup champions, they’re the best team in the league. We know to beat that team we need to be at our very, very best, and we were not.”
He was at least partly right, though the whole statement may yet be proven true. The Penguins may be starting a half-AHL defence, and before this game had very little depth scoring, but they had dragged themselves here, and looked something like a championship contender in Game 5. Four goals in the first, shifts that lasted long enough to produce their own playoff beards, an assault that never really stopped. The Penguins looked great.
Ottawa looked like a team in over its head. It happens. All it means is their season is on the edge.
“It was a crap game, in every aspect, but forget about it and regroup and come back with our best push next game,” said centre Kyle Turris, who was on the ice at five-on-five for nine shot attempts for, and 29 against.
“It’s wrong to say, but I’d rather lose like this than in overtime or anything like that,” said defenceman Erik Karlsson, whose left ankle buckled late in the second period — he missed the third, but said he would return for Game 6 Tuesday. “They were the better team. They came out better.”
“I don’t know. It happened to the other teams. They can’t explain it either,” said Boucher. “It’s not about what it means; it’s where the players are, and some days they have it, just like a plumber wakes up one day, he’s having a great day, and the other day, not a good day. Just one of those bad days. It’s not lack of preparation. The guys are giving everything they’ve got, and that’s what they had today.”
The question now is what they have left. The Senators have needed luck to get here, the way any team needs luck, but they also haven’t been good enough to exploit Pittsburgh’s weaknesses. The Penguins controlled an abysmal 43 per cent of shot attempts at five-on-five in the first two rounds against Columbus and Washington, but won based on goaltending and high-end scoring talent. They have controlled 53.8 per cent of those shot attempts through the five games, and have clearly upped their focus and desperation in the last two.
And in Game 5, the Penguins finally got scoring from players other than their big three.
Sure, Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel each had a goal and an assist, and Evgeni Malkin had three assists, including a start to a gorgeous Malkin-Crosby-Kessel power-play goal.
But if you wanted to use Boucher’s plumbers analogy, Pittsburgh’s plumbers had a great day. Winger Carter Rowney, who was scoreless in 11 playoffs games, had three assists. Nick Bonino had one assist in 13 games, and added two more. Bryan Rust, back after missing two games following a Dion Phaneuf hit, had a goal and an assist. Matt Cullen scored the fifth goal, and just his second of the playoffs, and it was so easy he didn’t bother raising his stick to celebrate. Scott Wilson scored his second goal of the playoffs, too.
The Penguins brought everybody, more or less. Bonino’s truck broke down on the way to the game, and as he put it, “Great teammate Phil Kessel came and picked me up, so I owe a lot to Phil Kessel for being here tonight.” Teamwork. Pittsburgh destroyed Ottawa’s half-hearted zone exits, and ran the game. The Penguins were better in Game 4, too, but back then the teams were taking turns. Pittsburgh didn’t give Ottawa a turn this time.
“I thought we were late to last game and there’s a much bigger difference in that, because we arrived, but it just wasn’t on time and it was too little, too late,” said Senators winger Bobby Ryan. “But this one, I don’t think you can draw a comparison to the two. This was just a flat-out spanking.”
“I don’t think anybody has frozen under pressure throughout anything that we’ve gone through this year, any series. I don’t think that was the case. I thought the room was ready. I thought we were good before the game. I don’t think anybody was wide-eyed or gave them too much respect. I think we just got run over.”
Boucher tried to change the momentum by pulling goaltender Craig Anderson after the third goal, then telling him on the bench he was going back in, and he did. But Anderson allowed the fourth goal on a shot from behind the red line, and he sat out the third. So did Karlsson, and centre Derick Brassard — who was slow to get up after a Chris Kunitz hit — and defenceman Cody Ceci. All three are expected by Boucher to play Game 6. Tommy Wingels, who elbowed Wilson in the closing seconds, may not be so lucky.
But then, what did Boucher say after his Senators lost Game 4? “If we were losing guys, there’s no way we could compete against those guys. We know their depth, we know they’re a quality team, and the star power they’ve got. They’ve got the most star power in the league. If we would lose guys, we wouldn’t be able to compete against them.”
They might not be able to, anyway. If the Penguins defence moves the puck the way they have the past two games, and the Penguins depth players show up with something beyond effort, and the big three continue to pull this train, then Pittsburgh is better, and they will get a chance to be the first repeat Cup winners since the Red Wings in 1997-98.
But Ottawa has another chance on Tuesday. One, and maybe more.