The Ottawa Senators are in a 3-1 hole that their captain does not give them any chance of getting out of.
"Probably not," Alfredsson admitted when asked if the Senators could make a comeback. "I mean, with their depth and power play right now, you know, it doesn't look too good.
"When you look at what we did, it wasn't good enough. Does that mean [Pittsburgh] was good? Did we make them good? Who really cares?" he elaborated.
"From our point of view, we didn't manage the puck [well], we didn't execute our passes, and subsequently, we got punished in the neutral zone. We turned way too many pucks over and gave them some freebies. It would have been nice to have the lead for a little bit longer, but now we're back on our heels again. We didn't shut them down when it matters."
Here are the reasons why Ottawa is on the verge of elimination.
Special Teams Disaster
Pittsburgh has scored five goals on 21 power play chances, a 23.8 percent success rate. The Penguins special teams rank atop the playoff picture and have been a major part of the team's success in the postseason. Ottawa has scored a few shorthanded goals, but the Penguins have also equaled them in this category with two goals while a man down.
Meanwhile the Senators' power play has only scored twice in 14 tries during this series.
Goaltending
Tomas Vokoun has not been stellar for Pittsburgh, but he has gotten the job done. The same cannot be said for Craig Anderson. The Ottawa netminder has been pulled twice in this series and has conceded 14 goals in four games; he had only allowed nine goals in five games against the Montreal Canadiens. More importantly, Anderson has only stopped 89.9 percent of the shots he has faced; that number is inflated by a 49 save performance he had in Game 3. He had a terrific performance in the first period of Game 4, but was destroyed in the subsequent two periods.
Shots Allowed
Anderson has not made the saves, but his team has not given him a chance to win. The team has been outshot in all but the first game of the series and has conceded at least 30 shots in each game against the Penguins; they have allowed 42 or more shots in the last three games. Game 2 was the most embarrassing display as the Penguins outshot Ottawa 42-22 in a 4-3 victory. Anderson only faced 21 of those 42 shots and even after the switch to Robin Lehner, the Senators defense continued to be porous. Limiting scoring chances correlates with conceding less goals and Ottawa has not gotten the job done in this respect.
Star Power Fades
Alfredsson has four points in four games to lead the Senators in scoring. After that, the other Ottawa stars have faded. Kyle Turris has two points in the series, while top defenseman Erik Karlsson had no points against Pittsburgh until Wednesday's 7-3 thrashing when he registered two assists. Jason Spezza returned to the lineup in Game 3 and looked good but has yet to register a point in the series. The team needs its top players to stand up to the Penguins' top stars. In the first round, Islanders' stars John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Mark Streit rose to the occasion and pushed Pittsburgh to a difficult six-game series. If Ottawa wants to play past Friday, the big guns need to make an impact.
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