Fear this man!...

Peace from Russia.

...Because if you happen to be a fan of the Ottawa Senators, he's coming to get you.

In case you missed it, the New Jersey Devils are the hottest thing on the planet. Far hotter than Keira Knightley. They're like a volcano compared to Canadian starlets Rachel McAdams or Sean-Avery-dating-hockey-blogging Elisha Cuthbert (hey, let's get her blogging over here, Phoff work it Acadian style). After sweeping away the Rangers, like they were vagrants sleeping outside the Empire State Building, the Devils have won 15 straight going back to the regular season. Presumably, the Devils have to lose eventually, but isn't it difficult to see it being to Carolina or Buffalo/Philly (their potential second round opponents)? I think so too.

So having just given them four more wins, that means my educated (it's relative afterall) guess that the Sens and Devils will meet in the conference final would come true, and that gives me pause.

Is it possible for Ottawa to beat them? And how?

Well there is some good news sports fans.

First, Ottawa has beaten New Jersey twice this season (splitting the series 2-2) and Emery was in nets for ones of those wins. However, they didn't beat New Jersey in their only game since the return of Patrick Elias from Hepatitis A (how do we still know so little about this story?) and it's clear that this is a very different Devils team with him than they were without him.

Second, and maybe more importantly, New Jersey is not a great team on the road and Ottawa will have home ice - an advantage for Carolina too should they meet in Round 2. Not that New Jersey is a disaster away from Continental Airlines Arena, but they finished up the season only 19-16-6 on the road. Ottawa was a stunning 29-9-3 at home this year and is 2-1 so far in the playoffs. In addition, Ottawa actually is a GREAT road team by NHL standards going 23-12-6 in the regular season in un-friendly locales and adding another two wins in Tampa in the playoffs. Five teams won 20 road games this year (including Edmonton in what would have been foreshadowing on Sunday, of course Detroit won 31, but who's counting besides me) so the fact that Ottawa is one of them is comforting.

Of course, Ottawa still has someone to beat between now and potential date with New Jersey. Right now it looks like that will be Buffalo and the Sens were 5-3 against Buffalo this season, outscoring them 35-21, and losing two of those games in the last two weeks when the Sens looked like a Pee Wee team most nights.

Still, I've killed a couple of chickens and I'm going to eat their bones tonight as a good luck charm. Hey, if it's good enough for Pedro Serrano/President Palmer, it's good enough for me.