Something about Marian

Ottawa's Hossa holds the key to Game 7

The best news for the Ottawa Senators isn’t that they beat the Devils on Wednesday night to force a Game 7 in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals. It’s that they won and Marian Hossa played his finest game of the series. Hossa may have again failed to put the puck in the net, bringing his scoreless streak to nine games, but he created both Ottawa goals -- the first when he made a spectacular kick pass to Radek Bonk while fighting for position in the slot, the second when he outskated Scott Stevens for a loose puck in the corner and centered it to create a scrum in front of New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur.

It’s incredible that the Senators have stretched this series to seven games with so little offensive production from Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson and Martin Havlat, their top three players. Havlat is the only one of the three with a goal -- it came in Game 5, and it was actually knocked past Brodeur by one of his Devils teammates. Alfredsson has been certifiably awful for much of the series. He has just one assist, and a lethal combination of his bad penalties and turnovers led almost directly to Ottawa’s loss in Game 4.

Hossa’s offensive slump is understandable. He’s been shadowed by New Jersey’s defensive line of John Madden, Jay Pandolfo and either Jamie Langenbrunner or Turner Stevenson throughout the series, which is a little like trying to skip town on Tony Soprano when he’s in the SUV behind you. Plus, Hossa has taken a beating from the Devils. He probably won’t admit it, but he has been bumped and bruised more in this series than in Ottawa’s previous two series combined.

Still, the Devils have expended a lot of energy shutting Hossa down, and if Game 6 is any indication, he may be ready to break through against them. Madden says trying to control the 208-pound Hossa when he’s skating out of the corners with the puck is “like playing against a 260-pound man.” For the Senators to advance to the Stanley Cup finals, Hossa must be a hoss again in Game 7. He doesn’t have to score, necessarily, though that would be nice. He does, however, have to use his speed to get into the corners and behind the net, and then use his underrated strength to move the puck to the front of the net where, hopefully, his teammates have created a traffic jam in front of Brodeur.

So -- and this is hardly a news flash -- Hossa is the key to Ottawa winning Game 7. What do the Devils need to do? What they always have to do: keep the area in front of Brodeur clear, play patiently, and get an early lead. The most overworked statistic in this series has been the fact that both teams are undefeated in the playoffs when they score first, but it can also be misleading. The Senators have scored first in three games in this series, coughed up the lead every time, and then rallied to break a tie and win late in the game. They haven’t exactly slammed the door after they’ve jumped ahead early.

The Devils, on the other hand, are so good at sucking the life out of the game that an early deficit against them is nearly insurmountable. They scored first in Games 2 and 3 and made the lead hold up both times. (In Game 4 they blew an early advantage and fell behind 2-1, but rallied with four goals in the second and third periods.)

Of course, the Devils have blown the ultimate lead in this series, the three-games-to-one advantage they had after four games. They’ve never lost a playoff series after leading 3-1. If Hossa continues the upward arc he began in Game 6 that trend, and Jersey’s Stanley Cup hopes, will probably end.

Sports Illustrated staff writer Stephen Cannella covers the NHL for the magazine and will contribute frequently to SI.com throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.

 

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