Odd series must end in Game 7

half the players would immediately try to slash the balloon, cut the balloon it in half, whack the balloon into pieces, stomp on it, elbow it, cross-check it, and try to see if a balloon can bleed.

So not 12 hours after his hockey team was seen backsliding to the edge of the abyss Tuesday night, Penguins coach Mike Sullivan was about to leave Ottawa when he remembered to stop and say all the right things. See this is how it works. The players are urged and compelled and cajoled to play the right way, to “just play,” in the tiresome vernacular, and Sullivan reinforces that policy by almost robotically saying the right things, regardless of just about anything, including the increasingly brutal physical politics of a memorable series that now careens toward Game 7.

So someone asked about the abuse Sidney Crosby absorbed in Game 6, a 2-1 victory for the abusive, cliff-dwelling Senators, and this is what Sullivan said, because of course he did.

“I think he handled that extremely well. It’s nothing new to Sid. Most teams in the league try to go after him. They’re trying to get him off his game. I thought he was extremely focused. He played really hard. He had a number of high-quality chances. The puck didn’t go in for him, but, if he gets that many quality chances in a game, he’s a guy that usually converts.

“I thought he handled it extremely well. He was focused. He was determined, and he played the game the right way.”

This is probably some of the nicest stuff ever said about a mugging victim. Wow. He went down hard when the perp bearhugged him around the neck, right onto his knees, then he got flipped over on his back, tried to get up, but got pushed back down, then got slapped in the face, and he didn’t even bleed. That’s getting victimized the right way.

All that happened in the third period at the indiscretion of Ottawa’s Kyle Turris, who somehow forgot to take Sid’s wallet, not that referee Kelly Sutherland would have said anything. Sutherland was practically on top of the play, but remained frozen in indifference.

So Sid was right. Sully was right. And by next break of day, they might be right and gone from this postseason, victims of a relentless and completely unaffected Ottawa team that barely found its way to the playoffs, and of a league that isn’t exactly having its finest hour.

Depending on your knowledge of brain injuries, three or four Penguins have been concussed in the past two series. Crosby lost a game in the Washington series to Matt Niskanen’s off-withhis-head crosscheck, Bryan Rust banged his head off the ice as a result of purposeful mid-ice collision detonated by Ottawa’s Dion Phaneuf, (a hockey play, as it’s called), Chad Ruhwedel took a forearm to the head from Bobby Ryan that the Senators somehow got a power play out of, and Scott Wilson swallowed an elbow from Tommy Wingels in the closing seconds of Game 5.

Justice has been scarce, and few expect an activist NHL judiciary to appear out of the fog for Game 7.

“I would say this entire playoff has given us all an appreciation of what a challenge it is to get back to the top,” said Penguins forward Matt Cullen. “A lot of good players, a lot of good teams. But it’s awfully tight. It’s always tight. It seems like every series is such a challenge.”

If there’s been a bigger challenge than this series, it’s been trying to figure it out. The Penguins have routed the Senators. The Senators have routed the Penguins. Every other game has been a high-wire, one-goal exercise, all four of which might have gone to overtime and one of which did.

For a moment, it had at least what looked like a logical thread, namely that the team scoring first won every game, until Game 6, and then poof! There goes that. One way or another. The Senators, you should know, have never won a Game 7. Never, ever. The Penguins, you know all too well, lose Game 7s at home all the time. What’s that mean? Ask the balloon.