Reviving the QE Series
The Sabres and Leafs met in a home-and-home series November 20
and 21 with first place in the division on the line. We're
loving these new divisions.
In the first game, at Buffalo, Canadian fans who packed the
oranges were sent north disappointed as the Sabres won 4-1 and
earned a share of the division lead. Sabre irritant Brian
Spencer, fresh off a four-game suspension for an elbow to the
head of Bruins defenseman Gary Doak, scored the back-breaking
goal at 4:27 of the second. Spinner collected the puck at the
blue line, slid down the right wing, faked pass and snapped a
wrister that eluded Leafs backup goaltender Wayne Thomas to
increase the Sabre lead to 3-1. Jim Lorentz, Andre Savard and
Terry Martin also scored. Pat Boutette replied for the mostly
flaccid Leafs. The highlight of the game was Don Luce's open ice
thump of star Leafs center Darryl Sittler in the first.
In his post-game press conference, coach Floyd Smith was asked
whether he marked the occasion of being in first place for the
first time in his tenure as significant. "I sure remember when
we were last," he quipped.
The worm turned at Maple Leaf Gardens the next night. Josh
Guevremont scored a short-handed goal off some nice puckhandling
mojo from Lorentz, who danced in on Leafs workhorse Mike
Palmateer and chipped a behind-the-back backhander off the
goaltender's left pad. Guevremont swooped in down the left slot
and one-timed the rebound into the short side. Regrettably, Inge
Hammarstrom scored on a second effort in the slot early and Errol
Thompson made good on a breakaway late in the second, splitting
Guevremont and a flailing Lee Fogolin on his way to evening the
series. Leaf thug Tiger Williams, limited to six shifts in
Buffalo, generally made a pest of himself, dumping Spencer,
thumping Freddie Stanfield and bumping Dominik Hasek as and when
necessary.
(We loved Gerry Desjardins, but come on, he was no Hasek.)
With the win, the Leafs upped their all-time record against Hasek
to 2-11-3, and regained their two-point lead in the Adams
Division. The Sabres have four (count em) games in hand.
Hawk Ptooey
In a more pedestrian game on November 14, the Sabres ran healthy
scratch Jeff Hackett clear off the Chicago roster with a 6-1
drubbing at home. You've accomplished something in this league
when you beat a team so bad they're driven to trade for Jocelyn
Thibault.
Your star for the evening was Parma, Ohio's own Brian Holzinger,
who's settled back into his routine of looking like Joe Sakic
every eighth game or so and the bastard offspring of Bryan
Smolinski and Bob Bassen the other seven. Zinger got the Sabres
on the board with under three minutes to go in the first period
with a spin-around move in front of Andrei I-Want-a-Chance-
to-Start-Ahead-of-Hasek Trefilov, called up from Gooberville of
the Putz League by the Hawks for the start. Hackett was a
healthy scratch as he'd been all but traded to Montreal. Zinger
added two helpers and was a buzzsaw all night.
Michal Grosek scored twice for Buffalo, including one off a
memorable fake shot by Darryl Shannon which found Grosek's tape
to the right of relief pylon Mark Fitzpatrick for an easy tap-in
to make it 5-1. Ivan Boldirev scored the lone Chicago goal.
(Ok, ok, I've beaten the theme to a pulp, I'm sorry.)
Lindy Ruff shocked the Marena crowd by bringing in Dwayne Roloson
to start the third. Once the surprise that the Sabres actually
had a backup goaltender subsided, the crowd witnessed a
performance that was a strikingly realistic interpretation of a
goalie's first work in fourteen games. Rollie the Goalie's night
was like one of those chairs in your aunt's family room that no
one ever sits on except when there's company, and when you sit on
it the vinyl creaks and sounds like it's going to crack, it was a
lot like that.
He did make one fine poke check on Doug Gilmour, though. And the
Hawks, who are cranky these days, didn't get a chance to run
Hasek.
Capital Records
On the 12th, the Sabres took a field trip to the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial. Since they were in town anyway, they honored the
recently departed Eastern Conference Champion Washington Capitals
with a 2-0 shutout. "This was one of the worst performances I
have ever seen from the Capitals," said Hasek. "We played an
average game and they played a poor game." With that, the Caps
fell to 4-7-3 and were mathematically eliminated from the
playoffs.
Caps coach Ron Wilson talked about being "lethargic," needing to
"wake up," "letting yourself down," looking like you "don't give
a damn," and then addressed the more pressing subject of the
Caps' performance against the Sabres. The team held one of those
closed door meetings after the game that have worked so well for
coach Dirk Graham and the Blackhawks this season.
Dixon Ward opened the scoring just 2:33 into the game, banking a
snap shot off Mike Eagles' stick, off the post to the right of
highly overpaid Olaf Kolzig and into the net. "I meant to do
that," Ward said afterward. Miro Satan got the second goal,
riding on the coattails of Michal Grosek, who outworked two Caps
defenders and Kolzig in the low slot to keep the puck from being
frozen till Satan could swoop in and pot it into an open net.
Cementhead Craig Berube was in the crease on an apparent Caps
goal late in the second. "I meant to do that," he said
afterward. Berube isn't all that bright.
