Now that the Sens have the offensive and the defensive parts of their game figured out (and the golatending is sure to follow once we find a way of calling up Mike Brodeur), what could possibly be missing? The one most important aspect: confidence.



It's an ephemeral thing. Some people have it in spades: Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Martin Brodeur. These folks never lose it because they know they are difference makers: they have leaned on their skills and stamina hard, and have not found themselves wanting, and their confidence has soared to a point that it is a permanent thing.

But that's the exception more than the rule, and furthermore, hockey is a team sport. One player playing with confidence will not make for a team victory. The team as a whole needs to know that "Yes, we can do this".

Nowhere was this more apparent than after the second goal during the Senators' game against the Montreal Canadiens. All of a sudden, the Sens had the wind in their sails. There was no way that the Canadiens could come back: the Senators played with certainty and with determination.

Fortunately, that confidence is a learned behaviour. And the Senators have started to unlearn the old lessons. The Sens used to be tentative starting a game, unless they were riding the crest of a winning streak. They used to start checking and see that that worked, and then try some passes and see that that worked, and then place a shot on goal and see that they could, and then score a goal and see that they could. Slowly and steadily they would build confidence from success to success throughout a game. The downside was that early failures in the game spelled almost certain doom for the team.

We now see the Senators starting with a bit more confidence, and building on their season's performance, and their team's coherence rather than on that particular day's performance. They rely on their coach too, which is a nice thing to see. There are relapses, of course, as is to be expected. Last night's second goal was something to build on, which I hope will carry into today's game against the Flyers. The Sens are good enough that their "B" level game should be able to handle at least two-thirds of the opposition teams, and a level of confidence in their abilities will go a long way toward making it so.

There's nothing like starting a game out of the gate knowing you're the baddest, meanest, fastest, most devastating thing on the ice. That kind of psychological attitude is expressed in the way a team plays, and severely undermines the opposition's confidence. It's how you win Stanley Cups.