5 Reasons Why Ottawa Will Skate the Cup

For any team to win the Cup there are a things that they have to do which are a given, namely, playing hard but wthinin themselves, staying focused on the little tasks at hand and trusting your teammates to be where they are supposed to be. But, in particular, for the Ottawa Senators, there are a few things that I feel they are goig to have to do to have success in the next four to seven games:

Phillip and Volchenkov must be on the ice against the Selanne line. Ottawa's two most physical defensemen must keep their gaps tight and protect the middle of the ice like they did against Buffalo. This job will be tougher as Anaheim's top scoring line is physically stronger than Buffalo's.
Provide strong puck support along the boards. Anaheim will try and grind out opportunities with their other forward lines and Ottawa's forwards, all of them, must back-check deep into the defensive zone to provide easy outlets for their defensemen. The Sens cannot afford to allow the Anaheim forwards to wear their defensemen down.
Continue to shut down any cross-ice passing both at even strength and on the PK. Ray Emery's weakness is his control while moving laterally. Keeping the game in front of him simple and forcing the Ducks to try and beat him athletically is an advantage for the Sens. Pronger's one-timer from the point cannot be fed from the opposite half-wall or he'll pick the Sens very good penalty kill apart.
Ottawa must get scoring 5 on 5 from a line that doesn't have Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson on it. With the Ducks having two Norris finalists on two separate pairs it's going to be much more diffiicult for them to find room at even strength. One of the bottom three lines will have to step up and finish what opportunities are available against Huskins and DiPenta. But, if the top line is able to go head to head with either Pronger or Niedermeyer and come out a plus, then Ottawa's chances of winning the series rise dramatically.
Lastly, Brian Murray must out-coach Randy Carlyle, especially in the opening pair in California. He may have to double-shift Alfie to generate offense, or he may have to use his 4th line as much as he did in the Buffalo series. It's incumbent upon him to continue to throw the right people over the boards at the key moments of the games where momentum is shifting towards Anaheim. He did it well against the Sabres, he'll need to be better this round.

These teams are extremely similar in construction and I expect this to be, tactically, a fascinating series. Let's drop the puck and crown a champion already. The wait for this was too long.

Ta,