Ottawa Senators were closer than you'd think in 2007 Stanley Cup final

Cue the inspirational speeches and clichés; the season was officially on the line for the Senators. At home, with 2-2 on the scoreboard, and facing a rejuvenated Ducks squad that didn’t need anymore inspiration before their captain was rattled, it was time to lay it on the line.

Dustin Penner, who hadn’t scored since Round 2, had other ideas.

In a play with haunting similarity to the third-period winning goal in 2003’s heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference final, a few Senators were caught with their pants down.

In that game, Wade Redden was caught defending two Devils after defensive partner Karel Rachunek was caught up ice and did not make a quick decision on which Devil to defend. Devils winger Grant Marshall got the puck through Redden’s legs to Jeff Friesen, who had an easy shot. In the blink of an eye, the Senators’ season was done.

Fast forward to 2007. Chris Neil and Chris Kelly got caught up ice forechecking, which led to both Penner and Teemu Selanne rushing freely towards the Ottawa blue line. This time, it was Redden’s split-second decision that was costly; instead of standing up Selanne physically at the line, he turned to chase Penner and both got in cleanly and despite a momentary bungling of the puck, the mistake allowed Selanne to find a charging Penner, who had a wide-open cage.

After turning on his heels, Redden was a full two strides behind Penner. Sadly, the play exemplified the criticism Redden had taken all year for his dropoff in play after a stellar, 50-point 2005-06 campaign that earned him a two-year, $13 million extension.

The series was effectively over after the goal, if the Senators could not respond.

Emery, for his part, made up for the second McDonald goal with an unbelievable glove stop on Beauchemin late in the second, and stoned Corey Perry on a breakaway after Penner’s goal. Ironically, it was Penner that hauled down Joe Corvo in obvious fashion (no penalty was called) on the play and seemed to injure him, allowing Perry to move in alone.

It would not be enough help from Emery, as the Ducks closed the door on the mentally tired Senators after the Penner marker, allowing only three shots. The best chance came in the closing moments off of Andrej Meszaros’ stick.

The tide turns, and finally comes in

The pressure of the Alfredsson-Niedermayer incident, the two McDonald goals, and the Penner goal, plus travelling back to play at the raucous Honda Center down 3-1 would be too much.

After coming so close to getting back in the series, the Senators finally sunk, and sunk fast after the late Game 4 meltdown. No need to analyze the forgettable Game 5 if you’re an Ottawa fan; one replay of the Chris Phillips own-goal on Ray Emery will cement that notion.

Bryan Murray was even forced to double-shift Phillips and Volchenkov, as the Ducks’ relentless pressure was getting to the defensive pairing of Joe Corvo and Tom Preissing.

So the Ducks would celebrate their first Stanley Cup, albeit with somewhat of an asterisk.

Yes, they scored timely goals. Yes, they were mentally and physically tough. Yes, they had solid coaching and goaltending, and were very deep.

The asterisk?

Despite being the most penalized team in the league, there’s the whole matter of still getting away with all the illegal obstruction, crease-crashing, and body contact as well as catching the breaks to win those one-goal games

But as the saying goes, you’ve got to be lucky to be good, and good to be lucky.

That’s hockey, after all. Oftentimes, it’s reduced to a game of bounces.

The Ducks took it all, but the Senators were in it until the end, despite circumstances beyond their control.

Not that the Prince of Wales trophy is any huge consolation.

TALE OF THE TAPE: 2007 STANLEY CUP FINAL, GAMES 1-4

GOALS:

Ottawa 9

Anaheim 7

LEADS:

Anaheim 7

Ottawa 4

SHOTS:

Anaheim 106

Ottawa 88

PENALTY MINUTES:

Anaheim 58

Ottawa 42

"President's 2 Cents" archive of Gallagher's postgame Senators columns (mostly 2007 playoffs): http://sens2cents.blogspot.com

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