Lindy Ruff shuffles across the well-worn carpet trying to figure
out where the hell he is, who the hell is knocking on his hotel
room door at this hour and what the hell time it is anyway.
In the pitch dark, Ruff manages to get his glasses to stay on his
face long enough to see the annoyingly glowing numbers on his
bedside travel clock.
3:12
Ruff fumbles with the unfamiliar latch, opens the door just a
crack and squints into the brightly lit hallway.
A hotel employee stands in the doorway with a blank expression on
his face and a VCR in his hands.
Shaken from REM sleep in the middle of the night, the scene makes
absolutely no sense whatsoever to the bleary-eyed coach of the
Buffalo Sabres.
"The VCR you asked for, sir."
The words seem distant and distorted, then Ruff blinks hard and
remembers he asked the front desk to send up a VCR by 8 a.m. so
he could do some tape study on the New York Islanders power play.
The delivery is just five hours early, that's all.
Ruff did somehow manage to get back to sleep, but he cautioned
reporters the next day before the Sabres game with the Islanders
at Nassau Coliseum not to ask any stupid questions or sleep
deprivation might cause him to high-stick an annoying writer just
to make his point.
After losing to the Islanders 5-4, Ruff surely suffered through
another restless night as the team stayed in the New York City
area to prepare for its game with the Rangers three days later.
Ruff had to be tossing and turning as he replayed in his mind's
VCR the turnover defenseman Jay McKee made at center ice and
Islander Claude Lapointe's subsequent breakaway goal with 41
seconds left that won the game and negated four unanswered goals
the Sabres had scored to tie it.
Expecting McKee to shoot the puck deep into the New York zone,
the coaches called for a change of his defense partner. But after
McKee backhanded the puck off Lapointe's hip at the red line, all
the oncoming Richard Smehlik could do was skate like crazy and
watch Lapointe slip a backhand shot through the falling Dominik
Hasek's five-hole.
If Ruff ever got to sleep at all, he woke up on Sunday morning in
a sour mood. And in last place in the Eastern Conference.
No wonder they call it the city that never sleeps.
I know, I know, the season is still in diapers: the Sabres have
played only six games. But after suddenly losing two straight in
the regular season for the first time since last December - the
Sabres were shut out 1-0 by Olaf Kolzig and the Washington
Capitals in Buffalo the night before losing on Long
Island - the slow start that Ruff wanted to avoid like a
registered letter from the IRS might have been FAXed to the hotel
overnight.
At least they didn't wake him up to deliver it.
Contributing to Ruff's insomnia is one problem no one is
surprised about: the Sabres aren't scoring many goals, only four
at even strength in the first five games (fewest in the NHL)
before breaking out against the Islanders' Tommy Salo with three.
And another that surprises almost everyone: Dominik Hasek just
isn't Dominik Hasek yet. He has allowed 12 goals in three
Saturday night games on the road against Dallas, Montreal and the
Islanders, but just three in the other three games. Though he
played brilliantly in Colorado and matched Kolzig save for
save in Buffalo, Hasek has struggled at times, especially in
giving up five goals to the Isles.
On New York's third goal, Jason Dawe stepped around fallen Sabre
defenseman Jason Woolley at center ice and waltzed down the left
wing before slapping the puck through Hasek's pads. Then Bryan
Smolinski stole the puck from Vaclav Varada at center ice, walked
in on Hasek and wristed the puck high to the stick side for the
Islanders' fourth goal. Finally, on the winning goal, Lapointe
pulled Hasek down to the ice with an unexpected backhand move and
then slipped the puck between the goaltender's legs.
The Islanders had accomplished something three times in one game
that Canada couldn't do once in its shootout with the Czech
Republic in the recent Olympics: beat Hasek one-on-one.
Another sleep-disturber is the Sabres lack of an intimidating
home-ice advantage at Marine Midland Arena. They failed to win on
an emotional opening night when the team's late co-founder was
remembered and could not even get on the scoreboard in a
much-anticipated rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals
with Washington.
After losing that contest, the Sabres had gone five games without
winning at home dating back to last year's playoffs. Part of the
problem is a late-arriving crowd that is one of the quietest in
the NHL. Without piped-in sound, there might not be any noise or
enthusiasm in the building at all.
Add it all up, and it's starting to smell a lot like October
1997, without the stench of front office chaos and Hasek getting
booed, of course. Last season, the Sabres won their opening game
then quickly fell apart under the weight of off-ice problems and
Hasek's poor play and never broke over the .500 mark again until
February.
Not even the best record in the NHL after New Year's Day could
allow the Sabres to catch the Pittsburgh Penguins in the
Northeast Division, although they carried that incredible
second-half momentum into the playoffs and surged all the way to
the conference finals.
