PASabreFan
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How did we get the rights to Mike Pandolfo?
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I remember everything but the Ray quote. I guess at that point in his career, he wasn't the guy I turned to for talk of the future.
Those details on the Kozlov deal aren't completely accurate. They kept one of the picks and traded the other, along with a pick they got in return for Mike Pandolfo to Edmonton. Come on, BU players demand your respect!
That came straight out of the 2002-03 Media Guide transactions section. In the same guide, in Hecht's profile, it says the Sabres traded the 31st and 36th picks to Edmonton.
The Sabres traded Mike Pandolfo for a pick?
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June 22, 1999
Letting a scorching early-summer sun dry out their disappointment and a light breeze off Lake Erie stir their heart-felt gratitude, an estimated 20,000 Buffalo Sabres fans cram Niagara Square at high noon to let the world know two things. They are proud, and they are ? still ? pissed. Eight years and five months after a similar rally followed the Buffalo Bills' heartbreaking loss in Super Bowl XXV, this time the fans come to commiserate not over Scott Norwood's right foot but Brett Hull's left skate. They also come to say, in the most dramatic way possible, thank you.
Three quotes from this day resonate:
John Rigas: "Give us the tools and we'll finish the job," he quoted the Prime Minister of England as saying to the rest of the free world in the face of incessant Nazi attack during World War II. Rigas' version: "We're determined to give the Sabres the tools to finish the job."
Lindy Ruff: "I'm going to leave you with two words, the final two words for the summer: NO GOAL!"
Dominik Hasek: "Have a nice summer and let's get Cup Crazy 2000."
But Rob Ray offers what is, in retrospect, the most haunting remark. "This team is going to be unbelievable in years to come. You can almost guarantee there are going to be many more days like this in the future. The bright young stars that we have are not to be denied."
Hey, maybe he was a soothsayer and was talking about the 2005-2006 Sabres!
June 22, 2002
The Sabres trade malcontent Slava Kozlov and the 41st pick in the draft to Atlanta for the 31st and 82nd picks. The Sabres then ship those picks to Edmonton for Jochen Hecht.
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OK, move over Fushetti, you punk. Get off my plane.
June 21...
Uh...
Well, so many moments to choose from.
Let me think.
OH YEAH.
Now it's coming back to me.
June 21, 1986
The Sabres trade Gilles Hamel to Winnipeg for Scott Arniel.
Yep, the old mind is still as sharp as ever.
June 22 is a pretty interesting day, though.
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June 18, 1998
Instead of losing him in the upcoming expansion draft, the Sabres trade goaltender Steve Shields and a fourth round draft choice (Miroslav Zalesak) to San Jose for goaltender Kay Whitmore, a second round draft choice (Jaroslav Kristek) and future considerations. The Sabres choose not to extend a qualifying offer to Whitmore on July 1, making him an unrestricted free agent.
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June 17, 1999
At Reunion Arena in Dallas, the Stars win for the third time in four games since dropping Game 1, shutting out the Sabres 2-0 to take a three games to two lead in the lowest-scoring Stanley Cup finals since the 1940s. The Sabres outshoot the Stars for the first time in the series, 23-21, but Ed Belfour is unbeatable. At the other end, Dominik Hasek is beaten by a perfect roofed shot early in the second period by Darryl Sydor and a backhander late in the third by Pat Verbeek. To add injury to injury, Rhett Warrener is rag-dolled to the ice with six seconds to go in the game by Derian Hatcher and breaks his right ankle. Lindy Ruff and Ken Hitchock give each other mouth-to-mouth after the final horn, the portly Hitchcock giving Ruff a head fake like he is coming over the glass that separates the two and Ruff picking up a water bottle and threatening to bean Captain Kangaroo. "The heck with it," says Ruff after the game. Hitchcock also plays down the incident. "It was just two guys from Alberta saying hello."
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It was chilly. Don't make me prove it.
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June 15, 1999
The events of Game 6 seem to be all anyone ever wants to remember about the 1999 Stanley Cup finals. So for a moment let's forget how it all ended and remember what was at the time the greatest win in franchise history. Here's what Game 4 looked like to this intrepid observer:
WORLD WAR (BEST OF) 3!
