I'm a diehard SENS fan.. and I must say, we definitely did not deserve to win game 1 or game 2. Anaheim is playing great at shutting down our top line, and even when we switch up the lines, they still find a way to hold us off the score sheet. There were a couple of moments though, where the SENS showed life. Comrie hits the post on the 5 on 3, Shaefer misses an empty net, and Emery played unbelieveable.
Now that the series is coming back to Ottawa, we shoudl all expect the loudest ovation, and the loudest fans scream and cheering on the SENS...
and now since we will be playing on good ice where the puck doesnt bounce like a basketball like it did in Anaheim, we will have the speed and finesse back to take the next FOUR games, and win it in 6...
GO SENS GO!!

your columns are funny the past will not help the sens now they never really played this type of physical game for an extrned period or as consistant as the ducks smash them, GOOO DUCKSSSSS Were going to Rough them up, beat them up, and shut them up plain and simple!!!!!! smash mouth hockey at it's best

Bad turnovers? Being outworked at both ends of the ice? Failing to generate shots or capitalize on power plays? Games that look close on paper because of the heroic efforts of the losing goalie? The Senators are playing like the Sabres they just beat.

It's not like the Sens got destroyed. They lost both games by 1 goal & could have had 2-3 goals in the 1st period of Game 2 is they got a bounce or two. Look for Ottawa to win both games 3 & 4 at home, they can match lines the way they want to, then lose Game 5 in Anaheim. Anaheim should have enough momentum being 1 win from the Cup to win Game 6 on the road.

Game 3: Ottawa 6 Ducks 2. Mark my words.

Marking your words would be much
more meaningful, if you did not
sign as anonymous.

Gack!! I was trying to forget 1971 and Mr Muir brings it back vividly for me! Not only did Chicago blow a 2 game to nil lead they were up 2-0 in game 7 to boot! Then Jacques Lemaire scored on Tony Esposito from centre ice! And Dryden robbed Jim Pappin with a leg stuck out in "rapier like fashion" (God I miss Danny Gallivan)!

Anyway, Ducks are clearly better, Way more shots on goal. More hits, although Ottawa hit better last night than in game 1.

The Senators #1 line is playing poorly. Heatley should have gotten an assist on Pahlsson's winning goal and Alfredsson bailed on a potential hit on Sami on the same play. They get what they deserve.

And they currently deserve to lose in 5. I can't see them coming back and sweeping both home games. The Senators' faithful will be rabid prior to game 3 and they should pull that game out. But the Ducks should prevail in game 4. My opinion only I know.

But why oh why does Bettman schedule these games 2 days apart between cities? I was looking forward to a 2 game weekend. Friday and Sunday. But no. There must be something I'm not getting about this because it makes no sense at all to me. Oh well, at least it's Saturday night.

The Sens are toast. They may extend the series to 6 or even 7 games, but they still lack the heart to win. As all their losses to the Leafs in the past proved, you beat Ottawa by beating them up. They can't win a war in the playoffs and the Pens, Devils (current version) and Sabres are not warrior teams. In a finesse game the Sens can dominate, but it's in the corners and in front of the net that Stanley Cups are won. Which the Ducks are proving.

The Sens only played well for about 5 minutes total in the game. The Ducks did a much better job staying out of the penalty box, which didn't allow the Sens the chance to build any momentum as they did in previous games.

I don't think the Sens will get swept (they should steal one at home), but I do think this has shown how good the Ducks are.

Anonymous at 2:16 put it well -- the Senators are playing the Sabres of the last round. I think the better team makes the other team look bad. Ottawa did it to Buffalo and now Anaheim is doing it to Ottawa.

Look for the Ducks to keep dumping it in the corners and then crush the Ottawa defence. Redden will be a pancake by the end of this thing.

Detroit lost the series to the Ducks while generating 35+ shots in most of the games. Unless Ottawa can somehow get more SOG (20 shots in game 1 and 16 in game 2 isn't going to cut it), this series is going to be over by game 5.

As an American living in Canada I am tired of listening to Canadian sports shows constantly talking about how great the Senators are and that the Anaheim doesnt deserve the cup because they play in CA. Revenge is going to be sweet when they parade the cup around Disneyland

Why is anyone so surprised that Ottawa is having difficulty against Anaheim? Completely ignored in the Sabres series was the fact only the Spezza line was doing anything against Buffalo. Ottawa scored a total of three even-strength, non-Spezza line goals; two of those in a Game 4 losing effort. Now the Spezza line has to take on a true checking line (which Buffalo doesn't have) that is one of the best in the league and two of the top three defenders in the NHL in Pronger and Niedermayer.

