OTTAWA - There is a memorable scene in The Princess Bride where Miracle Max, the Billy Crystal character who's being asked to bring the hero Westley back to life, examines the corpse and gives his prognosis.
"It just so happens," says Miracle Max, "that your friend here is only 'mostly' dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.
Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
"
Slightly alive is what the Ottawa Senators believe themselves to be, heading into Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final this evening at Scotiabank Place. There is no law against believing, even in Ottawa.
The Sens may be mistaken, of course.
Only one team -- out of the 30 that have lost the first two games of the final on the road -- has ever come back to win the Cup, and that was the 1971 Montreal Canadiens.
But what is demonstrably doable is to come almost all the way back.
Even the Anaheim Ducks know this -- maybe especially the Ducks -- because a handful of them, including goalie J.
S. Giguere and Rob Niedermayer and Wednesday's hero Samuel Pahlsson, fell behind 2-0 to New Jersey in 2003 and, 11 days later, were playing Game 7 in the Meadowlands. They lost 3-0, but at least they had a shot.
Chris Pronger, Anaheim's skyscraping defender, went through it a year ago in Edmonton when the Oilers lost the first two in Carolina, 5-4 and 5-0, and ended up forcing Game 7. They lost it 3- 1, but ? well, the point is, it's not impossible.
Just highly unlikely.
So they know all about mostly dead, and slightly alive.
Down 3-0, however, even some of the Sens were grudgingly admitting yesterday, is all dead.
The city knows it, too. Which is why hundreds of fans were waiting for the Senators at the airport when they got off the allday plane ride from Anaheim on Thursday night, and why the building will be trembling on its foundations tonight after Alanis Morissette warbles the anthem.
It's why the Sens wisely dropped their complaining about the officiating and took a hard look in the mirror yesterday, to find the real killers of their gumption through two games of the best-of-seven final.
Somehow, head coach Bryan Murray said, they must walk the line between over-excitement and dispassionate execution, and find a way to get one win. Just one. And they'll worry about the rest later.
"I expect a great crowd, an emotional crowd," Murray said. "I think people believe that our guys are going to make the best effort they possibly can. And I think as long as we're not too hyper at the beginning of the game ?
"
Easier to say it than to live it, Ducks coach Randy Carlyle noted the other day.
"We know [they] will come after us," Carlyle said yesterday. "We know their home crowd will have an influence on their energy level.
And we have to be as strong mentally as we've ever been to block that out and play our game."
"The first night we probably tried to do too much," said Sens' No. 1 centre Jason Spezza, who is Exhibit A in the case against Ottawa so far this week.
"The second night, we tried to do too little and get the puck in every time and we couldn't establish a forecheck.
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