Well that was a nice, confident 6 hours or so, wasn't it. From the time the Philadelphia Flyers dropped the Penguins in the afternoon to the moment Peter Holland beat Andrew Hammond in the shootout, the Ottawa Senators had control of their own playoff destiny once again.
Losing for the second time in 8 nights to a bitter rival who had nothing to play for but being a spoiler will be tough to take if the Senators can't get the job done. And they made their own job infinitely tougher by failing to pick up the extra point.
Now, they trail 3 teams by 2 points, but don't hold the tiebreaker against any of them, meaning they now need to pretty much win out their last 3 games and will also need help from someone in order to make up the ground.
Tuesday's game against Pittsburgh will still be huge, but the Senators won't be able to overtake them as they would have been able to do with a win against Toronto. The best they can do is draw even with them all and hope that one of them falters in their last 2 games.
Jonathan Bernier was stellar for Toronto in the final 4-0 minutes plus extra time, making the shootout look relatively easy after Mika Zibanejad wired a shot over his shoulder for a goal on the first shootout attempt.
Andrew Hammond did what he could to push his team to yet another victory, especially in the first period where the Senators were under siege and Hammond was full marks for limiting the damage to just 1 goal on 21 shots.
Bobby Ryan continues to struggle to find his game and is pretty much along for the ride at this point. He showed flashes in this one, but also showed a hesitation to shoot the puck at key times. and his brain cramp of playing the puck while sitting on the boards after a line change resulted in too many men on the ice in the final minutes took away some momentum his team had and also nearly cost his team the point they had worked hard to secure.
On the other hand, Mark Stone and Kyle Turris continue to raise their stock and the duo are carrying the Senators. Credit also has to go to all 3 defense pairings, who settled down after a slow start and were very good at both ends of the ice in the final 45 minutes.
That was the Senators' "game in hand" on the Bruins, and now there is a 10-yard dash to the finish line and the Sens are starting at the 12 yard line. They need one of their competitors to drop 3 of 6 points, while they take all 6 of theirs. That is why a game like the March 10th game against the Bruins was labelled a "must win" even though the loss didn't mathematically eliminate them. That 4 point difference is looming pretty huge right now against a team that they were battling a the time, and still are. That is still the game I will point to as the difference maker if the Senators end up missing, with this pair against the Leafs looming a distant second.
The Flyers, and to a slightly lesser extent the Capitals, did the Senators a couple of huge favors yesterday, the first time in a while something outside of their own control actually went the right way. And the Senators gave it right back. They just can't seem to do things the easy way, and they are running out of space to do it the hard way.