Why aren't more people talking about the complete lack of production from Ottawa's forwards. The only forwards that looked remotely dangerous in that Buffalo series were Spezza, Heatley, Alfie, and Fisher. So what happens when you neutralize three of the four? You're seeing it right now. I'm just saying that this isn't all that surprising. Ottawa was skating by with offense from only one line in the Conference Finals. It's catching up to them now. If Vermette, Comrie, et al., don't snap out of it, Ottawa won't even get the chance to make it interesting.

I think Ottawa gets to Giguere and takes Game 3. Anaheim will respond and take Game 4. From there, Ottawa, facing its first adversity of the postseason will fold like a tent as the always do at the first sign of playoff trouble. Ducks in 5.

The Sens are afraid of the physical play except for O'neil & Fisher. Spezza does not belong on the ice. Ducks win in 5.

Game 2 was called better by the officals, but still, how in the world do you call Pronger for that slash to give the sens a 5-on-3? This was the only time the sens had any life in this game. How strange it would have been if they scored. I thought both teams were given weak penalties in the first period.

After this series is over, ducks win, I would have to say the top 3 teams in the league are the ducks, wings, and sharks. The sharks did meltdown in the 2nd round, but that was against the number 2 team in the NHL. If they played the ducks in round two, they might have been playing for the cup right now.

I hope NBC doesn't have another dead horse story to interrupt this series. OT might be exciting to watch.

Good comments all comparing Sens to Sabres previous. Buffalo had no answer to Sens forechecking, except to work a bit harder (which they did in games 4 & 5), but they were ultimately doomed. Sens can't out-ugly the Ducks, so have to come up with something else, or they also are doomed.

Sens biggest problem (amongst several) has been the complete idiocy with which they approach the Ducks blue line. If Spezza, Alfredsson or Heatley try to cut across the blue line while carrying the puck again, they should be stapled to the bench.

As someone above me put it - they are getting out-uglied. Dumping the puck with Pronger, Niedermayer and Beauchemin going back to pick it up won't be easy, but their current strategy is just generating offense for the Ducks via turnovers.

Not to mention that after these turnovers, they are more than a little lackadaisical on the back check.

Woooo go Flyers

the sens are doomed! they have never been able to beat physical teams,the leafs beat them four straight years and the devils too, when they had stevens and niedameyer
so will the ducks

Alan Muir, I am finally happy that you are saying positive things about the Ducks. For a while, I thought you were an Anti-Duck writer. But you have shown that you do notice the great things coming out of the Anaheim squad. I feel really bad for what the Sens are going to be recieving when they play Game 3 on Saturday. They are definately gonna have a bit of a boost of confidence, playing at home, but the Ducks will prevail. I'm gonna be bold and say the Ducks in 4, but realistically, it's gonna be Ducks in 5.
GO DUCKS!!!!! The Sens will be DUCKing from Pronger and Niedermayer. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Sens have had it easy so far. The Flying V is going to take them down 4 straight. Quack, Quack

No offense, no shots, no goals, it sucks when you get anything going and all you can do is keep trying. If you notice on the reply of the Paulsons goal, Alfie didn't even try to backcheck, he stopped skating and there you have it. Vinnie

No offense, no shots, no goals,...you lose! It sucks when your team can't get anything going. If you noticed the replay of Paulson's goal, Alfie stopped skating and didn't even try to back check. It will take allot of hard work for the SENS to get anywhere now.

Did anybody else see the story here about TV ratings for the final?

They pretty much confirm my theories as to why the NHL should be ripped kicking and screaming from The Excited States. Nobody outside of a few fans in Anaheim give a flying FIG about the finals.

OK maybe a few hard core fans elsewhere but for the most part the Yanks have TUNED IT OUT.

I will admit that the weather is too nice to devote 3 or more hours of my life on game day to watching it live even for myself but I am TIVOing it (PVRing it here in Canuckistan) and watching nothing but game action (and of course Don Cherry).

But as usual all the "paying customers" in Tampa Bay, Hot 'Lanta, Nashville, etc. have tuned it right the FRELL out (Farscape reference).

Am I suprised? Not a chance. Is Gary Bettman? He shouldn't be. It is Situation Normal All FUTZED Up.

And his week layoff between rounds for sure added to the overall apathy.

Regular season way to long, playoffs to FRICKING spread out.

OK, I have to end now. I've run out of other "F" words to substitute for the real thing. I'm going back downstairs to watch my VHS recordings of Larry Sanders. Ah Larry, it eases the pain....

