OTTAWA — The thing about caring about a sports team is that you put yourself out there.
You buy the gear. Wear it in public.
You wave the flag. Let your neighbours know you’re “All In,” to quote the latest playoff rally towel in Ottawa.
You put your hard-earned dollars on the line, paying inflated playoff prices (although Senators games are more accessible than most) to buy tickets, pay for parking, plus food and drink at the rink.
You’re fine with all of that so long as your team puts on a show and rewards your emotional and financial investment. Does what is necessary to have a bit of success at this time of year.
And so we’re here to report that the Senators and their fans suffered terribly together during a stinker of a Game 3 at the Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.
A 2-1 win by the Carolina Hurricanes — taking a 3-0 iron grip on the opening-round series — has never looked so lopsided.
If the Canes could hit an empty net, the game might have been 3-1 or 4-1. Or, if goaltender Linus Ullmark had been anything less than stellar in keeping the Sens in the game, the score could have gotten away early.
In the words of a visiting reporter speaking to Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour, the Canes put a “wet blanket” on the proceedings in Kanata, Ont.
“Well, that’s how you want to play on the road in the playoffs, for sure,” Brind’Amour said. “At the end of the night, if you can say that, it’s usually a good thing.”
Depressing for the home crowd and its team.
Fans came early, dressed in everything from ancient Sens sweaters in the name of Daniel Alfredsson and Marián Hossa to the younger group wearing Nos. 18, 7 and 85. They loaded up on $5 beers as a live band belted out tunes on the concourse outside Gate 1. The sun shone, and temperatures were in double digits.
Once inside, Lyndon Slewidge got them fired up with his O Canada rendition, waving a rally towel during the crescendo while mouthing the words: “Go! Sens! Go!”
Fans roared at the first hits of the game, an early Sens shot.
But when little Logan Stankoven – when did he turn into Guy Lafleur? – scored at the five-minute mark of the first period, heaps of air seeped out of the building and the atmosphere never recovered.
Of course, there was a roar when Drake Batherson tied the game. Batherson is what passes for Ottawa’s prolific producer – he has two of the team’s three goals in three games.
Carolina came right back to take the lead, however, and it felt as though the Canes could do what they wanted.
Oh, we need another goal? Let’s go get it.
And then they resumed suffocating the Senators on every shift.
Enough has been said and written about Ottawa’s anaemic power play in this series. O-for-all of it. Let’s just say that when offered a 5-on-3 situation for nearly a full two minutes in the second period, it would have been better for all concerned if the Sens had just declined the opportunity.
Their almost comical inability to keep a puck in or complete a simple pass sucked whatever life was left in the rink.
Which didn’t transpire suddenly, this erosion back to the atom-level execution. This is what happens when a team of playoff-hardened men makes an inexperienced team like Ottawa resemble awkward boys at their first school dance.
Remember back when the Senators had some gumption in Game 1 on the road in this series? Then they actually looked downright dangerous in the second half of that thrilling double-overtime evening of Game 2.
But by Game 3, as Carolina reasserted its defensive might, Ottawa’s best players reverted to the worst forms of themselves.
As someone said in the press box, Tim Stützle looked like he was 19 again, trying too hard and falling, literally, in the effort.
Brady Tkachuk reverted to the pissed-off punk. Jabbing Jordan Martinook for an interference call in the middle of the third when the focus should have been on getting the equalizer. Somehow. Some way.
Asked about the play of his nominal best forwards, Stützle and Tkachuk, who were held off the scoresheet for a third straight game, head coach Travis Green described their play as “average.”
At this difficult time, I hesitate to get into a discussion of semantics with the coach, but “average” is described in my handy Oxford dictionary as the “usual amount.” Or the statistical average involved.
In the case of the captain and Stützle, the average would be around a point per game. They’re not even close.
Stützle had one shot on goal on Thursday. Tkachuk, two.
We know what the coach really meant by “average.”
Translation: Sub-par. Not good enough.
Late in the game, still miraculously just one goal away from sending this dreadful event into overtime, there was so little push from the home side, unable to penetrate that crusty Carolina layer, that Hurricanes players took turns taking shots at the empty net. Missing every time.
By this point, fans had been venting on referees and linemen, who did not have a great night.
Fans took issue with icing calls, non-icing calls, but especially with the two-minute minor penalty against Taylor Hall for a blatant hit to the head of Ottawa’s best defenceman, Jake Sanderson. In the collision, Sanderson’s helmet flew off, but a gamer that he is, he jumped right back at Hall, delivering a punch.
This seemed to signal to the refs that he was OK. And that a minor would do.
Where was the five-minute major call that would have necessitated a review, and at least a chance to take a second look at the hit?
They did that with the Tkachuk penalty, ultimately dropping it from a major to a minor.
Sanderson played another shift but eventually left the game after playing just 13 minutes.
If he can’t go on Saturday, along with his partner Artem Zub, who’s been out since Game 1, then Game 4 could be truly depressing.
A year ago, the Senators found themselves in a 3-0 hole and rebounded to push the Toronto Maple Leafs to six games. Note to all: these aren’t the loosely organized Leafs on the other side, but the Canes with their military precision.
During a monosyllabic post-game address, Tkachuk promised they’d fire up a response.
“The fourth one’s the hardest to win, and I believe, still, in this group,” he said, as deadpan in delivery as the Sens were dead in the water in Game 3.
“It’ll make a hell of a story.”