Sabres go on warpath to scalp Stars, tie series
Buffalo ? The heat wave was gone. The sea of red was ? for the most part ? gone. The 1975 Sabres were gone, from our minds, at least.
But the Buffalo Sabres were back! The speedy Sabres, the feisty Sabres, the reckless Sabres.
And so was a classic chant from the early 1970s that 18,595 hockey-jacked fans dusted off midway through game four's nerve-wracking third period: "Oo, ah...Sabres on the warpath...oo, ah!"
The chant might be politically incorrect in these final days of the 1990s, but it's a perfect slogan for how the Sabres played on a chilly Tuesday night in downtown Buffalo: they simply skated on an icy warpath to vanquish the Dallas Stars 2-1 and even the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals at two games apiece. Game five is in Dallas on Thursday, and, no matter what, game six is in Buffalo on Saturday.
Lord Stanley will be in the building.
"Emotion and passion were what won us the hockey game," said Lindy Ruff afterwards, singling out Dominik Hasek as the emotional leader in the game and citing the goaltender's tone-setting comments to the team on Monday about opening up offensively, odd-man rushes be damned.
"Well, he said it all really. What he said was, bring it on. Dominik said, listen, go for it. If it's breakaways or two-on-ones, I am up to the challenge. And if this team thinks they are going to be physical, I am going to get involved, too," Ruff said.
The Dominator was true to his word ? he got very involved when the Stars wanted to get Olivia-Newton-John-physical. Hasek had the stick slashed out of his hands by Joe Nieuwendyk late in the second period and was cheap-shotted from behind by Pat Verbeek while referee Dan Marouelli held him up after the final whistle.
But Hasek remained defiant while making 30 saves in the game, 13 of them in the third period. Late in the third, he threw off his blocker glove after Nieuwendyk ripped the stick from his hands, then skated behind the net and shook his bare right fist at two of the Stars.
Thanks to The Dominator's refusal to back down in the face of a Stars' team that desperately wanted to win and close out the series in Dallas on Thursday night and thanks to Randy Cunneyworth's willingness to sit down in the crease and block Craig Ludwig's sure goal early in the third period, something else will be back in Buffalo: the Sabres. And, for the first time since 1975, so will the Stanley Cup.
Y'all come back now, ya hear.
"We found a way to get back to playing the way we want to play, This was the biggest game of our lives, no question about it," said Dixon Ward, who scored the game-winning goal. "We don't win this game, we are in trouble ? big, big trouble. So we had no choice but to throw everything out there."
They threw everything out there all right, but ? unlike game three ? they conserved their energy, playing passionately but picking their spots, rolling four lines and employing shorter shifts than in the game on Saturday night. Mike Peca's shifts were five seconds shorter on average, Curtis Brown's 12 seconds shorter, Alexei Zhitnik's nine seconds and so on.
The strategy worked. Buffalo had only 18 shots on goal, but that's a ton compared to the Zigmund-paltry dozen in game three. Many of the shots forced Ed Belfour to stand on his head, especially his point-blank pad save on Joey Juneau, his miraculous goal-mouth stick save on Miroslav Satan and his flopping save on Curtis Brown's deflection from the slot, all on second-period Buffalo power plays to keep the Sabres from taking a two-goal lead.
Sabres 'ward' off blocked shot, regain lead
Ward was the only player on either team to skate in his team's optional practice on Sunday, so it was appropriate that the free-spirited veteran didn't need anyone's help to score an unassisted goal in the second period that put the Sabres back into the lead, 2-1, and eventually held up as the game-winning goal.
Except, that is, the help of Craig Ludwig, the fossilized 38-year-old defenseman of the Stars who skated backwards in his own zone and attempted to pass Mike Peca's soft dump-in across to his defense partner Shawn Chambers.
But, suddenly wearing the jersey of the turnover-cursed Toronto Maple Leafs, Ludwig bobbled the puck off his stick right to the hard-charging Ward, who stepped to the left hash mark and zipped a wrist shot ? no slappers on this night ? over the falling Ludwig ? no blocks, either ? inside the left post at 7:37 of the second period.
"I knew he was going to go down on one knee. The way he blocks shots, he goes down on one knee and lays one leg out in front of you. The only way to get it by him is to go over his leg. Fortunately, it was in the right angle where it went in the side of the net," said Ward, who explained that he was too tired to flamboyantly celebrate the goal, adding, mysteriously, that one day he would explain the real reason for his understated celebration.
