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PITTSBURGH — The only candles blown out on Craig Anderson’s birthday may have been the fire inside that has carried the Ottawa Senators through these playoffs.

And, now, the Senators have a hit a major bump on the road to the Stanley Cup final.

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Instead of pushing the Pittsburgh Penguins to the brink of elimination, the Senators will try to avoid that themselves Tuesday night in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final after not even bothering to show up Sunday afternoon in a disgraceful 7-0 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions at the PPG Paints Arena.

“It was just a crap game,” said centre Kyle Turris. “It happens. It was a crap game in every aspect. Forget about it, regroup and come back with our best push in the next game. Everybody comes in prepared and ready to go and today we were on heels and just not executing.”

It was the worst playoff loss in franchise history.

“We just got a lesson in how to play an Eastern Conference final playoff game,” said winger Bobby Ryan. “Everything we did was wrong. Everything they did was right, and they were better in every aspect of the game.

“I don’t know. The effort was abysmal from everybody. I thought the room was ready and everybody was ready in here. That’s why it’s so disconcerting.”

While it didn’t look good on Anderson to get pulled on his 36th birthday, he wasn’t the only one by a long-shot to blame. The Senators embarrassed themselves by coming apart at the seams as the Penguins poured on the offence to take a 3-2 series lead and move to within one victory of going to the final for the second straight year.

“I think they were just trying to change the momentum. They were flying, change the goalie and get something changed,” said Anderson.