The Ottawa Senators and Pittsburgh Penguins will face off in Game one of the Eastern conference semifinals on Tuesday afternoon.
The Senators enter the series as the seventh seed, but their performance in the first round was not indicative of their status; Ottawa steamrolled through Montreal in five games. Meanwhile the top seeded Penguins struggled with the eighth seed New York Islanders. Pittsburgh's top goalie Marc-Andre Fleury did not make it to the end of the series and was placed on the bench in the final two games in favor of Thomas Vokoun.
"Opportunity, that's what every single team has here in the second round," forward Colin Greening told the Ottawa Citizen. "If you watch the games, you see that teams are peaking at this time of year and it's the best time to peak. Whether you're third seed or fourth seed or whatever seed you are, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're playing at this time of year."
The Penguins are confident that their weak play in the first round will not continue in this round against an Ottawa team that is more experienced and arguably more talented than the Islanders squad Pittsburgh just beat. There has been no indication on whether Fleury would get a second chance against Ottawa or if Vokoun would continue to lead the team in goal.
"We have confidence in both guys, no matter who it is," Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said of the goaltending situation. "They've both proven for a long time that they're more than capable of doing a great job. We feel very comfortable with either one as players, but it's not up to us to decide who goes into net."
This will be the fourth series between these two sides. The Penguins have won two of the previous three, including the last two.
Prediction: Pittsburgh opens the series with a dominant 5-2 win.
Start Time: 7:30 PM EST
TV: NBCSN
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