Eastern Conference Final Game 5 Hotstove
Confidence check
Through four games, have the Senators played well enough to make you believe they will win two of the final three games and move on?
Colin: I think I'll use my free pass and say I don't know, because the play of both teams this series has been wildly inconsistent. We know the powerhouse the Penguins can be, and I don't think we've seen them reach their limits. Ottawa was fantastic in games one and three, but completely lost their offence in game two (we saw the same in games 3 & 4 versus New York). The next few games could be completely lopsided, or a hard-fought battle for the berth in the Stanley Cup Finals. Hopefully Ottawa can come out with the 'upset', although I think at this point it's completely up in the air.
nkb: Yes, with a caveat: the power play needs to be better. The Sens have, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, more than held their own at 5v5. They've had their ups and downs, but on the whole they've been good. The main issue then is that Pittsburgh's power play and Ottawa's, to put it politely, does not. It's awfully hard to beat a team as good as the Penguins without ever scoring a goal with the man advantage. Sens will probably need to change that to win.
Ross: I think they can. I've seen Ottawa hang tough with arguably the league's best team. I think Ottawa can win a couple of close nail-biters to close out the series.
Ian: I am much more confident in the Sens winning two of three than I was in the Rangers series. Back in round two, their losses didn't look good. In this series, their losses have been nailbiters and they actually had a chance of winning them. The Sens have yet to look out-matched in this series, I have full confidence in them winning two of the next three.
Beata: Yeah, I agree with the others here. The Sens have definitely looked good enough to beat Pittsburgh. Even their bad games have been fairly close, and I'm confident they can pull it together and win two more. I'm certainly more confident now than I was after four games against the Rangers, and that's partly because the Penguins have looked bad, yes, but also because the Sens have been playing pretty well.