The Daily Sniper: You Can Only Hope to Contain the Ottawa Senators

The Daily Sniper: News and notes from last night's action...

Eastern Conference Finals, Game 1: Ottawa 5, Buffalo 2 In you-probably-saw-this-coming news, Ottawa took the first game of the eastern conference finals in Buffalo last night and made it look easy at times. That's not to say that the Sabres are over matched or anything like that, far from it actually, it's just that Ottawa has, well, steamrolled through the East so far. All in all, I figure this is what it would look like if the San Antonio Spurs were moved to the NBA's Eastern Conference. The Sens out shot the Sabres 34-20 including newly found third period resiliency which they used to put up three unanswered goals in the third to finish things off. Unlike years past, the Sens look like they know what they're doing when it comes to this whole playoff thing. Heck, you might even say they're writing a book about it.

Sens win Game 1, 5-2. Don Heupel/AP

Jason Spezza is even starting to sound like a veteran, even if it's in the awkward 'father and 16-year old son conversation about sex' kind of way. "We're more experienced. We're not as nervous in the room before games. We're a little more comfortable. We've all gone through this before. The second time around is a little easier."

Anyway, Spezza had a good night (1PPG, 1PPA) and showed why his line is quite possibly the most dominant remaining in the post season. Ryan Miller made 29 saves but other than that, the Sabres just didn't have enough defense to slow down the Sens offensive firepower.