Had he crapped himself? What? Dixon, inquiring minds want to know.
"I was just trying to throw it over to my partner, Shawn (Chambers), and it bounced right off the top of my stick," Ludwig explained. "He just shot it over the top of me. I think I screened Eddie on it, and he didn't have a chance."
Sanderson 'finally listened'
Chambers was the one who didn't have a chance in a scoreless first period. The puck bounced past him at the right point in the Buffalo zone, and Geoff Sanderson saddled past him, picked it up at the red line and was gone down the left wing. As the fans stood, as the Buffalo bench stood and as time stood still, Sabres' fans everywhere were all screaming the same one-syllable word as The Sand Man broke in all alone on Belfour: DEKE!
This time, finally, thank God, he did!
Sanderson faked a shot at the top of the left circle, something the team had worked on in practice, got Belfour leaning to his right outside the crease, then raced in, pulled the puck to his backhand and slipped it into the empty net, tripping over Belfour's left leg and Bobby s-Orring through the air with 11:51 left on the smoking Jumbotron.
When Sanderson skated to the bench to bump gloves with his teammates, Ruff yelled at him over the din of the aluminum-Stanley-Cup-carrying crowd, "You finally listened." Sanderson, who was taken off the Curtis Brown line so Joey Juneau could join it and add some offensive punch, shot back ? not even deking ? "The puck wasn't in the right position to shoot."
"That was the first time I deked, yeah. I have been stuffed quite a few times just going down shooting it. I had to come down the wing on a different angle and that gave me the opportunity to put a little deke on him," said Sanderson.
Modano to Lehtinen ties it, again
The Stars tied the game 2:05 later with Wayne Primeau in the penalty box for charging after he slammed Darryl Sydor into the boards behind the Dallas net. Mike Modano caught Brown in No Man's Land beside the Buffalo net and threaded a pass to Jere Lehtinen, who beat Hasek inside the left post from the right hash mark with a one-legged falling-away one-timer.
The game is over!
The Stars outshot the Sabres 13-2 in the final period; it took the Sabres until 6:27 was left to get their first shot on goal, an Erik Rasmussen deflection from close range that a falling Belfour shook off his right shoulder.
Despite the wide advantage in shots, the Stars enjoyed only a few legitimate chances to score. The Sabres limited them to largely perimeter shots and few rebounds, Jamie Langenbrunner's glorious chances the rare exceptions.
Langenbrunner was foiled twice in a row by Hasek from the left circle after an almost disastrous wholesale change by the Sabres, then Cunneyworth made one of the biggest saves of this game or any Sabres' game, going down in the crease and getting his left knee on Ludwig's point shot that was labeled for the corner of the empty net.
Shortly after that, Hasek made a blocker save on Sergei Zubov's zipper from just inside the blue line after a faceoff loss, then went on to make a butterflying pad save on Guy Carbonneau from the right dot two minutes later and a stack-your-pads beauty on the wrapping-around Dave Reid with just under eight minutes to go.
"I just try to do my job," the always humble Hasek said. As often as we talk about his fiery volatility and his quirky alien-like habits, humility really is the most characteristic aspect of Hasek's personality.
The Sabres helped themselves immensely by actually winning more faceoffs than the Stars in the third period, though Dallas outdrew the Sabres 34-23 in the game.
The final coronary-artery-spasming 3:09 of game four of the Stanley Cup finals was played without a whistle, without any chance to breathe. The Sabres clogged up the neutral zone and time and time again denied the Stars' entry into the Niagara Frontier of the Buffalo zone. They deftly dumped the puck into the Dallas zone, taking great care not to ice it. The soft dumps turned the big Dallas "D" around and made them skate almost 200 feet in the other direction.
The final minute was as harrowing as being strapped in a commuter plane landing in a snowstorm. Zubov's one-timer slipped wide with 46 seconds to go, then Brown and Wayne Primeau teamed up to make a critical clear with 23 seconds to go. Brown fenced Nieuwendyk's pass away from Reid, positioned dangerously in the slot, and Primeau threw his big body on the ice just inside the blue line to sweep the puck over Zubov's head to center ice.
