Down and Out

My beloved Ottawa Senators were unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs in the second round again. Sigh. Whenever this happens I think back with pain to 2003 when the Sens were one goal away from the Stanley Cup Finals and probably victory. This time they were nowhere near close.

A lot of finger pointing is going to go on here in Ottawa over the next few weeks, and a lot of the blame (including my own) will fall on Alfie. The fact of the matter is that after they lost so horribly in Game 1 they never recovered any confidence and that is where the Captain has to step up and lead the team out there on the ice to regain momentum. It almost looked like Alfredson panicked and took the rest of the forwards with him, clutching their sticks to their chests and were trying too hard to score from the perimeter when really they needed to be in Miller's face. But as much as I blame the captain of the team, I wonder if I would be typing this had Hasek been healthy. Consider: one less goal for Buffalo in regulation time in any of the games they won and the Senators are winning the series 4-1. Even just preventing an extra goal in two games is enough for a tight series instead of the walkover we experienced. I'm not saying Emery was bad, just not great enough for the Stanley Cup. Not yet anyway.