Cold Comfort for Canada

For the third consecutive season, a Canadian hockey team wound up on the wrong end of the battle for the Stanley Cup. And among the three (Calgary in 2004, Edmonton in 2006, and Ottawa this season), the Senators put up the weakest battle though they were clearly the most talented of the bunch.

It isn't every day that a team which won more than 45 games in the regular season, and steamrolls through the playoffs at a near-record clip finds itself hurled from Lord Stanley's Chase so suddenly. Ottawa made it through three rounds in 15 games, something not accomplished by any team in the era after all playoff rounds switched to best-of-seven since the 1996-97 Flyers did it. Edmonton has the record, going through the first three rounds of the 1987 and 1988 playoffs with two losses, and, it should be noted while the Oilers won both times, the Flyers suffered a similar fate in a sweep at the hands of Detroit.

In the late 1990's, only Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver were cited as economically viable Canadian teams due to the currency rate exchange between the U.S. and Canadian dollar and the relative size disparity between Canadian and American markets. Only Edmonton, Montreal and Vancouver competed for the Cup in the decade dominated by the Penguins and Red Wings dynasties. Yet now, thanks in part to the new economic system that attempts to keep all 30 teams competitive in the players market, three Canadian teams in three seasons have had a 50-50 shot to win.

The nature of Canadian fans with respect to their national game is such that any Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Finals gets not only its own fans' support, but that of the whole nation. This year, the fever was heightened since a team from Canada's capital, a bridge between Francophone and Anglophone communities, made a run. Nonetheless, all the cheering in the world can't make the team play well, and the Senators Finals appearance should go under the "bury-and-never-bring-up" file.

The Senators were under an electron microscope after their 2003 Conference Final flameout at home in Game 7, and last season's offensive explosion which collapsed into a second-round loss. To the shock of some, they struggled early in the season and came on strong late, and cruised through 15 games against Pittsburgh, New Jersey and Buffalo like a steam locomotive. The Senators killed 'em softly with scoring, and jarred their teeth loose with punishing defense. But all of that disappeared once the Finals arrived.

On paper, I saw a curious interlocking between Anaheim and Ottawa - where one team was strong, the other was weak, and so on in the opposite sense down the lineup. It was a seven-game series I predicted - to Anaheim with home-ice, and for the first three games it looked like the pattern held. But from the moment Chris Pronger unneccessarily elbowed Dean McAmmond in the head in Game 3, the Senators lost their focus and their resolve.

Daniel Alfredsson's mistimed puck-clear at the end of the second period in Game 4 in Scott Niedermayer's direction was just the physical manifestation of serious cracks in the Sens' armor. Dany Heatley was held to one goal in five games. Jason Spezza notched just two assists, leaving captain Alfie to shoulder the burden of the whole team - which he did admirably for two periods last night. Ottawa took the first three penalties of Game 5 in the first half of the first period and found themselves in a 1-0 hole. The ride was truly over when three of the Ducks' final four goals came as a result of miscues and bad turnovers.

Although Canadians are of a more forgiving sort, it can't sit well that the best club North of the Border to participate in a Cup since the 1990 Oilers still couldn't bring home the silver. Thankfully, it's no longer a question of cost in grabbing the best players at the trade deadline, but it remains a question of who will keep their wits about them when the pressure's on - something which the Senators may be forever doomed to repeat.

The good news is, short of a radical roster resection this Summer, the Sens are Canada's best shot to make the Finals again. They are Canada's best team right now, and certainly the most talented. Perhaps, like the Oilers of the 1980's, they have to lose to know how to win. If so, this was a big step in the right direction.