OTTAWA – Some like it hot, some like it not.
Count Devils captain Scott Stevens in the second camp when it comes to the pressure cooker of Game 7.
“I’ve always felt it was nice to get a series over with quick and not put yourself in this position,” Stevens was saying yesterday, before he had to deal with that position. “You never know. Something could happen.
“I don’t like them for that reason.”
Like it or not, Stevens had another to deal with last night, the 12th Game 7 of his NHL career (5-6 previously), topped only by Patrick Roy (13) among actives. Forced to a seventh game from a 3-1 series lead for the first time in Devils history, New Jersey faced the Presidents’ Trophy Senators here last night, the winner going to the Stanley Cup final against the Ducks, the loser going home.
“There’s no secret. Someone’s going to be Eastern Conference champion. It’s somewhat relaxing that there’s going to be some finality,” said Joe Nieuwendyk, who skipped yesterday’s morning skate with the undisclosed ailment that saw him helped to the dressing room after Game 6. Nieuwendyk, the only Devil to score in Wednesday’s 2-1 OT loss at the Meadowlands, insisted he’d play last night.
The Senators, trying to join the 2000 Devils as the only teams since 1942 to win after a 1-3 deficit in the Final Four, were only too glad to see Game 7.
“It’s a one-game show. Like the Super Bowl,” said Marian Hossa, the Senators’ winger who finished fourth in the league with 45 goals this season, and set up the Game 6 overtime winner. “This is our chance.”
Among the opportunities the Sens confronted was the chance to beat one of the league’s elite teams of the past nine years.
“You want to play against a proven hockey club at certain times, and this is one time when you what to play against a team that has been there and knows what it takes,” Ottawa defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn said.
And for the first time in three games, the Senators weren’t simply trying to stay alive. They had the chance to finish off New Jersey.
“We haven’t been trying NOT to lose. We’ve been trying to take it to them. It’s been working for us the last couple of games. That’s the way we’ve had success,” said Chris Phillips, who converted Vaclav Varada’s rebound from Hossa’s Game 6 overtime feed, making last night necessary.
Senators coach Jacques Martin figured he’d have his hands full reining in the Senators’ enthusiasm.
“You speak to them about playing with emotion and passion. You know that’s not going to be a problem. But you have to control your emotions,” Martin said. “It’s encouraging to me that we have gotten better every game, and gotten better at adjusting.”
They had to improve, or they’d have been out. Still, Devil coach Pat Burns continued to insist that the pressure was on the Senators, 2-1 at home in this series.
“We have to go in with the frame of mind that the pressure’s on them,” Burns said, “then expect the unexpected. You just don’t know what’s going to happen.”
What they did know Was that someone will play host to the Ducks Tuesday as favorite to win the Stanley Cup.
*
Jay Pandolfo and Turner Stevenson did not skate in yesterday’s morning workout. Pandolfo insisted he’d play, but Jiri Bicek was in line to replace Stevenson . . . Devils stood 3-4 on the road in the playoffs, scoring and allowing 17 goals . . . Burns joined Pat Quinn with eight Game 7 appearances, trailing Scotty Bowman and Mike Keenan, at nine each . . . Patrik Elias had two game-winners in four career Game 7s, and his four Game 7 goals trailed only Mark Messier’s five among actives.