OTTAWA — It could have been two days to ponder probability. Two days to fret about their precarious position in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But instead the Ottawa Senators used the extended layoff before Wednesday’s potential elimination game as an opportunity to clear their minds.
STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS: | Broadcast Schedule
Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE | Stanley Cup Playoffs Fantasy Hockey
New Sportsnet app: iTunes | Google Play
“It gave (us) a chance to step back from this mammoth mountain we’ve been trying to climb and just get away from it, and kind of let the air out,” coach Dave Cameron said after a season-extending 1-0 win over Montreal.
“We’ve been under the gun here for a long time and that extra day just to step back, and step out of the fire as we call it, and look at the whole scenario: I thought it was good for our team.”
There’s no telling how any group of players will react when down 3-0 in a playoff series. It is the ultimate test of will and determination. So we came to Canadian Tire Centre on this night to see if a Senators squad that has been scratching and clawing since mid-February had anything left.
The extra off-day apparently paid dividends.
Ottawa played with the kind of urgency a coach demands, especially during a third period that started at 0-0 on the scoreboard. The Sens needed this game while Montreal merely wanted it. The subtle difference was evident.
“We just didn’t want it to end,” said Ottawa winger Mark Stone. “We enjoy coming to the rink every day. We enjoy seeing each other every day. … We know that if we have once hiccup our season’s over.
“We’re confident, we’re comfortable, and we’re just trying to take it step by step.”
They haven’t accomplished much, at least not yet. A loss at the Bell Centre on Friday night would still make this look like a lopsided series in the history books.
However, that kind of thinking is only for those that chronicle the Sens, not those that pull on the team’s sweater.
One of the most admirable qualities of this underdog has been its ability to compartmentalize every situation. Fourteen points out of a playoff position on Feb. 9? No problem. Facing a potential sweep on home ice? No worries.
The focus has merely been on maximizing the possibility held within each day — a simple notion preached by many, but actually lived by the Sens.
“One of the biggest challenges of coaching in this league is the length of the season,” Cameron explained. “If you start looking at 82 games and all that, or in this case you’re behind in the series, you just become consumed with ‘it’s too big of a mountain to climb.’
“It’s the same when we were behind trying to close that 14-point gap. We never really got into the mathematics of it; we just said two points at a time, and that’s the same we’re going through with this.”
There is no longer any mystery to how they’ve managed it. This is a team in the truest sense of the word.
What started as the unlikely story of third-string goalie Andrew Hammond going on a miracle run has morphed into veteran Craig Anderson reclaiming his crease without dropping the baton. He barely played for two months and has now stopped 75 of 77 shots in the last two games.
His 28-save shutout on Wednesday was badly needed with Carey Price on form at the other end of the ice. Anderson’s biggest moment came when he stared down Brandon Prust on a short-handed breakaway, although Prust’s shot hit the side of the net after a nice deke.
Cameron wasn’t even sure he would start Anderson until the morning of Game 4, but there will be no question about who is in Ottawa’s net for Game 5. It’s quite a turn of events for a goalie with just six appearances on his scorecard since late January.
“I think it’s just a matter of willpower,” said Anderson. “That’s what it comes down to, just sheer determination to go out there and do the job. I had a lot to prove after sitting out for so long and being out with injury.
“You just want to come back and do your best and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Sportsnet Magazine Stanley Cup Playoffs
Edition: The six reasons why Carey Price can take the Montreal Canadiens all the way. Download it right now on your iOS or Android device, free to Sportsnet ONE subscribers.
The winning goal came from Mike Hoffman, an offensive source that can equally be labelled likely and unlikely. The 25-year-old rookie may have scored 27 times in the regular season, but he also started the night on the fourth line.
After eventually being bumped up, he found himself with the puck in the high slot and a perfect Mike Zibanejad screen to beat Price. Hoffman didn’t miss the opportunity.
“It was just a hell of a shot,” said Stone.
And so they play on, for at least one more night anyway.
Montreal obviously remains the heavy favourite and will have an entire city on its side the next time out, but nothing is guaranteed in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Every game in this series has so far been decided by one goal and more than half of them elsewhere fall into that category as well.
What the marathon to the Stanley Cup is intended to identify is the team that can endure the stiffest challenges without buckling. It is a mental exercise as much as a physical one.
“They have a lot of pride,” Habs forward Max Pacioretty said of Ottawa. “That’s a gutsy team over there.”
For now, this Sens season can still be about possibility and hope. It certainly beats the alternative.
