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Change on the fly ... please Senators need to change their style before it's too late
Posted: Sunday April 16, 2000 10:39 PM
By Ken Fidlin, Toronto Sun Earlier this year, they saved the hockey team in Ottawa. Great. So, when are they going to do something about the hockey itself? A careful, defensive style of play may have paid dividends for the Senators during the regular season the past few years but, for whatever reasons, it has been an abject failure when the playoffs roll around. It is happening again. Last night's 5-1 Toronto Maple Leafs win in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference quarter-final is just the latest chapter in the Sens recent legacy of spring rupture. GOING HOME Now, a two-game deficit is hardly insurmountable, especially since the Senators are heading back to their own friendly confines for Games 3 and 4. "They are going to be a really desperate team," Leafs captain Mats Sundin said. True. But how much Stanley Cup failure does a team have to endure before somebody concludes that this is just not working? That maybe, just maybe, we ought to go to plan B? Ottawa has now lost eight consecutive playoff games and 10 of the past 11, stretching back two years, when the Washington Capitals dispatched them in five games in the second round. We are talking about a team that has consistently been among the top handful of teams in the NHL's Eastern Conference, yet can't get its act together to win a game in the spring. Last season against Buffalo, they came into the playoffs as the second seed overall and were utterly embarrassed by the seventh-place Sabres, swept aside in four games. The 2000 playoffs have not exactly begun in grand style again, down 2-0, having scored exactly once against Curtis Joseph. From a historical perspective, in those 11 most recent playoff games, they have scored precisely 14 goals. Now, how are you supposed to beat anybody -- and don't even talk about the entertainment factor -- playing that kind of dreadful brand of hockey? If the Senators are to salvage much of anything from this series, they are going to have to start playing to win instead of playing not to lose. It's hockey, not chess. If you are going to go to an early playoff grave, at least go with a little self-respect. "I've always been one to say 'Let's just go ahead and play,' " Leafs coach Pat Quinn said. That approach can, of course, unleash its own ugly can of worms, but at least the players go down playing a robust, guns-blazing style. This was a hockey game that could have been over a matter of minutes after the opening faceoff. Ottawa is normally a tidy defensive outfit but the aggressive Leafs forced them into surrendering at least a half-dozen gilt-edged scoring chances in the first period. It started in the first minute when Dmitri Khristich and Nik Antropov each had a chance alone in front of goalie Tom Barrasso. A few minutes later, it was Darcy Tucker blowing in on net unmolested. On the first power play of the night, Tomas Kaberle had his labelled shot snapped up by Barrasso's glove hand. A few minutes later, it was Tucker again, beaten by Barrasso on the short side. During the course of the period, Ottawa somehow outshot Toronto 10-8 but that statistic hardly reflected the scoring chances, heavily weighted in Toronto's advantage. That trend ended with stunning swiftness in the second period when the Leafs scored three times within the first four minutes and eventually took a 4-1 lead to the dressing room after 40 minutes. At that point, the game was over. Quinn is making no promises for tomorrow night's third game but figures his team will at least go into the Corel Centre with some confidence. "But confidence is such a fleeting thing," he said. "You can lose it in one shift. Based on tonight, I think they'll be confident, but who knows?" Two years ago, with many of the same cast of characters they have now, the Leafs tried to play this same kind of dreary defensive hockey, perhaps hoping to bore their opponents to death. WHAT A CONCEPT When Quinn arrived on the scene in 1998, he brought a novel concept with him that actually involved scoring goals. The result has been two of the most entertaining seasons of Leafs hockey in recent memory. Under those circumstances, even the bad games can be fun to watch. Apparently the Senators style is just successful enough to make people think it is the way to go and maybe, just maybe, they can ride it into the next round of the playoffs. But don't count on it. Their own history is not on their side. Ken Fidlin's column appears Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. He can be reached by e-mail at kfidlin@sunpub.com
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