Archives for October 15, 2001

A week that brought us against the team that we eliminated from the playoffs with an 8-0 win, a former teammate who still brings about heated debates and the team that dumped us out of the playoffs is over.

'Biron and Kozlov were stars of this game, which had three bizarre goals, two by Buffalo. Both of Kozlov's goals were of the fluke variety. Meanwhile, Biron played a stellar game, making 25 saves, and had it not been for another fluke goal would have had his first shutout of the season.'

'Coming into this season, most NHL observers predicted that the Sabres would drop off from their 46-win total of last year. The main knock was their goaltending. Not that the experts think Biron's bad, he's just not Dominik Hasek. Biron's not the goalie Hasek is. But he's still pretty good.'

It was not only payback time for the Sabres, but for the Hockey Gods as well.

'When you watch James Patrick play defense on the ice, nobody would ever guess that he's really 38 years old. Even more astounding is the fact that he is playing in his 19th NHL campaign, his fourth with the Buffalo Sabres.'

'When the Buffalo Sabres' season began, the million-dollar question was, where will the goals come from? After Sunday's 4-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins, it might be time to award that million dollars to anyone who figured the goals would come from behind the opposing net.'

'James Patrick scored a third-period goal Sunday in his 1,101st career game, becoming just the 14th NHL defenseman with 600 points and 1,100 games played.'

'The Penguins without scoring are like the Bills without Doug Flutie. Just another oh-and-four team giving up a lot of points.'

'"They scored easy goals against us," Hlinka said.'

'"From nowhere," Hedberg said. "He finds a hole from the back of the net. That shouldn't happen. I don't have a clue how it happened."'