To seize the day, the Senators will need to stick to their guns
It’s impossible to pinpoint exactly when it first started floating around in their minds.
Not when they first met the new coach with the foreign system he fed them that was advertised as being for the greater good, but would come at the expense of personal gains. That was initially tough for them to swallow.
And not when they suffered through the low-tide moments, both on the ice and in their lives.
But when everything started to click and they saw what the results of Guy Boucher’s 1-3-1 structure could produce, the inkling gained traction. Around that time, they started thinking this was at least possible.
Now they know it. And if nothing else, they’ve earned the right to mock.
“It’s funny how people still doubt us,” veteran Zack Smith said after the Senators made like Oliver Twist and picked a victory out of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ pocket on Tuesday. “They count us out. It’s quite amazing.
“It’s like they haven’t been watching us all year.”
What those of us who have been watching all year notice is an Ottawa team that has heightened its level of resiliency the past few weeks. First by coming back from two 4-1 drubbings in New York that were worse than they looked on the scoreboard and then by dusting itself off from the carnage that was a train wreck in Pittsburgh.
And now, as the Senators head to the deciding game of the Eastern Conference final, the greatest test of their character awaits them.
At PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night, they are challenged with knocking out the defending champs.
They need to grasp this moment, for it may never come again.
To arrive at only their second Stanley Cup final in 25 years, the Senators must not forget their identity. Surely they know this after losing by seven goals the last time they were in Pittsburgh. Clogging up the neutral zone and guarding the fortress around Craig Anderson while relinquishing mostly chances from outside a 25-foot radius is their only hope.
And even that might not be enough to beat the determined Penguins.
The 36-year old Anderson, who has never been this close, will likely need to play the game of his life. Mike Hoffman will have to carry over the same tenacity he had in Game 5. Bobby Ryan will also need to duplicate his effort from Tuesday, when he again gave the Senators the power forward they’ve never before had.
And Erik Karlsson — who has been good, but has not yet returned to the greatness status he had against the Bruins and Rangers — will need to have his best game of the series.
“We just told ourselves we’re going to play the best that we possibly can,” Karlsson said after the Senators staved off elimination.
“And not only certain guys, every guy. Whether you play five minutes or 20 minutes, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to need everybody. And I thought we got that today.”
They’ll also need that Thursday, when one win will pit them against the league’s 16th-seeded team in a wrestle for hockey’s Holy Grail. By no means are the battered Nashville Predators a pushover, but if the Senators can sneak by the Penguins, they might actually be favoured in the final, when they’d have all sorts of confidence and home-ice advantage to boot.
“Nothing is accomplished yet,” said Karlsson. “We have a long way to go. This is our last chance to achieve something great. We’re going to have to take care of the things we can control. And if we do that, we like our odds in here.”
The vast majority remain doubtful of the Senators. Like they haven’t been watching them all year.
“They’re obviously still the favourites for a lot of people,” Smith said of Sidney Crosby and Co. “But that’s been the case all playoffs. This is what we wanted, a Game 7. Anything can happen. I think anyone who has watched playoffs over the years knows that. They’re a great team. We’ve just got to make sure we’re a lot better than the last time we were in their building. “I know we will be.” The “boring” Senators will need to be even more than “better than the last time” they were in Pittsburgh to complete another chapter in the unlikeliest season of their existence.
They need their brand at its very best. They owe it to themselves and to all the people in their corner fighting a much bigger fight. For Bryan Murray. For Nicholle Anderson. For Jonathan Pitre.
They have to grasp the moment.