Wins over Wings and Philly go to waste in Florida
By Rick Anderson
March 16, 2002
Friday night in Florida was yet another example of a team way at the bottom of the standings giving the Sabres fits. The Panthers came out and scored 3 quick goals on Sabres goalie Martin Biron and they chased him right from the game. Florida ended up embarrassing the Sabres 5-2 in Miami. It was the same Sabres team that beat the first place Flyers the night before 3-1. Or was it?
As emphasized in the Sabres Central article covering the Sabres big win over the Flyers, the Sabres have a discerning tendency of big letdowns after beating top echelon teams. They did it again as advertised Friday night. It was another pathetic effort by a team that is supposedly playing desperation hockey to get back into the playoff race.
"How do we beat Philly in Philly then come here and lose to one of the worst teams? I don't have an answer,” remarked Jay McKee. "It seems we threw away points. You add even half the points we lost to those teams and we're looking a heck of a lot better than we do right now."
Mika Noronen had a spectacular performance in goal Thursday night in Philadelphia as the Sabres upset the first place Flyers 3-1. It was debated in hockey circles whether Sabres coach would go with the hot goalie Noronen or put Biron back in the nets against Florida as he had been performing well over the last few weeks. Ruff went with Biron and ended up with egg on his face. The Panther put 6 shots on Biron and three of them got past the beleaguered goalie in the game’s first six minutes. Ruff pulled Biron and replaced him with Noronen at the 6:06 mark of the first period. By that time, the damage had already been done. There was no way the Sabres were going to come back from a 3-0 deficit. It was clear, in hindsight, that Ruff had made a major mistake in starting Biron over Noronen.
"We knew they'd come out hard and we'd have to weather a little bit of a storm but we had some defense play very poorly in our end," said Ruff. "You don't get down, 3-0, and win a game. I don't care who you're playing against."
Peter Worrell opened the scoring at the 3:01 mark followed in quick succession goals by Sandis Ozolinsh and Ivan Novoseltsev.
"It looked like one of those nights where I just couldn't seem to get a handle on the puck," admitted Biron. "It's not a way you want to start a game. This one will be forgotten."
Chris Gratton netted his 10th of the season on a slap shot that got past Panther goalie Roberto Luongo, who made 28 saves in the game. The other Sabres goal scorer was Miroslav Satan, who netted his 25th of the season in the third period.
The unbelievable part in all this is that Ruff said he plans to start Biron again on Sunday in Tampa Bay.
"Marty's going to start Sunday," Ruff retorted.
In the last article covering the impressive victory over the Flyers, it was said that the Sabres are a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Now it is starting to come in focus. The Sabres just don’t play well against teams who are lower than them in the standings. They lost 3 out of 4 against Atlanta, lost two against Florida, one against Columbus and Nashville. Out of all those games, the Sabres should have won 7 out of 8 games. That would be 14 points added to their current 63 points, or 77 points. The fact is, they will probably end up out of the playoffs just because they failed to capitalize on games they should have won.
HOME
SEASON'S RESULTS
SABRE TALK MESSAGE BOARD
NEWSROOM
99 PLAYOFFS
It takes reverse psychology to explain the Buffalo Sabres this season. Teams they should beat they aren’t, and teams they have no right being on the same ice against they are beating. The Sabres are having much too many problems against the lower-ranked NHL teams and because of it, they may fail to qualify for the playoffs this season.
Sabres' Maxim Afinogenov attempts to put the puck past Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo in the third period. The Florida goalie made 28 saves in a 5-2 victory.
[AP Photo/Alan Diaz]
THE PLAYERS
STATISTICS
SCHEDULE
PROSPECTS
LIVE GAME RADIO
HISTORY
TEAM INFO
PHOTO GALLERY
MULTIMEDIA
SABRES POLL
TROPHY CASE
LINKS
THE STAFF
E-MAIL SABRESWORD
Copyright © 2002 Sabres Central, all rights reserved
