Last year, Sabres Senators

I remember listening to Ottawa sports radio last year when the Sabres were up 3-0. Game 4 was in Buffalo. We didn't go to that one, we went to game 3 (they won). Anyway, the prevailing talk on sports radio in Ottawa was simply this: steal a game in Buffalo, win game 5 at home, and then see what happens. The fans on the other hand, called up with the 'they're done' theme. The radio guys talked of hope. The callers talked of dread.

That's where we are. The fans are pissed, and rightly so. These aren't the Sabres, it feels like. There's even a joke e-mail going around about an Amber Alert for the Sabres since they are clearly missing.

And that difference is telling. In last year's playoffs, the Senators didn't play badly. In game 2 last year, they out-shot the Sabres almost 2-1. And those are the ones that got through. Jay McKee was blocking shots at a league leading pace. And while I sat listening, smiling as they threw around what if's, somewhere deep inside of me I could see Ottawa coming back. I could see a win giving them momentum, going home. It didn't work, Sabres won in game 5, on the penalty kill, short-handed. But there was nothing easy about it. When they won, we the fans were relieved.

So, to tonight. Game 4. The talk on sports radio today is simply win one at a time. Win this one, and the series goes on ice until Saturday. And that's nice, because the Senators will get 3 days of being asked why they didn't close it out at home. And it isn't Saturday night, hockey night in Canada, it's Saturday afternoon, Hockey Day in the US. And that's something.

The game is already on NBC's schedule. It's also a chance for Brett Hull to come to Buffalo and tell us why the Senators will close them out. It's a pipe dream of epic proportions really. To expect this team to break through some tenacious playing by Ottawa will, as Lindy Ruff opined, "Take something special".

This entire post is grasping for straws. It's asking the team that seems to come back from just about anything to come back from the biggest thing. It's bleak. The team has to believe in the one game at a time mentality. The team just has to think they are special enough. I'm ready to think they have it in them. And I realize the irony from last year.