Senators need change of scenery

Published Saturday, June 2, 2007

OTTAWA (AP) - The flag of the Ottawa Senators flies throughout Canada’s capital, flapping closely next to the red Maple Leaf in front of hotels, office buildings and in car windows.

It was also spotted outside a funeral parlor, which could be an omen if things don’t change tonight on the home ice of the Eastern Conference champions.

The Senators are back on familiar ground after dropping the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals to the Anaheim Ducks in Southern California.

Ottawa is getting set to host the championship series for the first time in 80 years. That’s when the original version of the team won the 1927 championship. The city is hoping for its first Cup victory since the Senators were reborn in 1992.

So far, the Ducks have carried the play and looked dominant. Quite a change for the Senators, who flew through three rounds in the East by winning each in five games - including a thrashing of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres in the conference finals.

Two one-goal losses in Anaheim put the Senators on the brink of making a quick exit, and they will need to make the most of their first home game in 17 days to change the slippery slope on which they’re sliding.

"We feel we can be a lot better, and I feel playing at home is going to bring that out of us," Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said yesterday. "We fought a lot of adversity throughout the year, and I think the way we responded makes me comfortable going into" Game 3.

The Senators dropped four of their first six games in the regular season and were 7-11-1 before a spurt in which they won eight of nine. Just when it seemed Ottawa had turned things around, a 2-6 skid put them squarely behind the Sabres in the Northeast Division.

Ray Emery took over for No. 1 goalie Martin Gerber, and the Senators rode a 10-1-1 surge past the .500 mark - a level of mediocrity they didn’t approach again the rest of the season.

This kind of trouble is a whole different issue, though.

"There’s always adversities through every series," Alfredsson said. "Our approach now is Game 3. That’s the biggest game of the year for us.

"Everybody has got to go out there and play their best. Don’t look too far ahead, don’t look at what’s happening in the previous rounds or games."

Emery has stopped 120 of 129 shots over the past five games - including 59 of 63 against Anaheim - but is only 2-3 to show for it.

"He’s exactly what we expected," Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf said. "We’ve been playing against pretty good goaltenders all the way through here, and nothing changed in this series. He’s a great goaltender who competes hard and we’ve just got to find ways to get pucks behind him."

Players arrived at Scotiabank Place yesterday morning for a team meeting before practice. No one was too forthcoming about the details of the get-together, but expect some new wrinkles when the Senators hit the ice tonight.

"It’s top-secret plays," defenseman Chris Phillips joked. "It was an upbeat meeting, talking about some things in the game plan that we’d like to do differently. And for the most part it was a positive meeting."

The Senators have scored two power-play goals in the series, neither from their top-line forwards. Anaheim’s Jean-Sebastien Giguere is making a case for another Conn Smythe Trophy, going 11-3 with a 1.75 goals-against average in the playoffs and coming off a 1-0 victory in Game 2.

"We feel we made life too easy on them the way we’ve played," Alfredsson said.