ALLARD: BREAKING OUT THE BEAVER TAILS ON THE TRAIL OF LORD STANLEY

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 now that the Senators have finished off the Penguins and Sidney Crosby.

That was easy. Perhaps too easy, in a strange kind of way.

A series clinching shutout for Ray Emery, his first in the playoffs, a very economical five-game win over the Penguins -- though Patty Eaves and the A-Train might beg to differ, and 6-7 days to regroup and nurse the suspected injuries to Dany Heatley and Wade Redden, just to name two obvious ones.

Even those two players even managed to put in a solid effort last night, which bodes very well for the next series, scheduled to start either next Wednesday or Thursday against one of those three teams from The Big Apple.

All in all, that makes make Bryan Murray a very happy camper right now. He's pushing the right buttons at the right time, stands up for his team and plays the all-important gamesmanship that his predecessor, Jacques Martin clearly was incapable of.

What else can a fan ask for? Granted, the 16 of the Penguins had never tasted a playoff game before this year and it showed, but let's give credit to the Senators before touching on how they will fare against a tougher, more mature team in Round 2. That said, keep in mind that if the Islanders somehow come back from a 3-1 deficit to upset the Sabres, and the Lightning knock out New Jersey, Ottawa would suddenly becomed the top seed in the East and get a chance to resoundingly boo comrade Alexei Yashin.

I had to chuckle when I heard the CBC’s Greg Millen last night mention Christoph Schubert and team MVP in the same sentence, because that is exactly what I wrote on the eve of the series opener, though in not those precise words.

OK, maybe that's pushing the envelope a tad but he is undoubtedly a very important cog in the Sens' tank, just like the unsung PK units who totally shutdown the Penguins' potent power play, especially in the last three games when Sid and his Kids went o for 16 on the PP.

Emery also raised his play when it mattered most, turning into a mini-Rock of Gibraltar in stoning the Penguins in the first period last night.

And while I still have difficulty hearing the boos directed towards Mr. Crosby at Scotiabank Place, it is nevertheless another sign that the Senators have come of age in the league -- they can now count on its boisterous home crowd to serve as the seventh player.

Now if some crazed fan could just start a tradition of his or her own, à la Red Wing Octopus, and start throwing a beaver tail on the ice - not the animal, but the world famous pastry that has become a staple of Ottawa's Winterlude on the Rideau Canal and summertime on the Byward Market -- and continue until the team has amassed 12 more victories, then we might be able to supplant Detroit's Hockeytown tradition and get the bragging rights to Ottawa being Hockey Country.

Because from what I've seen so far, these Senators are working as hard as any fine Canadian beaver.

Penguins, be damned.

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.