The prospects of having a full complement of players available for Game 5 put Boucher in an optimistic mood.
"It's 2-2 in the Stanley Cup conference final," he said. "Let's go back to September and say that's where we were going to be. My goodness, we jump on that. That's why it's such a great day today."
Defenseman Dion Phaneuf shared Boucher's appreciation for where the Senators find themselves despite the lingering feeling of having missed an opportunity in Game 4.
"We're at where we're at, 2-2," Phaneuf said. "The way you look at the series is [what] we expected it to be; a tough, long series as we expected [with] the other series we've played in. Would we have liked to had a better outcome [Friday]? For sure. But we're at where we're at and now we get on a plane, go down to Pittsburgh and have a better game there. That's where our focus is at."
When teams are tied 2-2 in a best-of-7 series during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the winner of Game 5 entered Saturday holding an all-time series record of 198-54, including 5-0 this postseason.
Ottawa and Pittsburgh have alternated victories in the series. The Senators are hoping that trend holds.