And this is essentially the same team that charged from well back
to win the Northeast Division in 1996-97 with win after win
during a prolonged homestand in February.
So, how in the world does Ruff explain to his players the
critical importance of a good start when his team knows from
personal experience you can begin your season the day after
dressing up like Dick Clark in drag and drinking massive
quantities of alcohol? (Wait, that's how the LCS staff celebrates
New Year's Eve.)
Starting slowly - in seasons and, recently, in games - then
making dramatic comebacks is becoming the Sabres modus operandi.
For that reason, as the Sabres prepared for their October 27 game
at Madison Square Garden, you could find Ruff in front of his TV
at three in the morning watching infomercials for Incision Micro
Hair Grafting. Not that he needed it, unless he was already
starting to pull out what was left of his thinning blond hair.
And when he did get to sleep, you would find him dozing only
lightly, fearing another knock on his door in the middle of the
night: the Ghost of Autumn Slumps Past.
We'll leave the light on for ya, Lindy.
Highlights of the Fortnight
Goal - Oleg Kvasha, the Florida Panthers impressive
rookie, scored an incredible goal in the second period of the
Sabres-Panthers game on October 16. The 6'5 forward pulled the
puck around defenseman Darryl Shannon and whipped a brilliant
backhand shot past Dominik Hasek to tie the game at 2-2.
Oleg put the Kvasha on Hasek. It's just fun to say.
Save - Olaf Kolzig made a ton of brilliant saves in
shutting out the Sabres on October 23, including a sliding,
pad-stacking save on Wayne Primeau's slamming shot from the side
of the net with only a few seconds left in the second period. But
his best pair of saves was on Geoff Sanderson's quick backhand
from right in front, then Michal Grosek's point-blank rebound
from deep in the crease. Ollie Mackerel!
Hit - Defenseman Jay McKee tried to add Capital Mike
Eagles to the endangered species list in the first period of the
Caps game. Eagles was soaring freely on a current of warm air
into the Sabres zone when McKee played NFL linebacker and rattled
him with a forearm and shoulder hit that sent Eagles into the
partition at the end of the Sabres bench and then sprawling to
the ice.
Screamin' Eagles!
Game - Sabres 4, Canadiens 3
Off the opening faceoff, the Habs Scott Thornton made a b (for
Barnaby)-line for Matt and mugged him at center ice, stealing
Barnaby's purse and even beating him with it.
Sure, the Habs took a 2-0 first period lead and kept up their
assault that somehow was supposed to pay the Sabres back for the
Eastern Conference semifinals sweep they had the audacity to
complete in the Holy City itself.
Montreal even took a 3-0 lead. That's when the Sabres didn't get
mad, they got even (and took the lead), thanks to four hideously
ugly goals.
On the power play, Brian Holzinger knocked down a bouncing puck
just inside the Canadiens line and shot it through three Habs
players while Miroslav Satan cruised toward the front of the net.
The puck hit something, obviously not the Unibrow-mer, and
slipped past goaltender Jocelyn Thibault.
Montreal 3, Buffalo 1
The Sabres were on another power play two minutes later when
Michael Peca broke in on a quickly developing 2-on-1 with Matthew
Barnaby to his left. Peca sent a pass across that deflected off
the stick of Montreal defenseman Stephane Quintal and blooped
over Thibault into the net.
Montreal 3, Buffalo 2
Early in the third period, Vaclav Varada kept the puck in the
Montreal zone by chipping it to Dixon Ward in the corner. With
Varada cutting to the slot, Ward skated behind the net and threw
the puck out front. Varada took a wild, turnaround shot that
sailed wide and bounced harmlessly off the glass behind the net.
Harmless, except Ward gathered in the rebound and banked the puck
off Thibault to tie the game.
Montreal 3, Buffalo 3
Less than eight minutes later, Varada broke in over the Habs blue
line and was crunched to the boards by defenseman Brett Clark,
then spilled by Clark in the corner. Before he went down, Varada
managed to one-hand the puck to Peca in the opposite corner.
Cycling the puck magnificently, Peca hacked the puck back to
Varada, who was still being pestered by Clark. Varada left the
puck for Ward, then cut to the front of the net. Ward's
goal-mouth pass was fanned on by Peca, then bobbled by Thibault.
But Varadastein was there to shovel the loose puck over Thibault.
Buffalo 4, Montreal 3
Four ugly goals in 14 minutes gave the Sabres an unlikely victory
that Dominik Hasek, to no one's surprise, secured in the final
minutes with typically brilliant save after brilliant save.
It was a beautiful thing to see.
