There is no margin for error. Lose Game 3 and there is almost no way back. Four teams in the history of best-of-7 play in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have played Houdini in 213 tries, less than a two-percent conversion rate.

Sanderson knows the work will be heaped upon him. If he can go over the boards, he will. It’s the same for Thomas Chabot, who played 40:50 in Game 2 and 26:39 in Game 1.

“I think guys like me and ‘Shabby’ are ready for anything,” Sanderson said Wednesday.

Chris Phillips was a minutes-eater during his time with the Senators from 1997 to 2015. When the Senators made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, losing to the Anaheim Ducks, Phillips averaged 23:11 per game.

He knows what Sanderson is facing, the burden being placed upon his shoulders.

“You look at it and in a 60-minute game, you want him out there all 60 minutes,” said Phillips, now vice president of community and business development for the Senators. “That is just the type of player that he is. There doesn’t seem to be any situation that fazes him.

“To play the minutes, he is playing, he is so well-rounded. You look at any situation in the game, and you are like, ‘I want him; he’s our guy; defense, need a goal, special teams, penalty kill and power play both.'”

Ottawa coach Travis Green admitted it is sometimes hard to give Sanderson a rest. It’s something he and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner must weigh on a constant basis. 

“At the end of the day, you don’t want to risk saving a guy and lose a game,” Green said.

Green is aware that Sanderson, as well as Chabot, knows how to play maximum minutes, push their tachometers to the red line but never past where they become ineffective.

Green called it floating, which is almost always a bad word in hockey. But not for a No. 1 defenseman. 

The playoffs have been littered with defenders who flirted with playing half of each game during a long run, players like Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks, Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings and Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins.