While much of the focus over the last day or so has been on the large number of empty seats in the upper bowl of Canadian Tire Centre, it overshadowed what was a pretty complete game by the Ottawa Senators.

And perhaps that is by design, because instead of giving the Senators credit for jumping out to a 1-0 series lead against a Rangers team that was the consensus pick to oust Ottawa, those "trolls" who like to be critical and get people going found something else to jump on.

While probably icing the same lineup as they did on Thursday night, the Senators are looking for a repeat performance in the game where they had an edge in play. That is what they can control. That game was good enough to beat most teams on most nights. And I think they still have another level to go as well.

What they can't control is how the Rangers respond, if Henrik Lundqvist can have a repeat performance or if the Rangers have more left in the tank, and how much they can raise their game to another level.

I find it almost comical that in the loss, the attention was on the Rangers that they must "play better" or "play faster". The fact is, the Rangers played a good game as well, they just got beat. They got more shots on goal than their average heading in, and had a number of quality scoring chances that either were stopped or missed the net.

Credit and respect is a fickle thing, and if Guy Boucher wants to play the underdog card, it is still at his disposal. Ottawa deserves some credit for the way they handled the Rangers pressure and managed to gut out a win in a game that could have easily gone either way. Credit that I am not sure they have got, because it has been all about what the Rangers (other than Lundqvist) didn't do well enough, that they were rusty (having about 20 hours more rest than Ottawa) and not what the Senators did do to get them away from their game and not let the Rangers.

One player that has opened a lot of eyes is Erik Karlsson, who has taken his game to an even higher level than his Norris Trophy nominated season and is finally getting acknowledged outside of the Ottawa bubble for how good his all-around game is and how that hasn't affected his ability to contribute offensively with an increased attention to his own zone.

Ottawa has won both of their afternoon starts this playoff season, once at home two weeks ago, and one on the road, last Sunday's first round series clincher. The Rangers last afternoon game was April 8th in Ottawa, which was a 12:30 puck drop won by the Senators 3-1.

Full building or not (and I believe it will be close to a sellout), I think the fans that are present, as well those who are watching from their living room or local pub, will go away satisfied if the Senators have the same game they played on Thursday. Satisfied is one thing, but they will be surely happy with another win, regardless of how it is accumulated.

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