Other Games:
Sabres 3, Avalanche 0
Dominik Hasek was in rare form in recording his first shutout of
the season in just his second game. When Hasek is emotionally
involved in a game, he is practically unbeatable. He was that and
more in McNichols Sports Arena against the Avalanche.
Hasek jumped out of his crease to join a melee between Sabres
defenseman Richard Smehlik and the Avalanche's Valeri Kamensky
and picked up a two-minute penalty.
He skated well out to poke the puck away from a penetrating
Claude Lemieux, then charged halfway to the blue line to play the
puck and was bowled over by Joe Sakic. With no penalty called,
Hasek kept his cool instead of throwing his blocker like he did
when Peter Bondra of the Capitals ran him in the corner in
Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals.
"Even I was pushing guys tonight," said Hasek. "When I see my
teammates playing hard in front of me it makes me play even
harder."
Sabres 2, Panthers 2
By the time the line of center Derek Plante, left winger Geoff
Sanderson and right winger Miroslav Satan waited through a
lengthy introduction of the entire Sabres roster, a pregame
ceremony and banner-raising honoring the late co-founder of the
Sabres, Norty Knox, and a delay so that maintenance workers
could sweep up some residue from the requisite opening night
pyrotechnics show - a wait that seemed to last even longer than
this sentence - well, they could hardly wait another second to
display some fireworks of their own.
Make that 11 seconds. That long into the Sabres first home game
of the season at Marine Midland Arena, Satan stole the puck at
center ice, took a return pass from Derek Plante just inside the
Florida line and found Sanderson drag-racing down the left wing.
Sanderson accepted Satan's angle pass, skated to the bottom of
the right circle and beat goaltender Sean Burke with a quick
wrist shot low to the stick side.
But the Panthers Oleg Kvasha would tie the game (see Goal of the
Fortnight above), and the Sabres would have to settle for a
Monica Lewinsky tie.
Capitals 1, Sabres 0
A near-sellout crowd at the Marine Midland Arena was primed to
heap some proverbial payback on the team that eliminated the
Sabres in the Eastern Conference Finals last spring.
Payback? Olaf Kolzig turned out to be the bitch.
The not-so-plush-and-lovable goaltender of the Washington
Capitals did his very best to make sure the last easy score of
the night for the home team and its fans was when 5,000 kids
under 12 snatched up all of the available Beanie Babies in the
lobby of the Marena before the game.
Kolzig was absolutely Grinch-like in making 30 saves, most of
them spectacular, to earn his second shutout of the young season
and key his injury-depleted team's 1-0 win.
Islanders 5, Sabres 4
The Sabres trailed 4-0 with time running down in the second
period when a deflected shot from the point by Curtis Brown on
the power play sparked an incredible comeback.
A little over a minute later, Wayne Primeau finagled a short shot
between the pads of Salo with 16 seconds left in the period and
the comeback was really on.
The Sabres dominated the early part of the third period, tying
the game on Dixon Ward's deflection of Mike Peca's goal-mouth
shot and Holzinger's wrister under Salo's arm on a give-and-go
with Geoff Sanderson 35 seconds later.
The Isles had lost a four-goal lead for the first time in 20
years, and the Sabres were poised to take the lead on a team that
was reeling like the crusty seaman who used to adorn their
sweater.
Meanwhile, at the other end, Hasek was seeing very little action,
and on an off night for the Dominator, you figured the next good
chance for the Islanders had to go in.
It did. Claude Lapointe stole the puck at center ice and scored
on a breakaway with 41 seconds to go.
In the (Buffalo) Wings
October 30, 31 - Home-and-home series with the Toronto
Maple Leafs signals the renewal of a great QEW rivalry and the
return of the hybrid chant: "Let's go Leafs go Buffalo!" Finally.
November 7 - At Philadelphia. Lindros and Barnaby. LeClair
and Peca. Vanbiesbrouck and Hasek. Let the bad blood flow again
in one of the league's fiercest rivalries.
Team Notes
Winger Donald Audette and defenseman Mike Wilson are still
unsigned. Audette's agent met with Sabres GM Darcy Regier, but
the negotiations are going nowhere. Even though the Sabres need
Audette's goal scoring desperately, they seem to be willing to
play hardball with Rat Boy. Wilson? Who cares. Meanwhile, center
Derek Plante might as well be holding out. He watched from the
press box for four of the first six games.
Although Lindy Ruff shook up his lines after the Sabres were shut
out against Washington, the combinations have been largely
unchanged for the first six games:
Dixon Ward-Mike Peca-Vaclav Varada
Michal Grosek-Curtis Brown-Matthew Barnaby
Geoff Sanderson-Brian Holzinger-Miroslav Satan
Paul Kruse-Wayne Primeau-Rob Ray
Northrup R. Knox
The Sabres raised another banner to the top of Marine Midland
Arena before their home opener against the Florida Panthers. The
initials NRK joined SHK and the French Connection in the rafters
of the Marena, banners that recognize the five men who were
largely responsible for growing the Sabres franchise in the early
70s.
