30 Plus Seasons in 30 Days

[mphs mike]

How about 1983-1984?

 

Sabres have five first round picks. LaFontaine at # 3 and Barrasso at # 5. Barrasso, a bear at 6'-3" and 210lbs wins both the Calder Trophy and Vezina with a 2.66 GAA.

 

I remember this year as the year we couldn't beat the Nordicks. I think we won one game against them all season and they swept us in the playoffs.

 

 

If it is 1983-84, I've just graduated from Rochester,moved, and am wondering why in the hell the Knox's haven't dumped Bowman in the only place he never took a team to the Finals and moved Mike Keenan up after he had the Amerks blow away the AHL the year before!

[Eleven]

I'm calling BS.

 

I guess we have to move on to 82-83. BTW, where the hell is spndnchz? Get the guys all horned up and leave -- typical.

 

So the Sabres lost to the Bruins three games to one in the new divisional playoff format. 82-83 started with a pair of 6-4 losses to Quebec.

 

The Sabres got off to a very slow start, but wowie, was Housley something. Eleven, don't you have to give Scotty credit where credit is due?

 

Seriously, no BS.

 

Anyway, you want me to give credit to Bowman for the Housley pick? Fine. Fair. Good pick, no, great pick. Of course, ol' "hit 'em with your purse, Phil!" wouldn't fit in with today's SabreSpace crowd, but he was one hell of a puck-moving defenseman, and if not the best we ever saw in a Sabs uniform, at least one of the top three. And yep, Bowman picked him.

 

That said, Bowman? Just about everything said about Regier in the last two years would apply to Bowman's stewardship. This isn't Montreal, where he coached an incredibly-built team, or Saint Louis, where he coached an expansion team, in a division of only expansion teams, to the finals. This was his first shot at building, and he failed miserably. Pittsburgh, and later Detroit, got the benefit of the lessons Bowman learned here, but I'll not look kindly at his spell in Buffalo.

[PASabreFan]

The big question surrounding 83-84 was whether the deal with Quebec ended up being the worst in team history. The former Sabres seemed hell bent on beating their old mates in the playoffs, that's for sure.

 

Eleven, the odd thing about Bowman is that he left Montreal after coaching that team to so many Cups, but he didn't want to coach in Buffalo. He was pressured into coaching for one season. But then he could never fully extricate himself from behind the bench. At one point he did a search for a head coach but concluded he was the best candidate. Weird.

 

Bowman's teams were good to very good in the regular season, and he never had a losing season in Buffalo. (Of course the team he built had the worst record in the league in 86-87, after Bowman was fired early on.) But just like the Sabres of the mid to late 70s, there was very little success in the playoffs.

[mphs mike]

Seriously, no BS.

 

Anyway, you want me to give credit to Bowman for the Housley pick? Fine. Fair. Good pick, no, great pick. Of course, ol' "hit 'em with your purse, Phil!" wouldn't fit in with today's SabreSpace crowd, but he was one hell of a puck-moving defenseman, and if not the best we ever saw in a Sabs uniform, at least one of the top three. And yep, Bowman picked him.

 

That said, Bowman? Just about everything said about Regier in the last two years would apply to Bowman's stewardship. This isn't Montreal, where he coached an incredibly-built team, or Saint Louis, where he coached an expansion team, in a division of only expansion teams, to the finals. This was his first shot at building, and he failed miserably. Pittsburgh, and later Detroit, got the benefit of the lessons Bowman learned here, but I'll not look kindly at his spell in Buffalo.

 

 

Scotty gets credit for the Housley pick. Unfortunately, such a pick gets balanced out by Jiri Dudacek! That pick makes Seiling over Bossy look tolerable.

[PASabreFan]

Scotty gets credit for the Housley pick. Unfortunately, such a pick gets balanced out by Jiri Dudacek! That pick makes Seiling over Bossy look tolerable.

 

It was a gamble worth taking. Bowman said later he didn't think anyone else on their board had much of a chance to contribute significantly right away. Looking at the 1981 entry draft, he was probably right. Maybe they should have picked Chris Chelios though. Too bad Marty Ruff was already gone.

[Eleven]

The big question surrounding 83-84 was whether the deal with Quebec ended up being the worst in team history. The former Sabres seemed hell bent on beating their old mates in the playoffs, that's for sure.

 

Eleven, the odd thing about Bowman is that he left Montreal after coaching that team to so many Cups, but he didn't want to coach in Buffalo. He was pressured into coaching for one season. But then he could never fully extricate himself from behind the bench. At one point he did a search for a head coach but concluded he was the best candidate. Weird.

 

Bowman's teams were good to very good in the regular season, and he never had a losing season in Buffalo. (Of course the team he built had the worst record in the league in 86-87, after Bowman was fired early on.) But just like the Sabres of the mid to late 70s, there was very little success in the playoffs.

 

I'm strictly working from memory here, but IIRC, Bowman never, or very seldom, would travel to games at the Forum. Instead, he'd tell the press that he was on "scouting missions," which I never had heard before, and never have heard since, from an NHL HC. The man never was committed to the job, he never did the job very well, and hey, he could--and should--have (in the immortal words of Nancy Reagan) just said no.

