OTTAWA -- 'It felt like the walls were closing in on us," Jason Spezza all but whispered when all was over and done with.
He was speaking not just of the game - his Ottawa Senators' 3-1 defeat by the Pittsburgh Penguins - and not just of the series, now embarrassingly lost in four consecutive games, but of an entire year clouded in mystery.
For a team that, not so many years back, came within a lighted candle of holding a séance to call upon the spirits of One-eyed Frank McGee for help, it was hardly surprising last night the Senators would be looking for a little magic.
They began with the Peace Tower clock striking midnight on the scoreboard - a reminder required by no one that there would, indeed, be no tomorrow if the Senators failed one more time against the surging Pittsburgh Penguins.
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Coach Bryan Murray had even changed his shoes for luck. To fire up his charges further, he had trotted out his own version of Wayne Gretzky's call to arms in Salt Lake City, saying "The world's against them" when, in fact, it was only the local fans fast losing faith in a team they had expected to skate all the way to the Stanley Cup.
They had talked for days about "33," the handy little "omen," as Spezza called it, that argued since 33 years had passed between the first astounding rebound from being down three games to none, Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942, and the second, New York Islanders in 1975 - then surely 33 years on it would be Ottawa's year for a miracle.
They even dressed up retiring Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier in a new uniform - a Senators jersey - and stood and cheered in the hope that perhaps the popular general might inspire.
But it was all for naught.
Long before the real Peace Tower clock struck midnight, it was over.
Apart from that one resounding standing ovation for Hillier, there was little to cheer about this balmy night in the nation's capital as the once-best-team-in-hockey completed its baffling freefall into oblivion.
A year ago Stanley Cup finalists. Only months ago the best start for a team in NHL history.
And ever since, confusing.
"That's hockey," Spezza's linemate Dany Heatley tried to explain it away. But, of course, it explained nothing.
Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had even earlier tossed out the worn cliché: "The fourth game is always the hardest" to win - but not this night, not this series where Ottawa managed only five goals in four games and threatened only once.
Murray even put together his big trio of Spezza, Heatley and captain Daniel Alfredsson - dubbed "The Cash Line" by the Ottawa Citizen as they take up most of the team payroll - but it did not pay off despite Heatley's pregame hope that they could "get the chemistry back."
Spezza, in fact, played as if elements were colliding, coughing up a puck on a bad pass that led to Pittsburgh's go-ahead second goal in the second period.
"One assist in four games," Spezza said. "I was pretty disappointed in myself."
The Penguins dominated, though at one point it seemed as if Ottawa had tied the game 2-2 in the second, only to have the hockey gods - or whoever it is sitting in the NHL's "War Room" back in Toronto - rule that Antoine Vermette had kicked the puck into the Pittsburgh net.
Ottawa continued its habit - particularly annoying to Murray - of picking up "silly" penalties. It was on a power play that Evgeni Malkin scored on a backhand with only one hand on the stick.
It happened by accident, yet it was a telling image as the powerful Russian sophomore demonstrated, once again, that he is very much a man playing against boys in what is said to be the best league in the world.
He was chosen first star of the game. He has been first star of the entire series.
Had it not been for the admirable play of Ottawa goaltender Martin Gerber, the subject of so much doubt this past season, the Penguins would have crushed the Senators almost as easily as Ottawa's One-eyed Frank blew away a Stanley Cup contender more than a century ago with 14 goals in a single game.
But there was no McGee this night. And no Big Line, either.
Heatley had one assist in the series, as did Spezza. Alfredsson, who played only two games, had zero points. But he, at least, had an excuse, having returned after only 11 days from injuries that were slated to keep him off the ice for six weeks.
On the other side, Malkin and Sidney Crosby continued to star, with Crosby scoring the final goal of the series into an empty net. However far the Penguins now go, it will be because of their play and that of the goaltender, Fleury.
"He has been phenomenal," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said.
In the end, they shook hands and one team tried to shake off a dreadful year that will be dissected and analyzed and debated in this city longer than anything before Parliament.
"There's going to be some changes," a disheartened Murray said.
"There has to be."
One thing that will not change is Ottawa's admiration for Alfredsson, who came back when he probably should not have.
In the end, they stood and chanted his name: "Alfie! Alfie! Alfie!"
And then it was time to snuff out the candles.
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