NRK is Northrup R. Knox, co-founder of the Sabres along with his
brother, the late Seymour H. Knox (SHK). Norty's death, on July
23 in Buffalo, just months after new owner John Rigas took over
the team, was the final aftershock of an earthquake that has
rocked Sabres hockey since 1996.
The spring and summer of 1996 saw the most dramatic changes. The
crossed-sabres logo and blue-and-gold unies were scrapped in
favor of a sleek white buffalo with trendy black and red colors.
Memorial Auditorium, the Depression-era building with the steep
stairways and small ice surface, saw its final game. Owner
Seymour Knox passed away, and Ted Darling, the voice of the
Sabres since 1970, died from a brain disorder that forced him out
of broadcasting in the early 90s.
Stunning change even continued once the team moved to its new
home one block from the old Aud. In 1997, the general manager,
John Muckler, was fired, the coach of the year, Ted Nolan, was
effectively let go, and the captain and arguably the most popular
Sabre ever, Pat LaFontaine, was traded. By the beginning of 1998,
the team had a new owner, cable television magnate John Rigas.
Now Norty Knox.
It's a new millennium of Sabres hockey, and the changes have been
refreshing, tragic deaths notwithstanding. But what any fan
taking his seat in the Marine Midland Arena instantly recognizes
by looking up is that the people who built the Sabres are well
remembered.
Those men laid the foundation for any success the team will have
in the future. Really, they are the only reason there is NHL
hockey in a market as small as Buffalo.
There is only one banner left to raise, and if a Stanley Cup
banner ever goes up in Buffalo, it will be due largely to the
work of men like Seymour and Norty Knox.
The Voice of Hockey
One icon of the Sabres does live on: Rick Jeanneret. RJ, the
portly gent in the suspenders who is a spitting image of Rodney
Dangerfield, has been broadcasting hockey games since the Sabres
second season, on radio for many years, then on TV the past four.
Jeanneret has brought his frenetic style and passion for the game
to several generations of Sabres fans. Best known for his "May
Day...May Day...May Day" call of Brad May's overtime goal in 1993
that eliminated the Bruins and his classic "La-la-la-la-la-la-la
Fontaine," Jeanneret's distinctive two-pitched voice is the voice
of hockey itself: excitable, emotional, passionate. Jeanneret is
a final link to the Sabres deep past, and he is a treasure.
Wacky Stuff
Dixon Ward, the Skating Pinata, is the early-season league leader
in broken noses. He has had the old beak smashed some three times
already, the second time on a vicious elbow by the Habs Turner
Stevenson. Ward is Chasing History: Vancouver's Tiger Williams
holds the modern-day record for broken noses with his magical 29
breaks in 1980. We'll keep you posted. Come to think of it,
maybe the jinxed Dixon should have kept the number 17 he started
the season with. Ward played the opening game in Dallas with
Jason Dawe's old number, then switched back to his regular number
15 after reporting he just didn't feel comfortable. Dixon, how
comfortable does it feel being on the National Nose Transplant
List?
The Sabres Director of Information Technology confirms that the
team will replace the central processing unit implanted in
Dominik Hasek's brain next month in order to make the four-time
Vezina and two-time Hart Trophy winner safe from the Year 2000
Bug. Dwayne Roloson is expected to get a start in mid-November
while Hasek's hard drive is reformatted. The team feared that
during the first game in 2000, Hasek's thought processes would
malfunction and he would scream, "I want pudding, tapioca
pudding!" instead of his traditional "Must see!" and other
bizarre utterances.
Happy Halloween
In the Avalanche game, Matthew Barnaby skated through the
Colorado crease and elbowed Roy in the side of the head.
Patrick's head twisted to the side in a scene hauntingly
reminiscent of "The Exorcist," and the goalie tumbled
backwards into the crease, semi-conscious and stick-less. Referee
Rob Shick missed it, but it's no wonder: Barnaby had his head
turned away from Roy and made no striking motion with his
shoulder or elbow. He just stuck out his Buffalo Wing, cocked his
head and pretended Roy's mask was a dish of bleu cheese dressing.
Perfect, just like the Sabres best game of the season.
What's Your Beef-alo?
The Capitals game saw a pair of coincidental penalties for
hooking and diving. Peter Bondra pulled down Dixon Ward and got a
penalty for hooking, but Ward also went for diving. Then Mike
Peca and Brian Bellows turned the rare double play later in the
game, this time Bellows going for embellishing. Does this make
any sense to anyone? Can you say "over-officious jerk"?