With 13 seconds to go, Warrener sand-wedged the puck into the Dallas zone, where it landed softly and held the green until Peca could get there and negate any icing.
After Langenbrunner took a run at the celebrating Warrener in front of the Sabres' net as the horn sounded, the biggest win of the season ended, appropriately enough, in war.
Oo, ah!
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Superhero
Dominik Hasek. Went for it! Assistant Superhero: Randy Cunneyworth. Now we got ourselves a grizzled veteran.
Demonic Goatheads
Craig Ludwig and Shawn Chambers. Ludwig is wearing an adult diaper, what's Chambers' excuse?
The Ultimate Play
Dominik Hasek gives Jamie Langenbrunner the five-hole, then cruelly takes it away early in the third period. A moment later, Randy Cunneyworth gives up his 38-year-old left patella to block Craig Ludwig's slapshot that would otherwise have banged inside the right post and tied the game.
The Turning Point
The Dallas Stars are taking control of the game early in the second period, winning all the battles down low and dangerously cycling the puck. In the neutral zone, they are backchecking the puck off the sticks of the Sabres and turning it right back into the Buffalo zone. It's just a proverbial matter of time when Craig Ludwig tosses all that momentum away like a snot-covered Kleenex. God bless you!
The Key to the Series:
Can the Sabres stay composed?
Game Four: Yes. Played calmly under intense pressure that came from within, not without. They won for themselves, not necessarily the fans, the media or the franchise. There's a big difference. Didn't wilt when Stars came back to tie the game 2:05 after Geoff Sanderson gave them the early 1-0 lead. Gutsy play after gutsy play in the pressure-packed third.
Game Three: No.
Game Two: Yes.
Game One: Yes.
The Unheralded Play
With 5:06 to go in the third period, Brian Holzinger has a scorpion in his underpants and propels himself down the ice in time to drill Derian Hatcher into the glass behind the Dallas cage and allow Geoff Sanderson to finagle his way in, touch the puck first and prevent an icing.
The Big Clicks
Erik Rasmussen, Vaclav Varada and Dixon Ward tag-team the 6'5, 225-pound captain of the Stars, Derian Hatcher, in the third period.
Inside the Numbers
A bit of a concern here: the Sabres have not scored a power play goal in their last 14 chances.
In the (Buffalo) Wings
A fateful trip to Dallas.
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The day before Game 4 of the finals in Buffalo, the Sabres call up Martin Biron, Dean Sylvester and Randy Cunneyworth from Rochester. The Amerks were eliminated from the Calder Cup finals the night before. Tension has Buffalo in its vice grip on this day as fans nervously await a virtual must win at Marine Midland Arena, with the Stars leading the series two games to one. Fans wonder if there's any chance for Cunneyworth to crack the lineup. But if he does, it will probably be with limited ice time and not much of a chance to make an impact.
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I shall do the honorable thing, and fall on my sabre.
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June 13, 1995
A press conference is called at Memorial Auditorium to announce that John Muckler is stepping down as head coach to concentrate on his general manager duties full time. After the disappointing lockout-shortened season that saw the Flyers dispatch the Sabres in five games in the playoffs, speculation was rampant that Muckler had "lost his team." Muckler agrees to continue as general manager despite word from team president Doug Moss that about $10 million would have to be lopped off the Sabres' considerable payroll. A search for a new head coach begins.
Oh yeah, I really blew June 11. On that date, Scotty Bowman and Darcy Regier were hired by the Sabres, in 1979 and 1997, respectively.
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WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! Do not read the following if you take anti-depressants. Do not operate a motor vehicle until you know how reading the following might affect you. If pregnant, almost pregnant, or if you plan on becoming pregnant, log off immediately. If you drink heavily, read the following, but have large amounts of alcohol handy. Side effects of reading the following include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, stomach pain and hallucinations. Talk to your team doctor before reading the following.
Blown leads in Sabres playoff history (partial list)
1979 -- In a deciding Game 3 at the Aud in that terrifying preliminary round the NHL used to stage back in the day, the Sabres lead 3-2 going into the third period but allow the Penguins to tie it to force overtime. Early in the overtime, the Pens win it. Hmmmm...
1980 -- The Sabres are trying to come back from three games down to force a Game 7 back at the Aud in the semifinals against the Islanders. On Long Island, the Sabres lead 2-0 early but give up five unanswered goals to lose the game and the series.
