'We believe in what we're doing': Senators banking moral victories these days

In my next life, I’m going to become a fan whisperer.

There are counsellors for finance, for affairs of the heart and for mental health.

Where’s the guidance for the poor, huddled masses who identify as sports fans?

Of course, fans of the Ottawa Senators will require their own special chapter. Sens fans know it’s not enough to refrain from getting too high or too low with the usual ups and downs of a sporting season.

Here in the nation’s capital, that aspect barely qualifies as an entry point for dealing with their hockey fandom.

Ottawa hockey fans have unique scars from years with no playoff games, from previous management over-hyping its talent, from emerging out of a deep and long rebuilding program to a day when the Senators finally spend to the salary-cap ceiling — only to discover that they don’t have all the right pieces after all.

Then there is this special twist of the knife, after it has entered the backs of local fans: Your team will lose games to the worst teams in the league but surprise and amaze you with its will and fortitude against the NHL’s best teams.

It’s this latter element that came to mind while watching the Senators battle back to take the mighty Florida Panthers to overtime on Tuesday night, one day after beating the once-feared Tampa Bay Lightning the night before.

This inspiring surge of hockey comes after Ottawa dropped games to teams ranked 30th (Anaheim) and 32nd (Chicago) in the league.

To be fair, the Senators played a strong game against the Blackhawks on Saturday and deserved better than a one-goal loss.

But, hey, this is just another topic to talk over with your neighbourhood fan whisperer.

Losses to basement teams do hurt. No matter how much effort your team puts forth.

The Senators’ 3-2 overtime loss to the first-place Panthers on Tuesday was either a cruel tease or opened eyes to the possibilities for this group in the future.

Surely, Ottawa fans can have nice things too, including a team that can legitimately hold its own against the likes of Florida, Boston and Vancouver while also taking care of business against the lesser lights of the league.

Good teams are poised. They don’t let an early lead bother them.

Leads don’t get much earlier than Aaron Ekblad’s goal just 19 seconds into the game, beating Ottawa goaltender Joonas Korpisalo high to the glove side.

The Senators fell behind 2-0 on a goal by Brandon Montour in the second period.

This would have been an appropriate time to think about folding the tent. It was Game 2 of a back-to-back series in Florida, after all, and the Panthers were well on their way to winning their sixth straight game.

Maybe it was the leadership of Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, playing against his brother Matthew, with their mother and sister in the crowd. Maybe it was just the nature of this Ottawa team that it rises up against the cream of the NHL, but the Sens inspired their hurting fans with a furious rally in the third period. A goal by Thomas Chabot gave them life and a brilliant solo rush by Tim Stützle tied the game with more than half a period to go.

In the final minutes of play, overtime felt inevitable.

The Senators had played it smart for most of the game, blocking 29 shots and putting 30 shots on Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who had to be sharp to keep his team from losing in regulation.

As proud as Brady Tkachuk was of his team’s comeback, he was still lamenting his own miss in overtime, a crisp wrist shot that Bobrovsky just got a piece of with his blocker.

“We showed a lot of great things coming back there in the third period,” Tkachuk told reporters afterward. “I’m just disappointed, I had the game on my stick in overtime and didn’t help the team get the extra point.”

In truth, there was nothing to fault there. The Senators did all they could to win this one — all that their fans could hope for — and lost on a sneaky, sharp-angled shot to the roof of the net by Anton Lundell at 1:36 of OT.

Even Ottawa’s beleaguered goaltending has looked better — with consecutive strong games from Anton Forsberg and then Korpisalo.

No rest for the weary, the Senators returned from Florida to enjoy a brief day off Wednesday and then play host to two more tough teams on Thursday and Saturday: the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights.

“There’s some big dogs coming,” was how Tkachuk put it.

“We believe in our game,” Tkachuk said. “We believe in what we’re doing here.”

Fans believe it too — some of the time.

And that is where it gets tricky for general manager Steve Staios and his staff as the trade deadline approaches.

What is real and what is fool’s gold with this team and its character?

Have the Senators turned the corner — or will they run into a transport truck just around the bend?

Regardless, in my next life I am here for you.

The Fan Whisperer, to guide you through the glorious highs and scary pitfalls of being a Senators fan.

Once I figure it out myself.