OK, folks, here we go...Onto Round 3!!
That's right...
The Eastern Conference Final!!!I'm pumped. I'm psyched. I'm soooooooo excited!!
I was thrilled Saturday night when the Sens finally put the dagger through the hearts of those Devils from New Jersey, beating them 3-2 and taking the series 4 games to 1. You know, looking back, realizing that the Sens have only lost two games thus far in the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs through 2 rounds, you'd probably have trouble believing that I've almost suffered about a hundred heart attacks. But I have. The playoffs are
very hard on my ticker. On game days, I'm just a bundle of nerves, and by the time the puck drops, I'm shaking all over.
So I'm not sure it's good for my health that the Sens have advanced to the third round, but I'm not going to complain.
However, with the Buffalo Sabres joining us in the Eastern Final, I can be sure that things aren't going to get any easier.
I'm so close to the Stanley Cup, I can
taste it. I want it so badly. I can envision the celebrations; I'm already anticipating the sheer ecstacy of being the Champions.
And yet, as Coach Murray reminded after Saturday night's victory, once we laid the Devils to rest, we're still only half-way there. And the mighty Buffalo Sabres are the next big obstacle standing in our way.
I still have nightmares over last year's second-round horror-show, when those "unsinkable Senators" sunk...and sunk bad. And it was those damned Sabres that ran us into the ice berg. I still remember going into OT in Game 5, our very playoff lives hanging in the balance, when Buffalo took a penalty and my spirits soared, because I truly believed we were in the midst of battling back and making history. We were going to be one of those very few, very special teams that clawed back from a 3-0 deficit and won the whole damned thing.
Then, on that Ottawa powerplay, Jason Pominville made a break into the Sens zone with only Captain Daniel Alfredsson back defending, and he walked in around Alfie and deflated all of my dreams with one shot.
It was a heart-breaker.
So now, thinking about the Sabres and the series that awaits, my stomach is already fluttering with butterflies. It's time for revenge. Time to put that miserable series behind us and move forward into glory. It won't be easy, but this team, this year, has given me every reason to believe that they can do it. It's ours for the taking.
And it all gets going on Thursday night...
GO SENS GO!!
