ALLARD: SENS HARD-PRESSED FOR ENCORE

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators will share his thoughts on Ottawa's hockey team at various points throughout the playoffs.

I don't know what the Senators can do for an encore but their performance in last night's opening 6-3 win vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins was near-perfect.

Let me try and put it this way. Had they delivered many more games in past playoff series like the one we've all enjoyed watching tonight, my page would most certainly not be called The Smarting Senators.

It was an awesome display of fast skating, tight checking and thunderous hitting by the entire squad, save for goalie Ray Emery who wasn't tested seriously. The Penguins mustered only 12 shots on Ottawa's net in the first two frames, finishing with 26 to the Sens' 37. Emery did make a few good saves though, including a crucial one with the score still only 2-0 for the home team in the second period when he stoned Michel Ouellet on a partial breakaway after Redden gave it aWade.

To put things into their proper perspective, the Penguins probably played one of their worst games of the year so expect a tighter and closer game on Saturday. To be fair, Pittsburgh was also victimized by the atrocious officials who curiously ignored a few Sens infractions while giving Ottawa power play opportunities, including a pair of 5-on-3s in the last half of the first period when the score was 2-0, but the Senators gave us a nervous glimpse of deja vu all over again when they were unable to deliver the knockout punch during those man advantages.

That was about the only blemish though, other than in the last eight minutes of the game when the referees seemed intent on evening the penalties, which then resulted in the Pens scoring their last two goals to make the game seem closer than it really was.

In the last four minutes, Ottawa was also manhandled by a clearly frustrated bunch of Pens wanting to leave them a little message for the next game and it could have gotten ugly in the last shift as coach Bryan Murray inexplicably sent Antoine Vermette and Patrick Eaves out with tough guys Georges Laraque and Jarkko Ruutu on the ice for Pittsburgh.

It's no stretch to suggest that captain Daniel Alfredsson probably played, just like the rest of his teammates, the best playoff game of his career and from the very first shift, the Senators were playing with such a reckless abandon that you would think they wanted to exorcise all of their nightmarish playoff demons with a single stellar game.

I'm not sure how it would have all played out but seconds after Dany Heatley made it 4-1 to open the third, Sidney Crosby scored what looked like a sure goal when he slid toward Emery's net. The puck went in off his right leg but the COTU video judges ruled it a no goal on a night where everybody seemed to be taking the position of: "OK, Sid, let's just see how really good you are, all on your lonesome self."

Now, before I get overly excited and proclaim the Senators ready and able to go very far this post-season, I'll wait until 6 p.m. Saturday afternon to see if Ottawa will be able to sustain this with a second consecutive solid effort and leave for Pittsburgh armed with a comfortable 2-0 series lead, a luxury they have never quite been able to present themselves with in their previous nine playoff appearances.

Sorry, but I've been burnt way too many times before at this time of year to get all giddy and start foolishly dreaming of a Cup, though a few more outstanding games like tonight is sure to make a believer out of this dissident as well as many other skeptics, I'm sure.

For now, Sens GM John Muckler gets to be totally right for a night.

P.S. Probably lost in translation during the in-between segment of Oaf's Corner was the fact that while Don Cherry continued to display his patriotic love for this country by honouring the seven Canadian soldiers that died in action last week, and two more yesterday, he also continued to reveal his moronic and bigoted traits when twice he referred, and with a smirk at that, to Senators' former coach Jacques Martin (pronounced as the former PM) as Jack Martin (as in Mountain).

Quel imbécile ce type. An ultimate hypocrite is what Donald La Cerise really is.

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.