OTTAWA -- Brief and to the Point ...
"No game is harder to win than the fourth."
Trevor Daley told me that regarding Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final that takes place here Tuesday night between the Penguins and Senators. It's not exactly an original thought, but it's as relevant as it gets.
And here's hoping, in turn, that Daley and his teammates stayed up Monday night to catch the Predators' wild 6-3 victory over the Ducks in Game 6 of the Western Conference final, one that clinched the first Stanley Cup Final berth in the Nashville franchise's two decades in the NHL.
Because that's how these elimination games tend to go.
Anaheim dominated just about every tangible way: 41-18 in shots, 73-35 in attempted shots, 43-26 in faceoffs, 21-17 in hits ... and even overcame a two-goal deficit late to tie.
And if that sounds familiar, then maybe you recall the Blue Jackets pumping 51 pucks at Marc-Andre Fleury in their elimination game at PPG Paints Arena. Or the Capitals prevailing in not one but two elimination scenarios, Games 5 and 6, before the Penguins had to summon for Game 7 what still stands out -- from this perspective, anyway -- as their best effort of the spring. They were outshot, out-everythinged ... but Fleury's 29-save shutout was the override.
For that matter, I'll remind of Game 5 of the Final last June, when the Sharks were the ultimate buzzkill.
I'm not suggesting the Senators are the Capitals, or even the Blue Jackets. They aren't, not at any position, certainly not in goal. But I do feel comfortable suggesting that Daley's assessment, one being repeated again and again by Mike Sullivan, Sidney Crosby and all concerned over the past 48 hours, is more than some trite sports cliche.
"I think, when your back's against the wall, you maybe play a little differently," Daley elaborated. "It's kind of strange. You don't feel as much pressure, even though maybe you should. You play looser. But at the same time, you're playing with a huge urgency. The motor's really going. You know your season might be over, so you're not saving anything. You just go out there and fly."
The Ducks were flying, for sure. And it took an extraordinary push in the final five minutes for the Predators to bring them down.
No less will be needed to complete the other conference final.
• I'll save any views on the Predators and any potential matchups in the Final for when they'd mean something. But I will reiterate: The Western team that was best equipped to challenge the Penguins head-to-head in every way was the Blackhawks.
I still feel that way, insane as that might sound, based on matchups. But I'll obviously also concede that Nashville's spectacular first-round sweep of Chicago crushes any direct comparison point between those two.
• James Neal vs. Patric Hornqvist?
Wait, I promised I wasn't going there, right?
• OK, OK, but just this one: Losing Ryan Johansen to a season-ending hip injury in this round, coupled with Mike Fisher being out, leaves the Predators without two prominent two-way centers. That's no place to be against the Penguins.
No more. I swear.
• Some might have taken it as sour grapes, but I loved Randy Carlyle, the Ducks' coach, publicly complaining about the NHL's ridiculously compacted every-other-day schedules for the conference final. As Carlyle put it, "That was our seventh game in 13 days, and we were just never able to be ourselves."
Sure, the Predators had the same schedule, but the general point stands tall. The quality of hockey at this most pivotal juncture of the playoffs suffers immensely. These players are drop-dead tired, limping around, beaten and bruised, and then they're right back out there after barely a full night of sleep.
And for what? So we can have 82 regular-season games all spaced out?
The Final is slightly different, offering two-day breaks when there's travel. The conference finals needed to have the same.
• The Senators are having a legitimately hard time selling out Game 6. We're told 'thousands' of tickets remained as of late Monday night, and that was bolstered by the team website's home page pushing hard for additional sales and, on top of that, team CEO Tom Anselmi pleading publicly via Twitter for fans to avoid what would be a massive embarrassment:
Tmrw 8pm, biggest game of the year, lots of tix, let's fill the place, the guys need us more than ever, we're all in this together! #GoSens
— Tom Anselmi (@TomAnselmi) May 22, 2017