[spndnchz]

>>Bump<<

 

84-85 anyone?

 

Hey PA, howbouta radio clip from 84-85?

[Eleven]

>>Bump<<

 

84-85 anyone?

 

Hey PA, howbouta radio clip from 84-85?

 

The NHL season began in October 1984, and reportedly, there was a team in Buffalo. Barrasso followed up on his Calder/Vezina season with a Jennings trophy, but other than that, there were few bright spots. Dave Andreychuck was the team's leading goal-scorer, with just 31. Perreault led the team with 83 points. Phil Housley hit a few people with his purse. Lindy Ruff played in just 31 games before benching Maxim Afinogenov. The star-studded roster included Hannu Virta, Dave Fenyves, and Real, Genuine, 100% Cloutier.

 

The Sabres lost in the preliminary round, 3 games to 2, to the Quebec Nordiques, and their record asshat of a coach, Michel Bergeron. Anyone remember that guy? "Le Petit Tigre," I believe, was his nickname. Anyway, I couldn't stand him or his Napoleon complex. But that team did have the Stastnys* and Michel Goulet, who were fun to watch (and hate). And apparently Randy Moller and Gord Donnelly, too. Who knew?

 

 

*Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were their names, right?

[PASabreFan]

All I remember about 84-85 in the monumental collape in the deciding game of the first round. Game 5. Sabres led 3-1 with nine minutes to go and lost, in regulation, 4-3, in Le Colisee (roughly translated: "The Perineum.")

 

spndnchz, I'm working on the sounds.

[spndnchz]

http://video.buffalo...ndex.php?id=288

 

Guess I'd throw this here. The guy is totally boring in his presentation but he's got some cool shite.

[Eleven]

Just to keep the thread going, and to move this along through the BS seasons...

 

During the 1985-86 season, and contrary to popular belief, the Buffalo Sabres participated in the NHL regular season. The team had 80 points on the season, which sucked, but it actually was DOUBLE the 40 points obtained by the Detroit Red Wings and their coach, Harry Neale. 40 points. And we bitch about last year. But actually, the 1985-86 season foreshadowed the 2008-09 season, when the Sabres also were sub-par, but still significantly outperformed Harry Neale.

 

There were no playoffs, much to the relief of the fans.

 

Then, the Sabres got worse. 64 points in 1986-87. No playoffs. Guys like Jim Korn were regular starters.

 

The next season, finally, Ted Sator emerged to replace Bowman (Ramsay was never a permanent coach) the same way that Dick Jauron replaced Mike Mularkey: a seemingly ceremonial stewardship of a bunch of underachievers changed hands with no real effect. Earth-shattering, it was. The Sabres made the "can't-miss, 4-of-5 make it" playoffs out of the Adams Division, but managed to suck their way to a preliminary round loss to the Bruins.

 

Look, it pretty much continues this way for years, until 1992-93. How 'bout we spend one day remembering those less-than-wonderful interim years and get back to the real action? Spndnchz, it's your thread, what do you think?

[Mbossy]

1985-86: Perreault scores his 500th career goal

 

1986-87: 28-44-8, the worst in the NHL.

 

1987-88: Sabres get the top draft pick, Pierre Turgeon.

 

1988-89: The goalie season. Sabres trade Tom Barrasso, Puppa breaks his arm, Cloutier stunk. Malarchuk gets his jugular vein sliced open.

 

1989-90: Mogilny defects from the Soviet Union, Turgeon hits 100 points. 3 points short of first place, then beat by Montreal in 6 games.

 

1990-91: Sabres get Hawerchuk from the Winnipeg Jets, Housley is gone. 3rd place and out in the first round.

[spndnchz]

uh? bump?

 

91-92?

fa la la, la la, la la......

[PASabreFan]

Interesting that the arrival of Pat LaFontaine put the cardiac paddles on the franchise, maybe even saving it, yet the mention of LaLa here seems to have killed the thread!

 

Larry Playfair says that the first time RJ did his LaLaLaLaLa, on the occasion of Pat's first goal as a Sabre, Rick spread out his arms, shutting Larry up, and just went off.

 

After the loss to the Bruins in seven games, it really felt like the Sabres would never win another playoff series.

[Eleven]

Interesting that the arrival of Pat LaFontaine put the cardiac paddles on the franchise, maybe even saving it, yet the mention of LaLa here seems to have killed the thread!

 

Larry Playfair says that the first time RJ did his LaLaLaLaLa, on the occasion of Pat's first goal as a Sabre, Rick spread out his arms, shutting Larry up, and just went off.

 

After the loss to the Bruins in seven games, it really felt like the Sabres would never win another playoff series.

 

My feeling at the time of the trade was that LaFontaine was just another Turgeon. Then, the next year, Mogilny popped his 76 in the net. Damn, that would never have happened with Turgeon. As for LaFontaine, he killed with assists that season, and finished with 148 points. 53 of those were goals. Who was wrong? I was wrong. Tough to argue with that, in retrospect. But I still think Mogilny was underappreciated here (that's SEVENTY-SIX, in 77 GP, by the way), and LaFontaine, maybe slightly overappreciated.

