‘But the acquisition of Dainius Zubrus in February signalled that Sabre management didn’t believe their team was tough enough. With his somewhat unanticipated emergence as a dominant player along the boards and the return of long-injured centre Paul Gaustad, the Sabres are much tougher now than they were two months ago. They, too, have had to compensate with the collective for the free agency loss of the individual: their most physical defenceman, Jay McKee, as well as rugged winger Mike Grier. For the greater part of last night’s series opener, there was less hitting and hard-nosed play than there should have been with this much at stake.’