Sabres crash and burn in hell in 4-1 loss to Devils
By Rick Anderson
Tuesday, December 28, 1999

The Buffalo Sabres met the Devils and played like hell Monday night in their 4-1 loss. The New Jersey Devils won going away and the Sabres' defense allowed two costly breakaways which both resulted in goals. For the fourth time this season the Sabres could not break the .500 mark and one has to wonder if the team will ever break that huge barrier.

The Devils outshot the Sabres 32-20, but that wasn't a true indication of how dominant the Devils were in this game. Martin Biron made some outstanding saves early in the contest, but with 13 minutes gone in the first period, Cory Sarich coughed the puck up at center ice to Petr Sykora and Sykora had a clean breakaway on Biron. Biron tried to poke check the puck away from Sykora but missed and that resulted in a goal as Sykora flipped it up over Biron's glove. It was Sykora's 9th of the season.

"I looked up and when I looked back down the puck wasn't there," said Sarich. "He chipped the puck through my skates. I just about got a piece of it with my skates but the rest was done after that. It's really a frustrating feeling. You're a young guy out there trying not to make mistakes and this one really stands out."

On the other side of the coin, Sykora said, "I'm not actively pursing shorthanded goals but I welcome the opportunity to cash in. I just try to go out there and kill penalties aggressively."

Buffalo was on the power play over half way into the third period when another defenseman, this time Jason Woolley, lost the puck to John Madden (no, not the Fox football commentator) and Madden had another breakaway on Biron. Biron was 0-for-2 when Madden hit the back of the net to make it 2-0. Lights out on Biron and the Sabres.

"It's the worst feeling in the world," a flustered Woolley said. "It's embarrassing. I take all the credit for screwing up. I blew it. With our power play as bad as it is, I didn't need to be doing that. I sat the rest of the game and I deserved it."

Lindy Ruff made it known to his players today that he was not going to put up with those costly mistakes. He benched Woolley for the rest of the game and also for the game against Detroit.

"When you don't score and have a few miserable power plays, you start pressing," said Ruff. "You shoot when you shouldn't shoot and pass when you should (shoot). That's what's happening with us right now."

A little over 4 minutes later, Patrik Elias got his 7th of the season putting the Devils up 3-0 at the 16:36 mark of the second period. Jason Arnott and Scott Stevens got the assists. Biron was replaced with Dwayne Roloson in the third period.

"Marty made five or six great saves just to keep us in the hockey game," Ruff defended Biron. "He played great for us."

Geoff Sanderson got his 6th of the season and his second in two games as he shot a blast from the top of the right faceoff circle that somehow got past Martin Brodeur to end his shutout bid. Sykora got an empty-netter at the end of the game as the Sabres pulled Roloson in favor of the extra attacker.

"Yeah, I think it's a pretty big relief," said Sykora. "We played the way we're supposed to be playing in back-to-back games. We played smart hockey. I guess that's what we didn't do in the other eight back-to-back games."

The Sabres once again could not capitalize on the many power play opportunities they had, going 0-7 against the Devils. The team tries to get too fancy with the puck and that resulted in a shorthanded goal by the Devils. The team as a whole played a horrendous game. Like the day after Thanksgiving when they lost to St. Louis, the Sabres' heads were not in this game.

While the Sabres were well rested coming into this game, the Devils had played the New York Rangers the night before and had the jump on the Buffalo forwards the entire evening. New Jersey improved to 9-4-1 in its last 14 games.

"When we don't put forth the effort it's pretty obvious and we didn't put forth the effort," said Rhett Warrener. "We were lucky to be that close."

Almost 1 year to the day, December 26, 1998, the Sabres played the Devils. The Sabres played one hell of a game against the New Jersey Devils that night and beat them in the Meadowlands 1-0. The whole team played as a unit, there was cohesiveness and energy. Dominik Hasek was in the nets and was at the top of his game. The Sabres took over sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference. What a difference a year makes!

This year the team is in complete disarray, the coaches cannot put a finger on what's wrong and correct it, and the team is lacking any kind of identity. Tonight the Sabres play the Detroit Red Wings. If they don't play any better than they did against the Devils, the Red Wings will roll all over them.

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