Nick Cousins loses control with dirty slash as Senators unravel in Game 1

Down 2-0 in the third period, with Ottawa's playoff life already feeling fragile, the 32-year-old forward jabbed his stick directly into the groin of Carolina defenseman Alexander Nikishin.

Two minutes for interference. The Senators burned a precious power play opportunity in reverse, handing it to the Hurricanes when they could least afford it.

Cousins has been a quiet presence all series. Nine goals over the regular season, zero power play points, just 2 points in his last 10 games. He is a bottom-six guy asked to bring energy and stay out of the box.

He did the opposite.

The thing is, a suspension would be surprising here. The NHL's department of player safety tends to reserve suspensions for hits to the head, boarding, or plays with significant injury consequence. A stick infraction in a desperation moment, called on the ice, usually lands as a fine and nothing more.

Cousins earns $825,000 this season. A fine stings the wallet. It does not cost him a game.

What it does cost the Senators is credibility in the moment. Travis Green's group went 44-27-11 this regular season, grinded out 99 points, and earned this playoff spot the hard way.

You do not throw that away with a cheap play in the third period of a game you are already losing.

Nikishin is not a passenger on Carolina's blue line. The 24-year-old finished the regular season at plus-18 with 33 points in 81 games, one of Rod Brind'Amour's reliable young defenders, still on a $925,000 cap hit.

The Hurricanes did not score on that power play. Frankly, they did not need to. Frederik Andersen shut out the Senators on 22 shots, Logan Stankoven opened the scoring in the second, Taylor Hall added an insurance goal in the third, and Carolina walked out of Lenovo Center with a clean 2-0 Game 1 win.

Carolina entered this series as the second-ranked team in the league with 113 points and a 53-22-7 record. Ottawa was always going to have to be perfect.

Cousins was the opposite of that.

Whether the league calls his office Monday morning or just sends a bill, the bigger problem is the optics. The Senators now trail 1-0 in the series and head into Game 2 Monday night with a forward who put his frustration on display in the worst possible way.

There is no guarantee Cousins gets another crack at Nikishin. But if this series gets physical, you can be sure Carolina will remember who went for the cheap shot first.