Final-ly!
3-2 Sabres, a tick or two over a minute to go in game five.
Alexei Zhitnik in the penalty box for obstruction-holding.
Conceptually, no, they shouldn't call obstruction penalties with
two minutes to go in a one-goal Stanley Cup game, but this
particular "obstruction" on Mats Sundin would have impressed Sam
Cowart.
Leafs jostling with Sabre penalty killers in the corner to the
right of Dominik Hasek. Curtis Joseph has left the net at the
other end, but we ESPN viewers don't know this, whether because
Steve Levy doesn't tell us or because we're on the verge of
cardiac arrest, we can't say.
Owing, we think, to the Disney-fication of the NHL in recent
years, we cut to super slo-mo.
Dixon Ward lofts the puck from the corner out of the Sabres zone.
Four and a half minutes later or so, it trickles just inside the
right post into the empty net at the other end.
"You talk about driving the nail into the coffin," Leafs veteran
Kris King would say. "That was hit with a slow hammer."
The Buffalo Sabres are in the Stanley Cup final.
You get a trophy for that. Here in the Eastern Conference, they
call it the Prince of Wales Trophy. Maybe you remember Dale
Hunter, the guy who knocked a bunch of Mike Ramsey's teeth out
while he (Ramsey) was on his knees in overtime of a
Nordiques-Sabres playoff game in the 80s, holding it over his
head last year and beaming like he'd just won... well, something.
We mention this because to watch the post-game festivities Monday
night, you might not know this. What is this Prince of Wales
Trophy you speak of, LCS Boy?
Michael Peca was presented the trophy at center ice by beloved
50s television star Soupy Sales. Peca politely shook hands, got
a big hug from Rob Ray, and left the ice.
"You don't grow up as a kid working hard to hold the conference
trophy over your head," Peca would say later.
Other than Hasek and Dwayne Roloson sporting Eastern Conference
Champions ball caps before even the handshakes, you'd hardly know
the Sabres are Stanley Cup finalists for the first time in 24
years.
Oh, yes. Dominik Hasek, his groin making it impossible to get up
from a crouch last week, came back to play in game three.
He was not a factor.
Erik Rasmussen, now he was a Factor.
Jason Woolley sprung Brian Holzinger in the middle of the third
period of game five and in the middle of a 2-2 game. Holzinger's
shot rebounded to Rasmussen, who zinged a backhander past Joseph
for the second Stanley Cup semifinal-winning goal in Buffalo
history. Rasmussen, who wonders aloud that he's even in the NHL
playoffs after expecting to compete for the AHL Calder Cup this
spring, has been a Factor, capital F, since game one of the
Bruins series.
Much as you might think the Sabres match up better against the
Dallas Stars, wouldn't you love to see Rasmussen and Claude
Lemieux lined up against one another for seven games?
How about Peca and Forsberg? Hasek and Roy?
For the Stanley Cup?
That's the prize that matters, right?
"A Bunch of Other Guys and Dominik"
Coach Lindy Ruff, what do you say to people who still call the
Sabres Dominik Hasek and a bunch of other guys?
Ruff thinks the presumptive supporting cast should get top
billing. The evidence supports him.
Peca, who may still be the Sabres' nominee for the Conn Smythe if
they win the next series, didn't exactly squash Mats Sundin the
way he had Alexei Yashin and Jason Allison. Sundin's eight
points in the five games led all scorers. But hats off to
Rasmussen, Ward, Vaclav Varada, Geoff Sanderson, Stu Barnes, and
a host of others whose performances contributed as much to the
Sabres' success as Peca and Hasek ever have. (Well, okay, maybe
not Hasek.)
Thanks to the Bunch of Other Guys, the Sabres are 7-0 this
playoff season at home. The team record is eight straight home
wins, a streak which ended in game six of the 1974-75 Stanley Cup
final.
Interestingly, if nothing more, with Colorado's loss Tuesday
night, the Avalanche are 3-6 at home, tying the NHL record for
most home losses in a single playoff season.
Owner John Rigas has had a good time in the owner's suite the
last few weeks, hasn't he?
"I can't find the words," Rigas said after the Sabres eliminated
the Leafs. "I just got into hockey three or four years ago. I
didn't know what icing was. I would have to wait for the red
light to go on for a goal.
"And now this."
On the chance the Sabres do pull of the upset in the final, is
there any way we can get Rigas to give Ralph Wilson a stake in
the team? Just wondering.
Sold Out
Tickets for the general public for the final went on sale Tuesday
morning, and were sold out in eight minutes. 590 were sold in
the first minute.
That left an awful lot of people high and dry -- or wet, as the
case may be, since it rained on many of them as they stood in
line for over 12 hours.
After the team announced that tickets were sold out, unrequited
fans outside Marine Midland Arena began chanting "hell, no, we
won't go!" Two fans rammed a metal barricade into the locked
glass doors at the Marena.
Game one is Sunday.
