Senators coach Travis Green was upset by the minor penalty handed out to Carolina's Taylor Hall after he elbowed defenceman Jake Sanderson out of Game 3 on Thursday.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
There’s been worse – much, much worse …
We will get to the Ottawa Senators’ 2-1 Game 3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in a moment, but Ottawa hospitals are first suggesting tranquilizers, a fist through the nearest wall and a short review of the past before we get down to treating Sens Nation for its latest setback.
It is nearly 34 years since the reborn Senators opened their Second Coming with a shocking 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, who would go on to win Canada’s last Stanley Cup in 1993. What is forgotten is that the Senators lost their next game 9-2 to the Quebec Nordiques.
And so, the fickle face of the fanbase was born. Win and it’s a bandwagon; lose and toss the team under the wagon.
There were many moments of despair over those early years. A 10-0 loss to the Calgary Flames. An 11-2 loss to the Washington Capitals. A 12-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.
Back then, the typical description of the Ottawa team was “hapless.” It certainly fit a great many nights.
Why, then, such a strong and angry response this week to a single-goal loss to Carolina in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs?
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Thursday evening began with a packed Canadian Tire Centre, thousands more celebrating in the Red Zone outside the gates even before the puck was dropped.
“In any other town they’d have packed it in!” screamed the Bell HD Screen over centre ice, a reference to the two previous losses the Senators had suffered at the hands of the Hurricanes: 2-0 in Game 1, 3-2 in double-overtime in Game 2.
They swore they would come back – but now Game 3 has been lost at home, and again by a single goal. Anyone looking at the scores alone would conclude, understandably yet wrongly, a “tight” series.
What, then, was the hometown response to Game 3?
“We believe!” read the sign lifted by a youngster just before the opening faceoff. By the final whistle, the number of “believers” appeared to approximate the number of Liberals preparing to cross the floor of the House of Commons.
“Brutal,” was one fan’s comment on X.
“No joke,” said another, “that might’ve been the worst game in [organization] history.”
The Senators and Hurricanes will meet Saturday afternoon in Ottawa for Game 4 of the best-of-seven.
Fans were particularly incensed over a rare five-on-three-man advantage the Senators were given yet were unable to do anything constructive with the extra two skaters.
Captain Brady Tkachuk is one of numerous Ottawa stars with zero points in the series.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said his team did “a tremendous job” in killing off that double penalty. But it wasn’t just that. It was the entire game, the Hurricanes suffocating the Senators offence to the point where it simply did not exist.
Most called out were the team stars and leaders. Captain Brady Tkachuk, slick centre Tim Stützle and stalwart defender Thomas Chabot were slammed for their entire postseason effort, the three having combined for zero points in the three losses.
“Chabot is an overrated scrub …,” railed one critic. “Tkachuk had the worst game a captain can have. Stützle is Casper the Ghost.”
Senators head coach Travis Green called the play of Stützle and Tkachuk merely “average” – which has to sting far worse than any angry fan’s shot on social media.
Ironically, those two players, plus defencemen Chabot and Jake Sanderson, were seen to be the hope of the team this spring, all having matured into superior NHL talents. Sanderson was excused from any criticism for the unfortunate reason that, early in the second period, he took a vicious elbow to the head from Carolina forward Taylor Hall.
“Blatant!” said Green while shaking his head. Sanderson soon left the game and did not return for the final period. Hall received a two-minute penalty for the infraction.
“I just don’t understand how there’s not a [major] penalty,” added Green. “Ridiculous!”
“Not fun,” Chabot said of the Sanderson loss. “That’s the biggest piece of our team, probably. So seeing him going down the tunnel is not good. He plays such big minutes. … There’s no other Jake Sanderson, so it’s a big loss for us, for sure.”
Sanderson will miss Game 4 with a suspected concussion. “He’s not doing very well,” Green said Friday.
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If Ottawa had a weak link going into this season, it was believed it would be goaltender Linus Ullmark, who had a shaky fall, required a controversial leave of absence to deal with personal issues and only turned his season around in the new year. His play in the three matches against Carolina has been stellar.
“Ullmark,” posted former Senators star Dany Heatley, “is the only player who showed up for the playoffs.”
“Power play lost us the game,” Tkachuk said of his team’s 0-for-5 record Thursday with the man advantage. “It was pretty frustrating, but we’ve got to find a way. Things don’t go your way, and we’ve never quit all season. Just got to step up to the occasion.”
The Ottawa captain said his teammates should take solace from the fact that a year ago they were able to battle back after being down three games against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Senators did not win that series, but they did not go down without a good fight.
It is not totally impossible to come back from being down 3-0 in the playoffs. Four teams have done so in 1942, 1975, 2010 and, most recently, the Los Angeles Kings in 2014.
“We know where we’re at,” Tkachuk said. “Last year we battled back. We know we can do it. Tear [this game] off and throw it in the garbage.
“We’re not out of it. Let’s go make a hell of a story.”
Special to The Globe and Mail