No joy in Mudville over Sabres win
By Rick Anderson
March 9, 2000
The Buffalo Sabres used a razzle-dazzle play to beat the Boston Bruins in 2-1 overtime to finally excite the sellout crowd in Marine Midland Arena. This was a night where even Lindy Ruff was searching for some positives from the team's victory. Yes, it does go into the win column, and yes, the Sabres picked up a crucial two points in the standings. However, the team's effort left a lot to be desired in a game they so desperately needed to stay afloat in the Eastern Conference playoff race. The way some fans and media are talking about the game, one would think that the Sabres got blown out 8-0.
Ruff called the game the Sabres had just played as "one of the ugliest games I ever saw. I wrote down the things I liked in this game,"said Ruff while he help up a piece of paper. "Usually when we win, I write down a lot of things."
Ruff went on to name four items that pleased him in the game: A big check by Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, an even bigger open-ice hit by Vaclav Varada that was equal to the best of Peca's, a fight that Erik Rasmussen was involved in and last, but certainly not least, Barnes' goal to win the game.
"Other than that, it was uugh..," groaned Ruff. "If you want to accentuate the positive, I just gave you four good things to go after."
Today in the papers and on radio, all the talk was negative about a team that had just pulled out a startling victory in overtime to keep pace with the other teams striving for the final playoff spot in the East. What goes on here?
The big reason for all the fuss over a poor Sabres performance was Buffalo's opposition Wednesday night. The Boston Bruins had just traded their captain and super defenseman, Ray Bourque to Colorado, along with Dave Andreychuk. Also this week, Marty McSorley was charged by Vancouver police for assault with a weapon on Donald Brashear. It was during that same game when the Bruins were in Vancouver, that Brashear had fallen on Byron Dafoe and taken the Bruins star goalie out of action for the season.
The team that took the ice against the Sabres did not resemble in any shade nor form the team that had shutout Buffalo the last two times the teams met. This was "Meet the Providence Bruins" game. The team the Sabres played were the future Bruins and that team gave the Sabres a run for their money. They played with much more heart and desire than the Sabres did, but in the end, it was not enough.
"It was one of the ugliest games I've ever seen, but we won it," asserted Ruff, who won his 100th game as a Sabres coach. "The shots could have been 60-12, and if we won it, I'm going to tell you I'm a happy man.
"There have been games where I said, ‘Well, we didn't take advantage of the 17 scoring chances we had in the third period.' We had about six or seven scoring chances the whole game. We fluked one in, and we made one heck of a play on the game-winning goal. I'm happy."
The goal by Barnes was the jewel of the night. Barnes stole the puck at the Boston blue line and took off on a 2-on-1 break with Vaclav Varada. Barnes fed a pass over to Varada on the right, who immediately passed over to Barnes storming in on the left. John Grahame, the Bruins goalie, fell to the ice while trying to go across the crease to cover Barnes, and Stu put a snap shot into the open corner to end the contest with 3:06 left in overtime. That sent the Sabres to the dressing room thankful to have come out of this game with 2 points.
"We're after wins right now,"said Barnes. "We have to win. It was nice to get a win. I don't think we played our best game, but we won. That's all that matters right now."
Most of the Sabres were happy with the win and not overly concerned with how they achieved that goal.
The Sabres opened the scoring at the 4:45 mark of the first period when Jason Woolley got the team's first shot on goal and it wasn't even supposed to be a shot. Woolley was attempting to make a pass, but the puck ricocheted off Brian Rolston's stick and also bounced off Kyle McLaren's skate before finally slipping through Grahame.
The hustle wasn't there for the Sabres all night, but luck finally was shining down on the team. It took luck to finally score a goal on Boston, which had held the Sabres scoreless for 135 minutes, over two games.
The game appeared as if Dominik Hasek would record a shutout until Antti Laaksonen got past Jay McKee, who fell down on the play, and got a shot off on Hasek that beat him, tying it up at 1 at the halfway mark of the third period.
One of the highlights of the evening, especially for Ruff, was the fight that Erik Rasmussen was involved in. Darren Van Impe got in quite a few licks before Rasmussen rebounded with a few of his own. The refs finally get involved and broke it up after the two wrestled to the ice.
Overall, the Sabres played a pretty dismal game against a team that they should have beaten soundly. As it was, if it had not been for the efforts of Hasek, who made 27 saves, the Bruins were the ones who should have romped. Buffalo only got off 17 shots on goal in over three periods. For a team that is in danger of dropping out of playoff contention, that is a serious deficiency in offensive production.
"Sometimes, you can rah-rah and say all you want," said Woolley. "You have to do it out there. We probably have a few guys working too hard in a few areas and not working smart. It was very evident. We were all over the ice. We feel very fortunate. It's over, and we have to prepare for Montreal."
The Sabres got a scare when Hasek was clobbered by Joe Thornton when he was pushed into the Buffalo goaltender by Sabres' defenseman Alexei Zhitnik. Hasek fell to the ice and hit his head on the goal post. He was down on the ice for around a minute while the Sabres' trainer went to his aid. With the Sabres not having the services of their captain Michael Peca for the rest of the regular season, the fans were in a state of shock as they saw Hasek down and out. But fortunately for Hasek and the team, the Dominator made a full recovery and was back on his feet to shutout the Bruins the rest of the way.
The Sabres take on the Montreal Canadiens, this Friday in Marine Midland Arena. The Canadiens, who shutout Pittsburgh 3-0 Wednesday, now hold down the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. The Sabres are two points back and have to come up with a much better effort if they want to beat the red-hot Habs.
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One of the biggest critics of the Sabres' play was their own coach, Ruff. During his press conference, you would have thought that the Sabres had just lost Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Dominik Hasek makes a kick save as Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre guards the crease area
[AP Photo/Don Heupel
]
"We needed those two points badly," Richard Smehlik said. "We're not happy with the way we played, but we came up with the win. We're fortunate. Maybe it will boost the confidence in the dressing room."
Miroslav Satan digs for the puck along with Bruins right wing Cameron Mann in Sabres 2-1 overtime victory over Boston
[AP Photo/Don Heupel
]
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