Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Morrison delivers his insights into the world of hockey, on and off the ice.
Senators, Sharks share similar regrets
Comments (7)
Sunday, April 29, 2007 | 01:56 AM ET
By Scott Morrison
The question for the day: what do the Ottawa Senators and the San Jose Sharks have in common?
Both are harbouring deep regrets.
And if they aren't, they should be. Here's why:
Both won their second-round series openers on the road.
Both had a chance to take a stranglehold on their series in Game 2.
But both are returning home with a split.
Now, gaining the split in the first two games is the stated goal of every team. It is right out of the NHL-issued handbook of sanitized quotes, right behind giving 100 per cent and right after taking it one game at a time. But as with a lot of things in life, it quite often is how that result is achieved that matters as much, if not more, than the result itself.
In the case of the Senators, after a whacky 5-4 victory in their opening game in the Meadowlands, they languished through the opening period of Game 2, got much better as the night wore on, battled back from a two-goal deficit to earn a late tie with the New Jersey Devils and forced overtime. During that overtime, they had not one, not two, but three power-play opportunities, golden opportunities to put the Devils away, certainly for the night and quite likely for the series.
But they couldn't close the deal, losing 3-2 early in the second overtime. Eight times in their history they have won a series opener, eight times they have failed to go up 2-0.
Now, it could be worse, much worse in fact, than heading home tied at a game apiece. And they can take solace in that. But the playoffs, or at least the playoffs for teams that go deep, are about taking advantage of opportunities to put teams away, otherwise they can come back and do the same to you. And the more long series you play, the less chance you have of winning the big prize.
In the opening round, the Senators twice blew leads at home in the second game against Pittsburgh and allowed the Penguins to return home with a split. That's when the Senators showed their mental grit and ran the table on the young Penguins. Returning home themselves now, the Senators have to take it up a notch against the Devils, who have seen the worst of Martin Brodeur and earned their split, and are a lot more experienced and playoff savvy than the Penguins. Put simply, the Devils will get better before they get worse.
As for the Sharks - a team not unlike the Senators, who also have experienced their share of broken hearts in playoffs past - they comfortably won their series opener with the Red Wings, 2-0 in sleepy Detroit the other night. In Game 2, on Saturday afternoon, they were comfortably winning again, ahead 2-0 less than five minutes into the day, when eventually they self destructed, made unforced errors, committed turnovers, allowed a short-handed goal and wound up dragging Detroit kicking and screaming into the series, handing them a 3-2 win and the split they wanted.
It's not a perfect comparison, but last spring, in the conference semifinals, the Sharks played Edmonton. In that series, San Jose won the first two games at home, by a goal each night, and was leading the third game, in Edmonton, 2-1 after two periods. That night, the Oilers fought back to tie and eventually won in triple overtime. The Sharks never won again, lost handily every night after, an opportunity to seize a series wasted. And sometimes that's all it takes, one game to swing the momentum, which can be difficult to swing back.
But now the Sharks head home with a split in their series, having achieved their stated goal, but like the Senators, it isn't always the final result, but rather the denouement.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
This discussion is now Open. Submit your Comment.
« Previous Post | Main | Next Post »
Post a Comment
Viewpoint »
About the Author
Scott Morrison, the recipient of the Hockey Hall of Fameís 2006 Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award, has been covering hockey for 25 years. The Toronto native began his career at the Toronto Sun in 1979. After spending more than 11 years as a hockey writer and columnist at the paper, Morrison became Sports Editor in 1991 and led the section to being named one of North America's top-ten sports sections in 1999 - the first sports section in Canada to receive the AP Sports Editors North American Award. Scott, a former two-term president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, joined Rogers Sportsnet in 2001 as Managing Editor, Hockey, and is currently both a commentator on Hockey Night in Canada and a columnist for CBC.ca.
Recent Posts
- Listen to Grapes - touch icing is dangerous
- Friday, March 21, 2008
- Pronger's suspension not enough, but not far off
- Tuesday, March 18, 2008
- NHL standings should not reward division leaders
- Wednesday, March 12, 2008
- Neck guards, like visors, will be a player’s choice
- Thursday, March 6, 2008
- Sens' problems deeper than Paddock
- Wednesday, February 27, 2008
- Subscribe to Viewpoint
Archives
- March 2008 (4)
- February 2008 (14)
- January 2008 (9)
- December 2007 (8)
- November 2007 (9)
- October 2007 (8)
- September 2007 (5)
- July 2007 (1)
- June 2007 (7)
- May 2007 (8)
- April 2007 (12)
- March 2007 (5)
- February 2007 (5)
- January 2007 (7)
- December 2006 (6)
- November 2006 (8)
- October 2006 (8)
Comments (7)
Martin
Calgary,Alberta
The best thing I every heard from A liberal was when Ken Dryden told his fellow politicans they should butt out & mind there own business when it comes to the Shane Doan issue.
Go Team Canada,
Martin
Posted May 3, 2007 03:44 PM
Jim Lahey
Sunnyvale
They both are not sharing similar regrets today Scott. Both are up in their respective series' 2-1.
Are you sharing a similar regret today for posting this story?
Posted May 1, 2007 01:36 PM
sensfan
ottawa
i agree scott
after seeing the play of the sens tonight im more confident we can beat the devils.
maybe if u get the cup. cbc might actually play all the saturday night sens games like they do with the leafs. watching the leafs play this season was less exciting then picking out socks.
the sens have finally have a mature hold on there offence and defence.
go sens go
Posted April 30, 2007 11:30 PM
Tim Jackson
Yes, it would have been nice to come home from NJ up 2-0 for the Sens. However, it seems that the media is quite happy to heap disappointment on Ottawa for not running the table on (insert team here). Let's not forget, the Devils are not exactly a sub-par team. I seem to recall more pundits have called for NJ to end up in Cup Final than Ottawa.
Posted April 30, 2007 10:38 PM
S. WILLARD
Luongo and Beauchemin were team mates playing for L'Acadie Bathurst Titans of the QMHL. Interesting!
Posted April 30, 2007 02:27 PM
Rich Klinger
Ottawa
Ottawa had a tougher than usual regular season this year. They showed a lot of determination the way they battled back in the second half.
This is a new Sens team. They're determined, and they dont lay down. As far as I'm concerned they are the most well rounded team in the league. Solid on D, amazing offense, and a goaltender playing above his talent level.
Posted April 30, 2007 12:09 PM
Shaun Bowman
Kelowna
Also reminds of the ANH/VAN seris where the ducks at home thou,could have slammed the door on the Canucks.They were outplayed even though they missed some great opportunity to score in gm 2,they lost to a severly injured team.Canucks win tonight then Anaheim is looking at a must win game on Tuesday.And there is always a good team that you must put away and the Canucks are that team this year
Posted April 29, 2007 01:02 PM