OTTAWA — These days, you can't relax for a minute.
Or in the case of the Ottawa Senators, 55 seconds.
That was the difference last night between confidence and crumbling — an early goal for Ottawa that should have calmed the nerves and a coughed-up gift goal for the Buffalo Sabres that once again shattered them.
So it goes as the NHL regular season winds down in Canada, where the true definition of parity is not possibilities but panic.
Related Information
- Buffalo Sabres
- Calgary Flames
- Edmonton Oilers
- Ottawa Senators
- Washington Capitals
- Maxim Afinogenov
- Ray Emery
- Mike Fisher
- Paul Gaustad
- Martin Gerber
- Dany Heatley
- Jochen Hecht
- Roberto Luongo
- Ryan Miller
- Brendan Morrison
- Chris Phillips
- Derek Roy
- Jason Spezza
- Antoine Vermette
The tensions can be found in every NHL city in the land.
Are the high-scoring Canadiens for real in Montreal? What happened to the Senators this year? Can the Edmonton Oilers actually pull off something that is likely only a mathematical possibility? Can the Calgary Flames somehow avoid coming up against the top teams in the stronger Western Conference?
What does the loss of Brendan Morrison to a season-ending knee injury — or for that matter the temporary loss of goaltender Roberto Luongo to the delivery room — mean to the Vancouver Canucks' chances?
(Morrison tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a 6-3 loss to Colorado on Wednesday, and is expected to undergo reconstructive surgery. Luongo left the club yesterday to be with his pregnant wife in Florida. He is expected to rejoin the team in time for tonight's game against Minnesota.)
Playoff hockey hasn't even begun and already the finger on the national pulse has been bitten to the quick.
"Everybody's so tight right now," Ottawa forward Dany Heatley says.
Such tightness was on high-definition display last night at Scotiabank Place, where Jason Spezza grabbed a puck early in the opening period and raced the length of the ice to put a delayed wrist shot behind Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller.
It caused a collective drop in the blood pressure among the sellout crowd of 19,883.
All the Senators had to do now was run with this break to a win and — had the Washington Capitals then lost to Tampa Bay (they didn't) — Ottawa would then have clinched a playoff spot.
But then, 55 seconds later, the Senators fell apart in their own end, Antoine Vermette failing to clear a puck and two other Senators failing to rescue him as Buffalo's Maxim Afinogenov slipped the puck behind Ottawa's Martin Gerber.
Less than five minutes later, with Ottawa trying to kill off a penalty to top defenceman Chris Phillips, the Sabres went ahead 2-1 when Jochen Hecht put a rebound past Gerber.
To Ottawa fans, it seemed a familiar pattern.
On Monday, after all, the Senators had fallen behind Montreal 7-1 before coming back in the third period to lose 7-5. Next night in Buffalo, they had fallen behind 3-1 before charging back in the third to pull out a 6-3 victory.
Coming from behind is not known as a sensible strategy to carry into the playoffs.
The Senators moved into a 2-2 tie when Mike Fisher scored a beauty after Vermette sent him in alone on Miller. Then Fisher put the Senators ahead with his second of the night, and 23rd of the year, when he tipped another Vermette pass into the Buffalo net early in the third period.
They could not hang on for the clean win.
With less than two minutes left in the game, the Sabres sent the match into overtime when Paul Gaustad tried a wraparound from behind the net and the puck went in off Gerber.
And when overtime could not decide matters in this sloppy match, they went to a shootout — which is something that is not going to happen in the playoffs.
The Senators lost 4-3 when Buffalo's Derek Roy scored on Gerber.
Relying on comebacks is hardly recommended, but having Fisher, the team's No. 2 centre, back on track is an excellent sign — as he had scored only twice in his previous 28 games.
It is hard to believe, at the end of March, that back in October and November, the Senators were the best in the NHL, but then sank to become a .500 team in the months to follow.
It is no longer a case of wondering what has gone wrong since early fall; early fall is now seen as the anomaly.
This is a team with as much defensive liability as it has offensive potential. And it features two goaltenders, Gerber and Ray Emery, who appear to be challenging for the No. 2 and No. 3 jobs.
"There's enough time," head coach Bryan Murray insisted before last night's game. "This team will be ready when the time comes."
That time is here.
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