Penguins prove too mighty for Senators
Canada’s last hope for Cup ousted in convincing fashion
PITTSBURGH — In the big picture the Ottawa Senators were doomed from the start, doomed from way back. They tried, they tried. They did marvellous things all season, stitching together a team that refused to fall apart. But at the end, they fell apart. At the end, they never had a chance.
The Senators were pesky, but the Pittsburgh Penguins are a different class of battleship. It took 87:39 of holding the Penguins to one goal and a miraculous late goal to win one game in this secondround series, but that was the only miracle Ottawa got. Pittsburgh won Game 4 by a score of 7-3, and finished the series with a 6-2 victory Friday night in Pittsburgh.
Enough Penguins together can take down a walrus, as it turns out.
“I hope they don’t bill us for the clinic,” said Senators coach Paul MacLean, Ottawa’s brilliant walrus-like coach.
“They were better than us in each and every game,” Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said.
“We’re playing probably the best team in the league, and we’re trying and trying, but we have to pay for every little mistake, and that’s why they are where they are, and we’re standing here,” said Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson. When asked if he had ever seen a team that could hurt you so many ways, he said, “Probably not. Probably back in the days when I played a video game. Ottawa had a good team back then — Hossa, Chara and all those guys. But you know, they have a good team, and they’re really pushing for it.”
That they are, and they come downhill like an avalanche. In Game 1 the Senators held Sidney Crosby scoreless, but were killed by Pittsburgh’s special teams. In Game 2 they held Evgeni Malkin to a second assist on a power play, but Crosby had a hat trick in the first 21:15. In Game 3 they kept both Crosby and Malkin off the scoresheet, held the Penguins to a single goal for the first time since April 5, and still needed Alfredsson’s miracle goal with 28.6 seconds left to force overtime. In Game 4 the Penguins unleashed hell, though at least Malkin was scoreless again.
And in Game 5 James Neal scored three times and set up Malkin on a breakaway goal, and Kris Letang weighed in, and on and on. Ottawa got within 3-1 in the second, but the Penguins ran away, over the horizon.
“It’s a fun time,” said Matt Cooke, the man whose skate cut Karlsson’s Achilles back in February, and who was an honest poison for Ottawa in this series.
“I think that the biggest thing for us is to make sure that we harness the way that we play defence, so that that’s first and we believe, and feel that we’re going to get our opportunities offensively.”
Crosby wasn’t dominant in this series. Malkin was, occasionally. But they come in waves. In Game 5 Ottawa took a couple of dumb penalties, turned over a few pucks, and watched the scoreboard light up.
“They can handle and move the puck around so well, makes it hard for us to be physical with them,” said Senators defenceman Marc Methot, who took it hard.
“We couldn’t beat down on their forwards as much as we wanted to. That was our game plan, especially having the big defence. (But) they’re a hell of a hockey team.
“Especially the way you lose, back-to-back games the way we did, you want to put up more of a fight. But we lost to a better team. They outplayed us. They’re a better hockey club. That was the difference. I’ve never played against a team like that before.
“It’s looking bright in our future, but right now it’s just a sh— feeling.”
Ottawa fought through choppy waters like few teams this season, but this was hardly a fair fight. All series long, the Ottawa Senators kept using the phrase “in-between.” Jared Cowen used it to describe how he felt playing after his hip surgery, Karlsson kept using to describe both his own convalescence, and that of his team. Karlsson was asked if the uncertainty came because Pittsburgh could burn you so easily, so many ways. He said he wasn’t sure, but it was a part of it.
So Alfredsson talked about his family, and how it could weigh on the 40-year-old’s decision to come back next year; he is not sure. To make the playoffs, win a round, endure the injuries and all that came with them — Ottawa deserved to be the last Canadian team standing. But these were the outer limits. Pittsburgh was as far as they could go. It’s a crying shame that they were out before Mike Duffy, but there you are.
There’s hope out on the horizon someplace for Ottawa. There just wasn’t enough in the here and now.