1983 -- In Game 7 at Boston Garden, a pair of early Ric Seiling goals has the Sabres up 2-0. The Bruins tie the game at 2 and win it in overtime on Brad Park's fluky goal.
1985 -- The Sabres lead a deciding Game 5 in Quebec 5-3 with nine minutes to go in the third period. The Nordiques score three in a row.
1997 -- The Sabres lead Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals 3-1 in the second period at Marine Midland against the Flyers. The Pylons score four in a row to take Game 1 and wrest home ice from the Sabres. They never look back.
1998 -- In the Eastern Conference finals at Washington, the Sabres "go for it" in Game 2, trying to take a commanding two games to nothing lead but let a one-goal lead slip away on Peter Bondra's controversial tally late in the second period. Caps win in overtime. At least we can blame the refs for this one.
1999 -- In the Cup finals, with another chance to "go for it" after winning Game 1 on the road, the Sabres lead the Stars 1-0 midway through the second period. Dallas wins 4-2 to tie the series. In Game 3 (see above)...
2001 -- The Sabres lead Game 6 in Pittsburgh late and can advance to the conference finals. Lemieux. The Sabres lead Game 7 in the third period and can advance to the conference finals. Some dude I forget. Then Kasparaitis.
2006 -- No reminders needed.
Don't say you weren't warned.
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The inability to hold a lead in a pivotal playoff game. Where have we seen this before? Down through Sabre history, this tendency bites us in the ass over and over.
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Twenty four years after The Fog Game of 1975, it's the Fog Game of 1999 as the Dallas Stars lay down a misty blanket as thick as pea soup and about the same color. In Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals at Marine Midland Arena, the Stars hold the Sabres to 12 shots on goal, fewest in Buffalo franchise history, and get a pair of goals from Joe Nieuwendyk in a 2-1 win. "We were suffocated," says Lindy Ruff. Captain Mike Peca chooses a different metaphor. "It was like skating with a plastic bag over your head." On the game winner Nieuwendyk roofs the puck over Dominik Hasek top shelf where Hitchcock hides the Ho Hos. Joe also scores the game tying goal in the second period to erase a 1-0 Buffalo lead thanks to Stu Barnes' goal midway through the second. The Stars take a two games to one lead in the series.
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On the 11th day of the month, after earning the right to pick first in the amateur draft on this day with a winning spin that stopped on 11, the Sabres draft number 11 of the Montreal Junior Canadiens, Gilbert Perreault, a phenom center who has been compared to a young Jean Beliveau. After that, the Sabres take Butch Deadmarsh, Steve Cuddie, Randy Wyrozub, Mike Morton, Tim Keeler, Tim Regan, Doug Rombough and Luc Nadeau. So, after the waiver, expansion and amateur drafts, and some wheeling and dealing by Punch Imlach, we have ourselves a hockey team. The coach and GM looks at veteran goaltender and former Conn Smythe winner Roger Crozier, and Perreault, and others, and likes what he sees, vowing that the Sabres will be the first expansion team to win a Stanley Cup.
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June 10, 1970
It's the second day of the NHL meetings in Toronto, and as a result of a winning spin of the wheel the day before, the Sabres pick first in the expansion draft. Minutes before the draft, Punch Imlach calls off a deal he had with the Boston GM and takes Bruin Tom Webster, whom the Bs were hoping to protect. Imlach quickly trades Webster to Detroit for goaltender Roger Crozier. With their other 19 choices, the Sabres focus on youth, selecting only three players over the age of 30: Phil Goyette, Donnie Marshall and Reggie Fleming. For the record, the other players the Sabres pick on this day are Al Hamilton, Tracy Pratt, Jim Watson, Francois Lacombe, Mike McMahon, Skip Krake, Jean-Guy Lagace, Craig Cameron, Chris Evans, Doug Barrie, Gerry Meehan, Paul Terbenche, Brian Perry, Howie Menard, Rocky Farr and Gary Edwards. To cap off the day, Imlach purchases Ted Hodgson from the New York Rangers. Short on cash, Punch writes a postdated check. (Made-up historical fact.) "This is only the beginning," says Imlach, vowing to make attempts to improve his team 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Sure enough, of the 21 players acquired on this day, only a few are still around during the team?s third season in which it qualifies for the playoffs for the first time.
