Here we go again!

Round 2. Sens versus Devils.

Before the series against Pittsburgh started I proclaimed that the secret to success would be to score early and often. By and large, that's exactly what the Sens did. For once we didn't have to wait until after 9pm to see the Senators score their first goal of the playoffs - usually after seeing their opponent score two or three.

That was nice.

We have to do the same thing again, only this time we're up against a much more experienced team with one of the all-time best goaltenders in between the pipes. How much will that affect the team? Not much, according to the player interviews in both local newspapers these days.

Ottawa has beaten New Jersey in one series. It lost in game 7 due to one bad play. Alfie and the boys have shown that they could play just as well as New Jersey head to head before, and if it weren't for one bad bounce or play, we could just as well see Ottawa be up 2-0 in series against the team from the swamp.

It's tough being a Sens fan. We set the bar so high, achieving the goal each year is almost impossible. My wife seems to think that there are 29 major losers each and every season, and the only team worth applauding is the team that hoists the Stanley Cup. That's nonsense, I say, but nothing short of a trip to the finals will please the majority of fairweather fans in this town.

A loss tonight will result in four hours of post-game whiny phone calls on the Team 1200. Calls to all open line shows tomorrow and Saturday will defeatist in nature. We have an inferiority complex.

So let's win one for the city tonight. Let's see if we can chase Brodeur out of the net as we did earlier this season, scoring six on him before Clemenson came in. If we don't, I hope that the team isn't declared dead before the series is truly out of reach. After all, weren't the Devils down 2-0 in its series only two weeks ago?

GO SENS GO! Y'all can do it!!!