Senators' Elliott unflappable in debut
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Senators goaltender Brian Elliott stops a shot in front of Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski in the second period of Wednesday's game at Mellon Arena.
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So much for what Dan Bylsma called unflappability.
Seven hours before his defending Stanley Cup champions appeared on their favorite ice floe opposite the seriously up-tempo Ottawa Senators, Dan Bylsma poked verbally for the pinpoint of what he felt would determine the initial direction of this series.
"The unflappability of our team," he said, "that's the real issue."
Forty minutes into Game 1, the Penguins looked awfully flappable, so flappable it was dizzying.
Was that why Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis spun each other at the blue line in what looked like an outtake from "Dancing With The Stars," whipping each other out of the way of Max Talbot, himself busily sprawling to the ice from no apparent impediment early in the second period?
The two-goal lead Ottawa transported into the third period was wholly earned, even if by a complex contributory formula of skill and happenstance, but if there was one element of this matchup that might have been relatively unforeseen, it wasn't so much empirical waterfowl flappability as the playoff readiness of Badger Brian Elliott.
Elliott, the 25-year-old goaltender who led Wisconsin to that Frozen Four title four years ago, looked so shaken in the early going that it appeared he'd like to join the spectators.
And then he did -- practically.
After Elliott dropped the first Penguins shot right at the feet of Jordan Staal, after Evgeni Malkin blasted Pittsburgh to a 1-0 three minutes into the playoffs, the Penguins didn't bother to shoot at Elliott again over the next 16 minutes. Perhaps with some awareness that Ottawa went 13-26-2 this year when its opponent scored first, they felt no particular urgency to fire the biscuit. The champions floated to the dressing room dragging a four-shot first period, but came out for the second ready to test Elliott's playoff readiness in this, his postseason baptism.
"Just stay calm, I said to myself," Elliott said to the rest of us. "Don't worry about that first one going in. Try to keep the other ones out."
But test him they did.
The results were positive -- Badger Brian has playoff chops.
"There's always cases where there are guys who haven't played in the playoffs and they do really well and you're surprised," said Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson. "And it can be the other way around as well. But I don't see it as a problem. Brian's been around for a while. I don't think he'll have any trouble adjusting.
First Published April 15, 2010 12:00 am
