MONTREAL — For weeks now the Ottawa Senators have insisted they were already playing playoff games, and given the precarious nature of their 23-4-4 finish to the regular season the claim seemed to hold up.
But in Game 1 at a howling Bell Centre that entire notion went up in flames.
The emotions spilled over early in this series with the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday and each team must spend the next 36 hours trying to put the lid back on a boiling pot. If not, the NHL will almost certainly do it for them.
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The Senators were incensed by the two-handed slash P.K. Subban laid on Mark Stone’s right wrist midway through the night — an infraction that drew a five-minute major and game misconduct. That wasn’t enough to satisfy Ottawa coach Dave Cameron, who came close to crossing the line with his assessment of the situation.
“I think it’s quite simple,” Cameron said after the 4-3 loss. “It’s a vicious slash on an unprotected part of his body and … I think it’s an easy solution: You either suspend him or one of their best players gets slashed and you just give us five (minutes).
“It’s not that complicated.”
The NHL is sure to get involved on a couple fronts here. Subban’s slash will be evaluated by the department of player safety — here’s betting he won’t be suspended — while Cameron’s comment will almost certainly raise some alarms in the hockey operations department.
Depending on your interpretation it could be taken as a threat, and that’s something the league obviously has to be mindful of.
However, given what the Senators are going through, some extra leeway and sensitivity should be applied to this situation.
Before taking a train to Montreal on Tuesday afternoon the players learned that assistant coach Mark Reeds had died of cancer at age 55. The news, Cameron said, broke his heart. The Senators have placed “MR” decals on their helmets and are dealing with some raw feelings.
“If you think about other stuff than hockey, it puts your emotions and your thoughts into perspective,” said captain Erik Karlsson. “There’s other things going on than just the Stanley Cup playoffs.”
Fortunately, there is no better place to get lost. Sports has often proven to be a powerful healer and once the puck was dropped in the series opener focus was easy to find.
This was a physical, raucous, entertaining game that felt like an extension of the 2013 playoffs, when Ottawa surprisingly dispatched the Habs in five.
After feeling one another out for 20 minutes on Wednesday, the teams set about pummelling each other. First Lars Eller butt-ended Mika Zibanejad in the neck and then Subban sent Stone to the dressing room. The Sens rookie carried a nine-game points streak into the night and felt like Subban was trying to injure him with the slash.
“He tried targeting me a couple times in the first period off faceoffs,” said Stone. “I think he knew what he was doing.”
Clarke MacArthur, Stone’s linemate, alternately referred to the infraction as a “lumberjack slash” and “tomahawk.”
Montreal, naturally, didn’t think it was nearly that vicious.
“It was a good Sherwood slash, like we used to say, but not to the point that it’s a major,” said coach Michel Therrien.
The status of Stone lingers as a major question heading into Game 2 on Friday night, as does the possibility of a suspension for Subban.
Either way, the rules of engagement have been set and the stakes are pretty clear. There doesn’t appear to be much separating these two teams and the difference will likely be made up in the margins.
“You’re fighting for your life now,” said MacArthur. “It’s about keeping (the emotions) in check. You know there’s going to be dirty stuff that goes on in the games and sometimes you’ve got to just take it. When you get a chance to hand it back out you do that, too.”
“The team that wins this series is going to have to be disciplined,” added Cameron.
It won’t be easy. The playoffs never are.
