OTTAWA -- "Except for the last one, I thought I played well."
That could be seen as a striking statement from a goaltender fresh off giving up a handful of goals, the last of which cost the Penguins their 5-4 overtime loss to the Senators on this Wednesday night at Canadian Tire Centre. But in this context, Casey DeSmith could make a solid case ... on both counts.
His performance really was sharp through regulation, as he'd stop 35 of 39 shots, a ratio that's put into better perspective when weighing Ottawa's 23 total high-danger chances. He had to make several sterling saves and scatter all across his crease on seemingly every other rush. And yet, even in doing so, still stayed economical in his movements, the way his positional coach, Andy Chiodo, always is urging him to do.
Then, 25 ticks into the three-on-three OT, along came Brady Tkachuk:
Pretty nice, right?
Well, OK, guess that depends on the perspective, considering the Penguins are now 3-7 in OTs.
From the view atop Parliament Hill, two of the Senators' marquee youngsters, Tim Stützle and Tkachuk, gain the zone with speed, something almost no one does in OTs anymore. Everything's just this big, slow drag in anticipation of big, slow possession. But Stützle's rush, specifically, forces Marcus Pettersson to back off just a bit. So by the time Tkachuk smartly criss-crosses behind him to take Stützle's drop, Pettersson's left just enough of a gap for Tkachuk to use him as a screen.
It's not Pettersson's fault, and I'm not just saying that because he might've been the Penguins' top overall performer through regulation.
"A little too much room," he'd say. "We gave them that all night, you could say."
I could, but not in his case.
As for Sidney Crosby's tough-to-watch trackback ... see just above about all the big, slow zone entries. I'm sure he thought the same thing was about to develop. A little back pressure there would've gone a long way.
As for DeSmith, he motioned under his left arm and recalled: "It went through me, kind of snuck through my armpit. You never want that."
Tkachuk described the Senators' urgency, including in overtime, as being based on chasing the Penguins, who are eight points ahead of Ottawa in clinging to the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
"It's the team we're trying to catch," Tkachuk would say of the Penguins. "We're treating this as do-or-die. It's a playoff atmosphere ... energy, emotions. That's what we want to play with, and that's what we want to carry going into the next game."
That's Friday night at PPG Paints Arena.
