Game 2 is upon us and we can expect another hard-fought battle. But if I were the Senators' coach, I wouldn't put as much pressure on my team as for Game 1. Here's why.



It was important for the Senators to take Game 1, just to shake the confidence of the Penguins. And overall, the Senators managed to do that. The Penguins are primarily an offensive team, and shutting down that offensive was key number 1. Key number 2 was overwhelming the Pittsburgh blueliners by activating the D on the rushes and forechecking hard. The Senators managed to score a lot of offensive by forechecking hard, and keeping the game 200 feet from their own net, which is a good defensive move in itself: "The best defense is a good offense".

The keys for Game 2 remain the same, with the caveat that the stress factor is now squarely on the Penguins to take one at home before coming to Ottawa. Splitting the opening round in Pittsburgh was likely Cory Clouston's goal from the get-go, so win or lose tonight doesn't matter quite as much. That means the Sens can play a slightly different game.

They won't need to press the offense quite as much, and can really clog up the Penguins in the neutral zone, and play a highly physical game on defense. This will frustrate the Pens offense to no end, and may force them to attempt dangerous plays. The Senators should content themselves with taking advantage of bad plays, pouncing on turnovers, and generating offense off the Pens' mistakes. When they do have the puck in the offensive zone, they should shoot as often as possible to shake the confidence the Pens' defense. More than anything, they must fight for puck possession, not necessarily for the sake of scoring goals (although do it if you can), but for the sake of keeping it away from Pittsburgh: no puck possession equals no goals. Finally, the Senators must stay out of the penalty box. The Penguins' power play is a dangerous and highly potent tool.

With all these ingredients in place (and some solid goaltending from Brian Elliott), a low scoring game could easily swing in favour of the Senators as they start taking advantage of a progressively more and more desperate Penguins team. Penguins stress could lead to mistakes, which could lead to goals, which could lead to the Senators walking away from Mellon arena with a 2-0 series lead.