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Several dates can be considered the birthdate of the Buffalo Sabres franchise. December 2, 1969 is the date the Knox brothers were officially awarded a franchise by the National Hockey League. January 16, 1970 is the day that Punch Imlach was hired as general manager and coach of the new team. But December 2 seems more of a moment of conception and January 16 the hiring of a midwife. What do you really need to have an official birthdate? A kid. Or a couple of kids. Or 20 some kids. And the Sabres didn't have any kids until June 9, 1970.
At the NHL meetings in Montreal on this day, Imlach wears his lucky green suit that has not been donned since he won the Cup with the Maple Leafs three years before. Sure enough, everything old Punch touches this day turns to blue and gold. His luck begins when he manages to convince the NHL to allow the Sabres to participate in the Intra-League draft. In the first player transaction in franchise history, Imlach selects Kevin O'Shea, Cliff Schmautz, Brian McDonald and Bill Inglis.
After that, the Sabres and Vancouver Canucks, the other new team in the NHL for the 1970-71 season, participate in a lottery to determine who will pick first in the waiver, expansion and amateur drafts. Like a high roller in Vegas who can't lose, Imlach wins all three "games of chance" with the Canucks. First, he prevails in a coin toss and earns the right to go first in the waiver draft, picking up goaltender Joe Daley from Pittsburgh. League honchos proceed to haul out The Special Wheel -- no Vanna White, either -- to see who will go first in the expansion draft the next day and the amateur draft the day after that.
The Wheel has numbers one through 13, with the Sabres owning eight through 13, seven being neutral, and the Canucks hoping for one through seven. League president Clarence Campbell lets it rip, and the wheel stops on eight. The Sabres will take the first stab in the expansion draft the next day. Then, in one of the unforgettable moments in team history, Campbell spins again to see who will pick first in the amateur draft and announces the winning number -- one! And the Vancouver table goes crazy. "There has been a mistake," Campbell quickly announces. The winning number is actually 11! A grainy old film of Imlach captures the moment -- he wipes his brow and shakes his hand as if to cast off sweat. Or perhaps to actually cast off sweat.
Imlach is not coy about who he will select the next day. "Unless he dies between now and the draft, he's mine."
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June 8, 1971
After their inaugural season, the Sabres pick up Rene Robert from Toronto in the intra-league draft, then promptly lose him to Pittsburgh in a later round. GM Punch Imlach later tells Robert he made a mistake when he exposed Robert. No kidding!
June 8, 1999
Jason Woolley fires the shot heard round the hockey world in overtime as the Sabres beat the Stars 3-2 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Dominik Hasek is brilliant, making 35 saves, one of them on Pat Verbeek moments before the winner. The Sabres win a faceoff to the right of Hasek, but defenseman Jay McKee skates past the loose puck and Verbeek sidesteps unmolested to the front of the Buffalo net. Hasek pokes his stick at the puck, but Verbeek's shot rides up the goalie's shaft and starts to flip end-over-end toward the back of the net. Kramer flops on his left side, kicks his right leg toward the roof and knocks the game-winning goal out of midair with his right pad.
Dallas outshoots Buffalo 24-9 through 40 minutes but carries just a 1-0 lead into the third period, Brett Hull's screaming one-timer from the centerpoint on a first-period power play standing up. The lead figures to remain erect given that Dallas is 89-0-15 in its previous 104 games which it led after two periods. But by the time Stu Barnes ties the game in a delayed penalty situation with an extra attacker on the ice with 11:27 to play in the third period and Wayne Primeau backhands the Sabres into the lead on a true power play five minutes later, Stars' history means jack squat.
Jere Lehtinen does force overtime and break the hearts of Sabres' fans everywhere by scoring with 49 seconds left in regulation time with Belfour on the bench, but it only delays a victory that Buffalo seems destined to somehow secure. "We can't get swept now," deadpans Lindy Ruff after the game. "We just won one for the East."