Sabre killer Peter Bondra, who came into the game off a hat trick
in his previous outing against Ottawa but with only two goals in
the twelve games before that, was a non-factor, thanks to some
major league shadowing by Michael Peca and a nice defensive play
or two to keep Bondra from being sprung (see "Others Receiving
Votes," below).
Ottawa is Also a Capital, You Know
Two nights earlier, the Sabres escaped a home game with Ottawa
with a six-game unbeaten streak barely intact. Outshot 40-23 and
awarded eleven fewer minutes in power plays, Buffalo emerged with
a 2-2 tie. Lindy Ruff flipped out on NHL officiating after the
game, bemoaning what he saw as a lack of respect. "We have no
Lindros, we have no Yashin. It's as if they say, 'We can just
give them penalties.'"
Two-headed referee monster Rob Schick and Mike Leggo said words
to that effect late in the third, as Erik Rasmussen was tagged
with a five-minute charging major and a game for squishing
Andreas Johansson against the glass. The Sabres played most of
the overtime session a man short.
Ruff was beside himself after the game. "Johansson sees a little
speck (of blood) and rolls around like he was shot by a 30.06,"
he said. For his part Johansson claimed to be worried about
losing an eye or some such nonsense, but there's no question his
reaction contributed to the harshness of the penalty. After the
highly-publicized hit Eric Lindros laid on Andreas Dackell two
weeks earlier, you can't begrudge the Ottawa center for playing
it up a little. The league reviewed the hit and declined to
further penalize Rasmussen.
Audette Requests Trade, "Misty"
The Sabres and restricted free agent forward Donald Audette have
agreed that Audette ought to make $5.7 million over three years.
They've even agreed that he should be paid $1.2 million this
season, $2 million in 1999-2000 and $2.5 million in 2000-01.
Lace 'em up, Donnie!
Well, as Alexander Mogilny used to say when Dave Snuggerud was
constantly run out there on his left wing, "not so fast."
The Sabres continue to insist on options for years two and three.
"It's like signing a three-year contract but year-per-year, which
makes no sense," Audette's agent, Gilles Lupien, who wasn't born
yesterday, said. "They're just throwing numbers into the air and
hoping we're going to jump at them."
Deftly sensing an impasse after seven months of negotiations and
after brothers-in-arms Alexei Zhitnik and Miroslav Satan were
signed before the season opener, Audette requested a trade on
November 10. "If they're not willing to do it, then maybe some
other teams are," the winger said.
The biggest prize to be had in trade these days, despite constant
bleatings to the contrary out of Toronto, is likely Penguins
16-month holdout Petr Nedved. As of this writing, a deal
involving the Rangers or Sharks seemed most likely to result in
Nedved's relocation. After failing to land free agents Doug
Gilmour and Ron Francis in the off-season, though, it might be
worth some of Darcy Reiger's time to explore. Tough, though, to
make a major deal that would no doubt involve quite a bit more
than Audette in the wake of a nine-game unbeaten streak that's
just recently concluded with a 2-1 road loss. Maybe Roman Vopat
is available.
Hot, Hot, Hot
Some Sabres who were all that and a bag o' chips the last two
weeks plus include:
- Jason Woolley, who tallied a goal and six assists and an
ungodly plus-13 in his last eight games.
- Michael Grosek, five goals, four assists and plus-7 in nine
games.
- Curtis Brown, three goals, four assists and plus-9 in
seven.
- Miroslav Satan, four goals, six assists for ten points in
nine games prior to the home-and-home with the Leafs.
- Dominik Hasek (yawn), who allowed six goals on 135 shots
(.956 Sv%) in 285 minutes of action-packed hockey over the last
five games.
- Dwayne Roloson, who stopped all 13 shots he faced against the
Hawks in 20 minutes of ice time. Goaltender controversy
brewing?
- The penalty killers, principally forwards Peca, Ward, Brown,
Holzinger, Derek Plante and Geoff Sanderson, have killed off 52
of their last 55 man-advantage situations, and their last 24.
Shades of Luce, Ramsay, Gare and Seiling! (I
know, I said I'd stop...)
Others Receiving Votes
After potting a hat trick the first time around against the Leafs
on Halloween, Sanderson has been mostly scoreless (pointless in
five of seven since), but has continued to impress with his
hustle. He had a real nice chance to tie the 2-1 loss in Toronto
with about three minutes left by being hungry for the puck and
going to the net and all that stuff your house league coach
taught you.
Jay McKee has made himself into a legitimate top-four defenseman.
He's developed the confidence and smarts necessary to commit
himself, pinching in at the point or taking the body at neutral
ice, and has rarely failed to recover in time to be in position
when necessary. McKee made a wonderful recovery in the
Washington game, sprawling from behind to poke the puck away from
an about-to-be-gone Peter Bondra in the Buffalo zone, preserving
a 1-0 lead.
Hockey's a Business
On the 19th the Sabres announced that a whole bunch of people in
suits and such were promoted to this, that or the other
impressive-sounding position in the organization, which I can't
for a moment imagine anyone much cares about, but one of them was
my old boss Stan Makowski, son of the late mayor, who was named
Senior Director of Facilities Management. So, I just want to
take the opportunity to say congratulations, Stan, and I don't
think I ever told you how much I dug that pocket Stanley tape
measure you gave us for Christmas that one year.
Last Word
"If I change the way I play, I'll be out of this league within a
year."
-- Matthew Barnaby
