Changes are coming to the Senators’ lineup, after being thoroughly dominated by the Rangers in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series.
Ottawa Coach Guy Boucher said he plans to play center Tom Pyatt and defenseman Chris Wideman for the first time in the series in Game 4 on Thursday night. Center Zack Smith — unable to return Tuesday after taking a big hit from J.T. Miller — could be out for Game 4 and is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Boucher said he believes he will have standout forward Bobby Ryan, though, after the New Jersey native left the ice in the third period of Game 3 when he was struck on the right thigh by a slap shot from teammate Erik Karlsson.
Ryan is tied for the team-lead with eight postseason points (four goals, four assists), and delivered a beautiful no-look assist in Game 3.
“From the looks of it, Ryan, I don’t see not playing,” Boucher said Wednesday. “I need to see him on the ice, but right now he should be ready to go.”
Even if Ryan is ready, is the rest of the team?
After being soundly beaten, 4-1, at Madison Square Garden, the Senators didn’t sound like a team with a 2-1 series lead, one that still has home-ice advantage. Ottawa talked like a team that has held a lead for less than five minutes in the entire series, and feels lucky to be where it is — a team that won Game 1 on a fluke goal and needed a miracle comeback to steal Game 2.
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“This team is so good on the other side. You can’t even start thinking of being rivals with them if you don’t have everybody on the same page. It won’t even be close if we’re not what we were before,” Boucher said. “Even though we were expecting them to charge out and have the urgency and desperation that they had, I think until we lived it, we didn’t realize how much higher the caliber could go up and now we know. Now we really know because we’ve lived it. It’s pretty scary out there.”
Watching the composure and intensity of the Rangers’ veteran group in Game 3, Ottawa forward Alex Burrows, 36, said he hopes his younger teammates learned how hard it will be to close out an experienced group.
“Some guys, if it’s the first time you’re living it, you really see a good veteran team like the Rangers were desperate, and they were doing all the right things to win the game,” Burrows said. “We saw from them that they are an experienced team that’s been there before, and they really took it to another level courage-wise and we didn’t match that.
“We haven’t won anything yet and we know that. … We need [Thursday’s] game.”