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Sabres Central

RUFF HAS LOSS CONTROL
By Rick Anderson
January 4, 2000

The Buffalo Sabres are in that tailspin again. It is the same tailspin that they experienced last year at this time. Tuesday night, the Sabres suffered their second straight disgraceful defeat. The expansion Atlanta Thrashers came back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game early in the third period. Then with only 1:09 left in the game, Jason Botterill scored his first goal of the season when he was able to poke the puck in behind Martin Biron. After being blown out by Toronto Monday night, this loss added insult to injury. Losing to the Thrashers after being up 4-1 over half way through the second period is horrendous.

Going back to last week, the Sabres have played only one good game out of five. They lost an embarrassing game to New Jersey 4-1. Then there was that utterly mortifying game against Detroit where they allowed 6 goals in the second period of that game. Buffalo came back and beat Toronto 8-1 on New Year's night, but then were completely dominated 6-2 by Toronto in the rematch.

Miroslav Satan scored the Sabres first two goals, the second on a power play against the Thrashers. Then former Sabre Darryl Shannon scored a power play goal that Biron should have stopped. Stu Barnes got the Sabres second power play goal of the night with only 7 seconds left in the first period.

"We always thought we could come back," Ray Ferraro said after the game. "As the game went on they were playing without any emotion."

Ferraro started that very comeback when he scored 14:45 into second period to start the Thrashers' run of four straight goals. Then Ed Ward got one behind Biron at the 17:04 mark of the second making it 4-3. Denny Lambert tied the game up with only 18 seconds gone by in the third period. That set up the winner by Botterill at the end of the game.

We got ourselves into a mess of trouble," Thrasher coach Curt Fraser said. "But we knew Buffalo was coming off a couple of emotional games (against Toronto) and that their energy would level off."

This game was supposed to be exactly what the doctor had ordered for the Sabres ills. The Sabres had the Thrashers right where they wanted them. They were up by three goals over half way through the game and Atlanta had only won two of their last 13 games. The Thrashers were on a 6 game losing streak. What more could anyone ask?

The Sabres after getting that big lead, played without emotion and the Thrashers knew it. The team formerly known as "the hardest working team in hockey" was outworked by an expansion team. When asked about the expansion Thrashers outworking the Sabres, Ruff said, "I think down the stretch they did, yeah, and that's a slap in the face."

"All of a sudden we think we're the Red Army team," said Jason Woolley. "We start running around and dropping passes, and we get away from what we did to get the three-goal lead."

Before this game, the only wins that Atlanta had on the road was against the inept New York Islanders. Now the Sabres are in the same class. How low can it go?

"It's as bad as it gets," said Dixon Ward. "It's got to be right up there with the lowest point in the season for us. It was ridiculous."

Michael Peca was equally upset. He had a truckload of reasons why the Sabres lost. "Turnovers, missed assignments, turnovers, missed assignments," said the Buffalo captain. "It's been the death for us this year. To be up 4-1 and play like we did defensively is embarrassing. It's unacceptable. What can you say? We can talk until we're blue in the face. We've said it all year. It's the same thing all the time."

A shakeup must be made and made now. Whether it is a major trade or even a shakeup in the coaching department, it must be made. A team that can beat the likes of Dallas, Colorado, Philadelphia and Toronto should be able to beat Atlanta. Buffalo has not been able to break .500 all season after reaching that mark 4 times. The players are not playing with emotion, they are not hitting, they are not even working up a sweat. It is an entire team effort, or lack thereof. There is a definite lack of leadership in the locker room. Not only that, but there seems to be something drastically amiss behind closed doors.

The blame for a team's misfortunes ultimately is placed on the coach, whether fair or not. Ruff has not been able to lead the Sabres out of their doldrums this season. The time is now for the Sabres management to examine the dire straights the Sabres are in and come up with the major shakeup it needs to get out of its prolonged slump.

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