Senators Notebook: Avoiding crushing defeat improbable, but not impossible

OTTAWA — Do or die is too literal in the context of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Nonetheless, a playoff sweep of the Ottawa Senators by their arch nemesis the Toronto Maple Leafs will surely crush the fans, the players and the organization for an extended period of time. 

Nothing the Senators have tried has worked, from changing the lines, playing more disciplined to even Nick Cousins’ best warmup shenanigans that cost himself and the Senators some coin.

Travis Green said that the Cousins incident with Toronto’s netminder Anthony Stolarz “happens more than you think.”

You know what doesn’t?

Coming back from 3-0. Only four times in 207 attempts has a team overcome a 3-0 deficit in a series to win. 

The message is clear.

“One thing I know about our group, we never went away and we won’t go away,” said Thomas Chabot. 

“We have a lot of character in this room and we’ve shown it a lot of times over the last couple of years. It goes back to, we know what we have in this room in terms of humans and hockey players and we’re going to believe it until the end.”

Ottawa does have a member of their team that completed the reverse sweep: Claude Giroux. 

He was on the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers who roared back from a 3-0 deficit against the Boston Bruins. 

Giroux imposed some of his wisdom from that endeavour to his fellow teammates. 

“Just a brief conversation,” said David Perron about Giroux’s message to the team. “Nothing more, nothing less. No headlines.”

But the Senators aren’t trying to overstate the improbable. The clichéd one game at a time was rinsed, repeated and then restated again from players. 

“If you’re going to lose, you are going to lose playing your best and that’s what we are looking for out of our group tonight,” said Green. 

Interestingly, Green felt Ottawa’s Game 3 where they took their first lead was their “worst” of the series. 

“I thought Toronto played really well but when I say worst, we weren’t bad,” said Green.

When asked where Ottawa could improve for Game 4, Green was his usual coy self. 

“That’s between us and the players.” 

Asked if there would be any lineup changes up? 

“I’m expecting there to be 20 players out there and you’ll see the lines when you get here.”

What we likely can expect is that Shane Pinto and the “third line” will be essentially the second line. So far in this series, Pinto alongside Ridly Greig and Michael Amadio have played more than any other Senators line combination at five-on-five. Meanwhile, Pinto has played almost 10 minutes more than second-line centre Dylan Cozens at five-on-five this series — Pinto playing 47:31 to Cozens’ 38:22. 

In the off-season, general manager Steve Staios will need to address ways for Cozens and the second line to become more effective and not a defensive liability. Cozens and linemate Drake Batherson have been on the ice for three of the Maple Leafs’ seven five-on-five goals, the most of any of the Senators forwards. 

Speaking of five-on-five play, the Senators only have three goals in the first three games that have come at five-on-five. The attempt to move Fabian Zetterlund up in the lineup to some spark offence with Cozens and Batherson hasn’t worked. Ottawa still hasn’t been able to create enough but, more importantly, they simply haven’t capitalized on their chances.

“We’re right there,” said Jake Sanderson. 

On the surface, Toronto’s stars have pounced and Ottawa’s have not.

One of the Senators’ marksmen had a simple solution to score more than two goals, which Ottawa hasn’t done through the first three games of the series.

“Just get the puck, and shoot it,” said Zetterlund. 

The Maple Leafs have blocked 68 shots, the third most in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Senators had 30 per cent of their shots blocked, which is the third-highest percentage in the playoffs.

If Ottawa can start getting shots through, it could change things. 

It’s also hard to win if you’re always trailing, which the Senators primarily have done in this series.

A part of taking control of a game is getting the big save. Simply put, Ottawa hasn’t got the saves and Toronto has. 

Linus Ullmark has the lowest high-danger shots per 60 minutes of any goaltender that has played at least two games in the playoffs. In conjunction, Ullmark has the worst save percentage of those goaltenders who have played at least two games in these playoffs. Telling. 

His coach isn’t worried. 

“First game, he probably didn’t like his game,” said Green. “I thought the next two games he’s been pretty good. He hasn’t faced a lot of shots, he’s had a couple of funny goals go in the net. The ones that have beat him, he’s probably been screened on, minus the Matthews goal the other day.”

The Senators will need Ullmark at his Vezina-calibre self to have any chance to win tonight and to claw back in the series.

“We trust him,” said Zetterlund. “He’s one of the best goalies (in the world).”

The emergence of Tyler Kleven has been a bright spot for the Senators, who has been outstanding in his playoff debut. After each game this series, Kleven’s ice time has increased.

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“It’s definitely the most fun hockey I’ve ever played,” Kleven told Sportsnet.ca pre-game. 

The third pairing that Kleven anchored with Nikolas Matinpalo could have been a weakness for the Senators. It’s been anything but that, although in relatively sheltered minutes. 

The third pairing has been on the ice for all of Ottawa’s three five-on-five goals while only on the ice for one goal allowed, while having a solid 50 per cent expected goals share. 

Good stuff.

Kleven has brought his trademark physicality with his six-foot-five, 221-pound frame, while also providing poise on the puck.

“I love playoff hockey. I think that that’s where my game kind of shines,” Kleven told Sportsnet.ca.

“I feel like I can go out there and play my game. I don’t think I’ve changed the way I’ve played. I just want to try to win puck battles. And I think that kind of plays into my game with the physicality part.”

Regardless of the outcome of Ottawa’s playoff series with Toronto, the Senators have learned that Tyler Kleven is built for playoff hockey.

The Senators did not practise Saturday. Here is the expected lineup for Game 4 against the Maple Leafs:

Tkachuk-Stutzle-Giroux
Zetterlund-Cozens-Batherson
Greig-Pinto-Amadio
Cousins-Gaudette-Perron

Sanderson-Zub
Chabot-Jensen
Kleven-Matinpalo

Ullmark starts

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