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June 6, 1983
On draft day in Montreal, Scotty Bowman makes one of the worst trades in team history, sending leading goal scorer Tony McKegney, Andre Savard, J.F. Sauve and a third round draft choice to the Quebec Nordiques for Real "Buddy" Cloutier and a first round pick. Bowman owns three of the first 11 picks in the draft and takes goaltender Tom Barrasso, winger Norm Lacombe and center Adam Creighton. All in all, it's a good draft -- John Tucker is taken in the second round, Daren Puppa in the fourth and Uwe Krupp in the 11th. But the trade comes back to haunt Bowman. Cloutier, who had scored 65 goals in the previous two seasons with Quebec, pots just 24 in Buffalo and is gone after one season and a handful of games after playing his way into Bowman's doghouse. And in the 1984 playoffs, the former Sabres play key roles as the Nordiques sweep the Sabres in the first round. Cloutier? He is a healthy scratch for Game 3 of the series.
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June 4, 1998
The Capitals eliminate the Sabres in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals at Marine Midland Arena on an overtime goal by Joey Juneau.
June 4, 1999
The Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche to win the Western Conference and will host the Sabres in Game 1 of the finals on June 8.
June 5, 1972
The Sabres pick up Tim Horton from Pittsburgh in the intra-league draft.
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June 2, 1998
Dominik Hasek makes 34 saves, among them some of the most memorable of his career, to keep the Sabres in the game long enough for Jason Woolley to score on a break with less than five minutes to go in the third period to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead and an eventual win by the same score. The Sabres now trail the Eastern Conference finals three games to two with Game 6 back in Buffalo.
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June 1, 1999
The day after the Sabres earn a berth in the finals with a win over the Maple Leafs, fans everywhere are all a-titter about the team's first appearance in the finals since 1975. But they won't know an opponent until the Western Conference final between Dallas and Colorado is decided in a few days.
(Anyone remember the date of the great ticket fiasco of 1999? I recall there was a fist fight and a barricade thrown against a window at Marine Midland Arena when tickets sold out quickly.)
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The Sabres franchise earns its second berth in the Stanley Cup finals with a 4-2 win over the Maple Leafs in Toronto to take the Eastern Conference finals four games to one.
The Leafs take 1-0 and 2-1 leads on heaven-sent goals, but the Sabres twice come back to tie it, on a pretty backhand by Curtis Brown and a homely backhand by Vaclav Varada.
Then, with 10:37 to go in the third period and the game tied at 2, Varada appears to give Buffalo the goal they will need to make history. But the video replay officials rule that he made a kicking motion with his right foot to send the puck past Curtis Joseph. They are right.
Twelve seconds more than two minutes later, Erik Rasmussen scores one of the biggest goals in Sabres' history. At 10:01 p.m., Brian Holzinger takes a pass at his own blue line from Jason Woolley, flashes into the Toronto zone and throws out the anchor at the bottom of the left circle before taking a bad-angle shot that Cujo, hard against the left post, sticks away. But he sticks it away right to Rasmussen at the bottom of the other circle. The rookie quickly chips a backhander off the top of Joseph's glove and into the roof of the Maple Leaf net with 8:25 to go, and the Sabres lead for the first time in the game, 3-2.
Thirteen minutes later, at 10:14 p.m., with just over a minute to play, with Alexei Zhitnik in the box for making a nice open-field tackle on Sundin and with the Leafs' net empty, Dixon Ward sends the puck down the ice on a journey that seems to last as long as Buffalo's wait to get back into the Stanley Cup finals.
The puck flies over two Leafs at center in 1979, when George Ferguson of the Penguins scored an overtime goal in the Aud to eliminate the Sabres, rolls over the blue line in 1985, when the Quebec Nordiques scored three goals in the final nine minutes in a decisive game five to win the game and the series, and heads through the slot in 1998, when Joey Juneau slipped the puck under the arm of Dominik Hasek to break our hearts one more time.
One-hundred seventy-five feet, 24 years and four days, and two generations of Sabres' fans who have known nothing but playoff disappointment later, the wait is over.
Captain Mike Peca will have none of the hoopla, though. "There's one trophy that you work hard to hold over your head, and that didn't look like the Stanley Cup," he said of the Prince of Wales Trophy.
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Hey PTR, sometimes all it takes is a feeble flip at the net!
This Day in Sabres History :: June 22
in This Day in Sabres History
Posted
haha. Yes, that was also his "the light comes on" speech. "It is a beautiful day. The light comes on." Dom was a piece of work. Never boring, I'll give him that.