 

There was so much talk a couple of years later about how Mogilny was a headcase who needed to be shipped out, that I think I was overly cautious 20 years after, when Max was "evaluated" on this board. Think of Mogilny in 1993. 76 goals. Only four guys in history have done better, if I remember correctly. Seventy-freaking-six, and we now go nuts when 30-goal scorers are let go to ply their intangibles in Manhattan. Plus, Mogliny was a pure pleasure to watch on the ice, and, well, damn: SEVENTY-SIX goals. I can't explain, to those who weren't around at the time, just how fun it was to watch him play and wait for when--not if--he'd put one in.

 

1992-93 was such a fun season, especially because the Sabres finally won a playoff series. I'm sorry, did I say they won? I understated. They swept the Bruins. With the "May Day" game. So freaking cool. I was at a UB bar (Molly's Pub, for those unfortunate enough to remember that ginmill), celebrating a friend's birthday, and finally, the Sabres had won a round--and won it by sweeping the B's, Brad Park be damned. And well, we drank a round, or six, to celebrate.

 

Montreal won the Cup that year, and most Buffalonians that I knew at the time were happy about it. Who wanted a Cup in LA, even with Gretzky?

 

But back to the underappreciated Russian/Asian.* Granted, Mogilny later exhibited some problems; he smoked as if cigarettes would become illegal the next morning, and he had some problems with organized crime in Russia.** But wow, was he one hell of a hockey player in Buffalo. He went on to success in other towns, and his name is on the Cup now, but his best times were in Buffalo, including one of the best seasons any scorer has had in league history. He's not often recognized as an important part of Sabres history, but he sure should be.

 

 

 

*Look it up. He isn't European.

 

**Want some RICO violations? These were racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations. The National Hockey League, while we may not agree with all of their decisions, is not.

[PASabreFan]

I think Eleven just put the cardiac paddles to this thread!

 

CLEAR!

[SwampD]

I was in a basement apartment in NYC at the time, with no TV. But didn't some blame those same ties to organized crime in Russia on the Sabre's early playoff exit? That might be a reason on his absence from Sabres' history.

[spndnchz]

My feeling at the time of the trade was that LaFontaine was just another Turgeon. Then, the next year, Mogilny popped his 76 in the net. Damn, that would never have happened with Turgeon. As for LaFontaine, he killed with assists that season, and finished with 148 points. 53 of those were goals. Who was wrong? I was wrong. Tough to argue with that, in retrospect. But I still think Mogilny was underappreciated here (that's SEVENTY-SIX, in 77 GP, by the way), and LaFontaine, maybe slightly overappreciated.

 

There was so much talk a couple of years later about how Mogilny was a headcase who needed to be shipped out, that I think I was overly cautious 20 years after, when Max was "evaluated" on this board. Think of Mogilny in 1993. 76 goals. Only four guys in history have done better, if I remember correctly. Seventy-freaking-six, and we now go nuts when 30-goal scorers are let go to ply their intangibles in Manhattan. Plus, Mogliny was a pure pleasure to watch on the ice, and, well, damn: SEVENTY-SIX goals. I can't explain, to those who weren't around at the time, just how fun it was to watch him play and wait for when--not if--he'd put one in.

 

1992-93 was such a fun season, especially because the Sabres finally won a playoff series. I'm sorry, did I say they won? I understated. They swept the Bruins. With the "May Day" game. So freaking cool. I was at a UB bar (Molly's Pub, for those unfortunate enough to remember that ginmill), celebrating a friend's birthday, and finally, the Sabres had won a round--and won it by sweeping the B's, Brad Park be damned. And well, we drank a round, or six, to celebrate.

 

Montreal won the Cup that year, and most Buffalonians that I knew at the time were happy about it. Who wanted a Cup in LA, even with Gretzky?

 

But back to the underappreciated Russian/Asian.* Granted, Mogilny later exhibited some problems; he smoked as if cigarettes would become illegal the next morning, and he had some problems with organized crime in Russia.** But wow, was he one hell of a hockey player in Buffalo. He went on to success in other towns, and his name is on the Cup now, but his best times were in Buffalo, including one of the best seasons any scorer has had in league history. He's not often recognized as an important part of Sabres history, but he sure should be.

 

 

 

*Look it up. He isn't European.

 

**Want some RICO violations? These were racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations. The National Hockey League, while we may not agree with all of their decisions, is not.

:worthy: <<insert clapping smiley>>

[Eleven]

I was in a basement apartment in NYC at the time, with no TV. But didn't some blame those same ties to organized crime in Russia on the Sabre's early playoff exit? That might be a reason on his absence from Sabres' history.

 

If people thought Mogilny threw the games, they were wrong. If they blamed the Russian mob for the Sabres' exit because of the stress on Mogilny, it's at least plausible, but I still think wrong. If I remember it correctly, and it's been a while, so I may not, the criminals were after him because they wanted more money for assisting with his defection.

 

In any event, the Sabres won their first round--the first in seemingly forever--and then lost the second round to the eventual Cup winners. It was a reasonable playoff performance for that team.