Thursday, April 12, 2007

Playoff Memories II: 2002 2nd Round

That was a hell of a performance last night by the senators. They executed their game plan to shut down Crosby and Malkin to perfection. They benefitted from a suspect no-goal (Crosby has scored a couple of goals this year with that same movement) and carried the play physically. Their efforts to hit Malkin early, late, when he had the puck, without the puck, with their shoulders, with their knees (Schubert, I am looking at you) made the young Russian shirk from the game in a way reminiscent of another large Russian centre, Ottawa's favourite adopted son Alexei Yashin.

All kidding aside, the sens were definitely full value for their victory as they did not allow the Penguins to settle down throughout the game. Which brings me to the second installment of my as yet undetermined number of parts series on the senators playoff history. senator fans will remember the first game of the 2002 2nd round series fondly. After two straight exits at the hands of their provincial rivals they came out in a similar fashion to tonight and completely dominated the Leafs. The following highlights produced some of the same feelings as tonight's game but as you all probably remember, things did not end as well as they started. Keep that in mind as you prepare for the second game of this series which will feature a Penguins team that could not play any worse in this series and a senators team that would be hard pressed to play any better. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.

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