Tilt versus Bruins ‘playoff game’ for Sens
OTTAWA — For weeks, the Ottawa Senators have dreamt of putting themselves in position to make some noise in the East playoff race.
On Tuesday, comes a chance for their fans to make noise and for the team to make the entire NHL take notice of Ottawa’s terrific late-winter run.
The big, bad Boston Bruins vs. the Senators. At the Canadian Tire Centre.
For the Senators, it’s the biggest game of the season — at least until March 19 when the teams meet again here. With 76 points, the Bruins have a five-point lead over Ottawa, but the Senators have played one less game.
With a hometown win, the gap would close to three and the Bruins might gulp at the tightening race (the Florida Panthers are four points back of Boston, but have played two more games than the Senators). An Ottawa loss stretches the Bruins cushion to seven points and puts a hurt on the Senators’ chances of qualifying as one of the top eight clubs in the Eastern Conference.
Now is the time to prove that little romp through California, Minnesota and Winnipeg was no fluke and that the 10-1-2 record over Ottawa’s past 13 games is an indicator the Senators are this year’s version of the team that gets hot at the right time.
“This is a playoff game,” said Senators defenceman Mark Borowiecki. “This is our playoff game right now. This is the team we’re chasing down.”
The Bruins hold good cards, of course. Led by the crafty Patrice Bergeron, the nasty Brad Marchand, an aging Zdeno Chara and recent rookie call-up Ryan Spooner, the Bruins are the “cap” team, the club that’s supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender. The Senators are the “budget” team picked by The Hockey News to finish seventh in the Atlantic Division and miss the playoffs for a second straight season.
The Bruins are laden with veterans, with many holdovers from that 2011 championship team. The Senators don’t have a Cup winner on their roster, among the youngest in the NHL.
Does experience necessarily win out in these onegame clashes in a wild-card chase?
“It’s a big factor if you have it,” says Senators head coach Dave Cameron. “If you don’t have it, it’s a great opportunity.”
Thanks to the building media hype, Cameron says, players have a pretty good idea of the significance of this game on home ice. If anything, the Senators’ coaching staff will be downplaying the hype as outside noise. For example, Cameron refuses to coin it a “must win,” because, as he says, “what happens if you lose it?
“From a coaching point of view, we’re just going to approach it like any other game. Let’s just focus on how we have to play, that gives us the best chance.”
Cameron also believes starting Craig Anderson in goal gives his team “the best chance” against the Bruins, never mind that Sunday’s wild 5-4 shootout victory over the Calgary Flames was Anderson’s first start since Jan. 21 due to a hand injury.
Andrew Hammond was the cameo darling of the Senators 7-0-1 record from Feb. 18 to Friday, but he won’t play now unless Anderson falters, gets hurt or possibly in one of the backto-back game situations coming up.
Typically, Hammond says he’s fine with that. After all, he was an American Hockey League goalie until an emergency recall at the all-star break.
In eight career NHL starts, all during this run, he has yet to lose in regulation.
“It’s honestly not about the streak, it’s just trying to get as many wins as we can as a team and keep getting points,” Hammond said Monday.
“I’ve played a lot of games lately ... sooner or later you’re going to wear down a little bit and I think, with Craig being healthy, it’s a smart move.”
There’s the class of Hammond. Humble when he was a hockey hero, now gracious as he steps aside.
The way Cameron tells it, Anderson and the young Senators are facing the same old structured Bruins.
“You could watch the Boston Bruins, their game, four years ago,” Cameron says. “They don’t change. Their strength is they do it, they do it hard and, for the most part, they do it for 60 minutes.”
Coaches say these things about opponents. But four years ago, the Bruins were a third-place team in the conference, not eighth. They finished with 103 points. The next year? 102 points. Last season, they were first in the Eastern Conference with 117 points.
These are not the same Bruins. They are mediocre on the road. They are terrible in the shootout (2-7). Their defence is more vulnerable than the corps that won the 2011 Cup.
There’s a reason the Senators are within striking distance of the Bruins.
Now they have to carry out the strike.