PITTSBURGH – The Ottawa Senators spent the entire lockout-shortened season defying the odds, but they had absolutely no answer for the juggernaut known as the Pittsburgh Penguins.
This was complete and total dominance.
Resignation hung heavy in the air even before James Neal scored for a third time on Friday night and the hats came flying out of the stands like a joyous snowstorm at Consol Energy Center.
From the drop of the puck in Game 1 through to the final buzzer in Game 5, the Pens attacked in wave after impressive wave. It seemed like they were in control of the puck the entire series.
Eventually, the pesky Sens had been worn down to pulp.
“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,” Ottawa defenceman Erik Karlsson said after the series-ending 6-2 loss. “That’s why they are where they are, and we’re standing here.”
Added Sens coach Paul MacLean: “I hope they don’t bill us for the clinic.”
It was textbook hockey.
And with the Penguins now halfway home to the Stanley Cup, it’s worth pondering who might stop them. They’ll certainly be favoured in the Eastern Conference final whether they face the Bruins or Rangers.
“I’ve never played against a team like that before,” Senators defenceman Marc Methot said. “The closest I could think to that in terms of having dangerous players maybe when I was in the playoffs (with Columbus) against Detroit in 2008.”
Of course, that Red Wings squad went on to win a championship.
The biggest thing Ottawa noticed during this second-round series was that beyond all of the big names on the backs of the Penguins sweaters is that they played as one. This is what happens when you take Crosby and Malkin and Neal and Letang and Iginla and get everyone on the same page.
“Just because you have star players doesn’t mean you’re going to win,” said Senators goalie Craig Anderson, who spent the series under siege. “It’s how you come together and play as a team. They’re well-coached over there and they work well together.
“Everyone’s pulling in the same direction on that team and it shows.”
How many ways can we measure the quality of Pittsburgh’s play this post-season?
Try at least four goals in nine of 11 games so far and 12 more in total than any other team in the league. Special teams? They are first on the power play and third on the penalty kill.
Even Tomas Vokoun, Pittsburgh’s one-time backup goalie, has a stellar .941 save percentage in these playoffs and has won 16 of his last 18 starts dating back to the regular season.
“We played a better team and sometimes there’s not much you can do,” Karlsson said.
In a solemn Sens dressing room after Game 4 in Ottawa, Methot told sportsnet.ca that “we’re up against a monster here.” Boy was he right. Ditto for captain Daniel Alfredsson, who said it was “probably not” feasible to beat the Penguins three straight times.
Can anyone take four of seven from them?
Neal scored five goals in the final two games of this series as the second line took a turn carrying the offensive freight. Earlier, it had been a hat trick from top-line centre Sidney Crosby that helped Pittsburgh get a jump on Ottawa.
And it was the fourth unit – which looks like an embarrassment of riches with both Brenden Morrow and Jussi Jokinen on it – that opened the scoring in Game 5 when Morrow charged hard to the net and redirected the puck behind Anderson.
The Penguins never let up.
“From the forwards out we’re wearing teams down with our speed and our physical play and it shows,” Neal said. “If we continue to do that we’re going to be a tough team.”
There is almost a toying element about them.
Ottawa was allowed the briefest bit of hope in the latter half of the second period on Friday night after Milan Michalek scored to make it 3-1 and Colin Greening had a chance from in close. However, he couldn’t lift a shot over Vokoun’s pad and the puck was cleared from the zone.
The next thing you know Jean-Gabriel Pageau was turning it over in the neutral zone and Neal was finding a streaking Malkin for a breakaway.
Boom.
Penguins 4, Senators 1.
“Once you give a team a lead like that, they step on your throat,” Methot said.
Added Alfredsson, who may have played his last NHL game: “We weren’t able to slow them down enough to stop them from scoring.”
The final 20 minutes ticked away relatively quietly – save for Chris Neil getting into it with Douglas Murray – and by the time James Neal finished off his hat trick the Penguins could start looking ahead to a couple of well-earned days off.
A few fans in the upper reaches of Consol Energy Center, which witnessed its first series-clinching game since the doors opened in 2010, took to chanting “We Want The Cup! We Want The Cup!”
They just might get it.
“They really had us on our heels for almost every game,” MacLean said. “I think we really got a little bit of a lesson of what it really takes to continue to play in the Stanley Cup playoffs from a very good team.”
Ottawa had a good season, a surprising season, and saw first-hand how much more it will have to grow before truly chasing a championship.
The Penguins received a bit of a scare in a six-game, first-round series against the New York Islanders and now look like they’re just warming up after learning some lessons of their own.
“I think our desperation is there,” Crosby said. “We found out pretty quickly that it’s not that enjoyable to play in your own end a lot. We had times, especially in the first round, where it took away from our offence because we were having to play in our own end.
“I think the more diligent we are there, the more opportunities we’re going to get offensively and that’s a lot more of the game we want to play.”
The other NHL teams still with a pulse have almost certainly taken note.