The senators have demonstrated a level of sandpaper in these playoffs that they have never matched before. So often they were intimidated by the rough stuff as teams knew that the best route to neutralising their superior skill was to try to run them down with hits. This year the roles are reversed. The sabres (no capitals for you either!) are now the team whose game can be offset by a physical challenging game. Their fans will argue otherwise but the proof is in the pudding. The members of the BoO won 8 games against the sabres (should have been 9) and they universally featured a physical approach that covered the entire length of the ice.
Today's flashback takes us to last year's meeting between the two teams when Peter Shaeffer delivered a hit on Tim Connolly from which he has just recently recovered. If the sabres are to win their defencemen will have to keep their heads about them and not fall into the trap of avoiding the hit as they did in so many matchups with Ottawa this year.
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