By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/
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."
Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
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.
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.
"Goalies are little more vulnerable than forwards or defensemen, but this is what you wait for."
Confirmation that Elliott had tired of waiting for this chance came on a sparkling sequence midway through that second period, starting when Alexei Ponikarovsky came upon an optimal scoring chance inside the left circle and wristed it with authority only to have Elliott deflect it. Sixteen seconds later, Chris Kunitz had an even better chance, but Elliott was equal to that as well.
But the heat was about to triple.
Craig Adams, finding his somehow reliable postseason scoring touch, chopped Ottawa's lead to one with an unlikely backhander early in the third, and even after Jarkko Ruutu beat a startlingly subpar Marc-Andre Fleury through the 5 hole to make it 5-3 four minutes later, Alex Goligoski's goal jammed the pressure on Elliott to maximum with 2:24 remaining.
Now Elliott was standing on the ice of the Stanley Cup champions, watching the likes of Malkin and Crosby swoop in front of him with two minutes to go in his first playoff game and his team up by one goal.
"If I'd told him it would be something like that, he'd have had a heart attack," said Senators coach Cory Clouston in the minutes after his inexperienced club went up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. "There were times he made some really big saves."
The biggest probably came on the only really good shot the Penguins got off in the final minutes, the one that would have brought a blizzard of hats to the ice in honor of Malkin. But Elliott blocked it, calmly, confidently, with 56 seconds left.
"I was nervous, but I don't think it's healthy if you're not nervous in a situation like this," Elliott said. "You prepare your whole life for a moment like this though, so why be nervous?"
So was that, "I'm nervous and I think I should be but I don't know why"?
That's OK.
Everyone knew where the real nerves were in this building late last night.
Did you figure you might be turning out Friday for its actual last game?
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com. More articles by this author
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