ALLARD: CROSBY DROPS A DAGGER ON THE SENS, AND BOY DOES IT SMART

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators will share his thoughts on Ottawa's hockey team at various points throughout the playoffs. Here are his thoughts following Pittsburgh's 4-3 win over the Senators in Game 2.

Once again, the Scotiabank Place crowd mirrors the hockey team it loves so unconditionally: Both have their ducks grossly misaligned. They can't find their vocal chords to outcheer some 8,000 members of Leaf Nation, yet reserve their loudest boos for a teenager who is about to save the NHL from its worst enemies, Gary Bettman and his Bumbling Barons.

So much for booing Sidney Crosby even more often and louder than they did in Game 1, thanks to an Ottawa Citizen hockey column by Hugh Adami that inexplicably found itself on the front page of Friday's edition denouncing Ottawa fans for dissing the 19 year-old phenom and which, as expected, had the reverse effect.

So maybe the partisan Ottawa crowd should have instead booed their team loudly and profusively in the first period when they came out flat and were simply unable to sustain the tremendous effort they gave us in the opening game of this series, a 6-3 win for the Senators.
But really folks, did you expect Daniel Alfredsson and his Senator mates to come out flying and take a 2-0 lead in the series, seeing that Ottawa has never managed to accomplish this in its nine-year run of consecutive post-season appearances?


From the opening face-off, the jump and spark that was in every Senators' skater in Game 1 on Wednesday was simply not there. Hard to figure this team who keeps bringing in new players every year but alas, ends up with the same tired old results: Lack of killer instinct.

So the Senators lost Game 2 and the difference in the 4-3 score was the first period where the Pens took the lead on a Ryan Whitney power-play goal, although the Senators did blow two third-period leads.

The game, largely uneventful for the first 30 minutes and the scene of far too many bad bounces -- say, is Il Divo a circus act or what? -- finally picked up in the second half after the score was knotted at 1.

Near the end of the period, Penguins pest Colby Armstrong again ran Ray Emery (for the third time in three games) and inexplicably, he was the only one that drew a minor, meaning that the softies on the ice at the time for the Senators (Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenkov, Alfie, et al.) once again didn't care to send a message to the Penguins. Face it, any other team than Ottawa and you get someone that jumps on Armstrong and rearranges his face. But not for the Brave Centurions with the curious "Turn The Other Cheek" logo. Especially since they knew he had already drawn a minor and a little payback would only have offset the goalie interference minor.

Instead, it was pint-sized but big-hearted Mike Comrie who invited Armstrong for a dance right after the puck was dropped to start the third period. And that folks, speaks volumes about the Senators' makeup.

The third period finally gave fans full value for their money when play was furious and the game ended up a see-saw battle, with Ottawa unable to hang on to a one-goal lead twice. First, when Gary "Sapristi" Roberts scored at 2:04 on a power play after Mike Fisher was sent off for slashing. After Chris Kelly let go a wrister that found its way to the back of the Pens only four minutes later to make it 3-2 Ottawa, Gary Roberts (that man again) nailed Wade Redden behind his net, allowing Michel Ouellet to pounce on the free puck and feed an unguarded Jordan Staal, who then simply had to shoot it past a surprised Emery.

The time was 9:04 and I swear I could have heard a giant collective hush sounding like "Oh No." Just 2 minutes later, with the Senators' top shutdown defensive duo on the ice, Mark Recchi and Sidney Crosby joined forces, like they had done so many times this season, to score the prettiest goal of the night when all Sid had to do was redirect the 39-year veteran's crisp pass across a sprawling Phillips near the goal mouth and past Emery for the stunning winner, with Volchenkov helpless on the other side of Emery.

Ottawa outshot Pittsburgh 37-21 but the Pens fared better in the faceoffs won, 36-25. Dany Heatley finished the game with no shots on nets and will have to pick up his game in Pittsburgh tonight at 6 p.m. He already used up his mulligan last spring. And once again, the officiating was atrocious (Penguins only had three power plays to Ottawa's nine -- do the freaking math) and in that sense, it was poetic justice that the Pens prevailed, because from where I sit, they "was jobbed,", again.

The Senators could have had it much easier, going on the road up two games. Now, they've let a young but formidable opponent back in the series, and who knows what's next. Not to fault Emery but I'm looking for him to stop those third-period pucks when his team is leading.
And some of you still wonder why my page is called Smarting?

Jean-Pierre Allard is a freelance writer who has been following the Expos/Senators for MVN since 2004. In addition, he has covered the Ottawa Senators since 2004-05 on MVN and now will chronicle the 2007 Ottawa Lynx, the Philadelphia Phillies' Triple-A team.

His work has also been published in the Washington Times, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province and Ottawa City Woman Magazine. As a sports historian, he has also appeared on Global TV, CBC radio and SRC radio.