| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | TOTAL | |
| Dallas | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Buffalo | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
RICO'S PICO'S FOR GAME 4
By RICO
Tuesday, June 15, 1999
Ken Hitchcock calls an immediate time out to go over ways to stop the new Sabre flip technique. When play resumes, as soon as Stu Barnes tries to flip a pass over Mike Modano's head, Modano put his stick up high and bats it down, forcing the puck down the ice. Joe Nieuwendyk races down the ice and beats Alexei Zhitnik to the puck and beats Hasek on the far side to cut the lead to 3-1.
When the Sabres get the puck again, Mike Peca flips a high pass to Vaclav Varada, but Jamie Langenbrunner whacks at the puck and fires it down right on Hasek. Langenbrunner gets the rebound and tries to flip one over the Dominator, but Hasek takes his stick and bats it down the ice for a double! The game proceeds like this, with each team flipping the puck up high and it starts a whole new trend in hockey. In the following year, teams all over the league have to raise their scoreboards to accommodate the high flip passes which have become the rage. But more on that next season - back to Game 4. Dallas finally is able to score a goal on Hasek to make it 3-2, but the Sabres come back with their flip passes all over the ice (the game is starting to resemble lacrosse) and they win the game going away, 7-3.
After the game, Ken Hitchcock comes to the press conference dressed exactly like Captain Kangaroo! With his hair cut exactly like the Captain's and his mustache, he is offered a job on CBS for the next season. But Captain Hitchcock has a message to deliver and has an angered look in his eyes.
"I have never witnessed such a travesty in sports as I have witnessed tonight"cries Hitchcock. "To desecrate the fine game of hockey with those absurd flip passes takes skill completely out of the game. The Sabres won tonight, but they had to use trickery to do so and I officially protest this game. That was not hockey out there tonight, it was a comedy and I will have no part of it. Unless the league prohibits those flip passes, I will not send my players out to be humiliated again. So I am officially staging a boycott of the Stanley Cup games until this idiocy is outlawed."
Lindy Ruff devises a ingenious way to get around the Dallas Stars incredible ability to block the majority of shots opponents take. After the play starts and the Sabres get control of the puck, Geoff Sanderson takes the puck and flips it high over Hatcher, then Brian Holzinger races around the goon and flips it high over Belfour's head and into the goal. The Sabres continue their flip passes, high over the heads of Dallas defenders. And they continue to score goals. The next time the Sabres try their flip passes, Hatcher takes his stick and tries swatting it, ala Jim Lorentz swatting the bat in mid-air during the 1975 Stanley Cup finals. He misses it and Satan scores the third straight Buffalo goal.