"As an American living in Canada"... No Canadian sports shows are saying the Ducks don't deserve the cup because they live in Cali... they may have made the Sens the favorites because they were duped by the sens weak competition. They may wish the sens would win so that the cup would be held by a Canadian team (though most of Canada is likely cheering for the Ducks... a recent poll had it 65% to 35% in favor of the ducks in Canada). But most of the media is criticizing the sens and praising the ducks for their play... nobodies knocking the ducks for being in Cali, give it a rest dude (and I hope the sens lose in 4).

apparently the nine day layoff between the buffalo series and this one gave Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson just enough time to hear all the stories about how great they are.

In the first 3 rounds they were skating hard in both ends of the ice, hunting down the puck like ravenous dogs. Alfie was hitting everyone in sight on the forecheck.

Right now, they're thinking that they can just dipsy doodle into the offensive zone, they've gotten away from what worked in the first place.

Hopefully the extra day off will give the Sens the time to come to their senses.

You're not in trouble until you lose one at home.

You gotta believe. GO SENS GO!

Why do we always talk about beating one another up, kicking so-and-so's butt, etc. We should all just share the Stanley Cup among all teams and not be so angry all the time. This is what happens when you eat too much red meat...

Quiet Hippy!

The ratings are so low because almost nobody has VS. It's not included in basic cable most places.

Go Ducks!

as other's have pointed out, vs. is not part of basic cable, it's not even part of a minimal upgrade on my Satellite provider. In order to get Vs, i have to purchase every other channel out there, and if only picking up the CenterIce package makes me less of a Canadian, then so be it. I'm a Leafs fan, what do i need Cup finals coverage for...?

Considering the viewership wasn't exactly through the roof on ESPN in the same story I doubt the difficulty of getting VS would change things much.

We'll see when NBC takes over.

And again, why is game three not tonight. And game 4 on Sunday. 2 games on a weekend sounds better than one Saturday and one Monday.

Now that Versus is finished with teir coverage of the finals, I can return the digital cable box to Time Warner. Go Quackers!

Go Ducks! Go Teemu! You can sweep them !

the sens are done... you can see it in their eyes. If the only thing Coach Murray can say is that 'we'll be competitive', that means he knows that he is outmatched. Barring fluke goals or bounces, this series is over. The Ducks are simply the better team this year.

I am die-hard Anaheim and Chris Pronger fan. I was very dissapointed to see the average ice time Pronger has logged in these finals is 28:00 Min. I say put him on the ice for 35+ minutes and he will make the every senator's life miserable. That guy is a workhorse and the best defenseman in the league.

What do the Cleveland Cavliers and the Ottawa Senators have in common?
They both lost the first two games of the finals. The Ottawa Sens are just losing the series 2 - 1 now. You can throw all your stats about teams losing the first two games out the window. After game four it will be 2 - 2 and a best of three series. What are the stats on that? Stats are for loosers!!!

Let's drop the biggest "no show" for Ottawa down a couple of lines while he is deciding if he wants to play or not, Mr. Heatley. Move Oleg Saprykin up to left wing on the first line and see if he can shake things up a bit.

As a hockey fan, I would love to see Pronger suspended again for his BS elbowing. He's a goon now, and not the sharpshooter from the blue line he was last year.
As an Oilers fan, he should rot in H-E-double hockey sticks.
VS is hard to find, but they do excellent coverage, but don't look for a lot of sports bars in the US to put the Stanley Cup over any basketball game. Trust me, I live in FL.

First point - Pronger is a great player, but he's still cheap and undisciplined. Suspend him for the remainder of the playoffs.

Second point - Hey sens fans, the conversation is different when it's your guy knocked out cold by a cheap hit on the ice, eh? Cheap hits are cheap, regardless of whether or not they are legal.

And do you now want to revisit the argument that how someone somehow deserves a concussion because he was 'admiring' his play for too long? Ridiculous argument then, and ridiculous argument now.

Third point - Emery has *not* played unbelievably. Stopped some good shots, but let in too many he should have stopped. He's played well, but not nearly what all the Sens fans have been claiming. Informal poll - *for all the non-Sens fans* - considering the 8 starting playoff goalies in the east, where does Emery rank?

Emery will not lose the series for the Sens - Spezza et al are taking care of that by playing like they have in playoffs past - but Emery is also unlikely to win you the series either.

When all is said and done, I went to school with McDonald so I am inclined to support the Ducks. But I'd really like the East to win too. Good game last night. Send Pronger to the showers for the remainder. And Sens keep playing your hockey - you could make this a great series...