The Sabres gallant effort came up just one period short of accomplishing something that has never been seen in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Sabres were up 2-1 after two periods, but ran out of steam in the third period as the Carolina Hurricanes roared back with 3 unanswered goals to win the Eastern Conference Finals with a resounding 4-2 victory in Game 7.

"We've got to be proud," said Danny Briere after the bitter defeat. "All we wanted to do was give everything we have and I think we did that. We just didn't have enough in the tank I guess."

Sabres play-by-play announcer  Rick Jeanneret summed up the Sabres season the best when he said, "In all my years I've never seen a team this gutsy," the colorful Rick Jeanneret summed it up. "They were great, and they largely were a bunch of kids, just babies. And then you talk about adversity. Those 20 guys didn't know how to spell it."

One has to wonder if it would have been different if Jay McKee or Teppo Numminen had been there instead of Rory Fitzpatrick. While the other 3 AHL rookies were holding their own in Game 7 of the ECF, Fitzpatrick looked like a baffled rookie. He was on the ice for the first 3 Hurricanes goals and on the game winner, the puck was right there for him to save the day.

Rory, who is from Rochester, just didn't see the puck. It lay at his feet and before he could respond to teammates yelling at him to clear the puck, Rod Brind'Amour darted in and flipped the puck top shelf behind Ryan Miller.

"Someone started yelling, I don't know who it was,"said Fitzpatrick in the dejected Sabres dressing room. "I started looking for it, and it was just too late."

"We were all yelling and screaming on the bench," admitted Briere about the puck being at Fitzpatrick’s feet. "It was just one of those plays."

Nathan Paetsch played his first NHL playoff game and looked pretty sharp considering the situation he was put in. Doug Janik showed improvement over his first two games and even scored the goal that tied the game near the end of the second period. Jeff Jillson also showed improvement and fit right in with the system. Fitzpatrick, who has been in the lineup for the past two series, looked like a deer in the headlights. He coughed the puck up several times that allowed the Hurricanes to get breakaways or near breakaways on Miller.

"I think everybody played as hard as we could," said Fitzpatrick. "We played great. I don't think anybody's going to make excuses. I think everybody that needed to step up, stepped up and played well."
With the miscue that resulted in Brind'Amour's goal, one wonders if this could be the last game for Fitzpatrick in a Sabres uniform.

The Sabres came up just 20 minutes short of accomplishing one of the most outstanding resilient performances in the history of sports. It was comparable to the Miracle on Ice performed by the USA Olympic team in 1980.

Overcoming every obstacle thrown at them, the Sabres sidestepped adversity and drew on the power of doing so. One by one their defensemen fell during the playoffs. Dimitri Kalinin, Teppo Numminin, and Henrik Tallinder. That didn't seem to deter the Sabres from their path. Finally the hockey gods delivered the cruelest punishment of them all, when Jay McKee contracted a staff infection in his left leg. That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"I definitely think we left it all on the ice," said Sabres captain Chris Drury. "The heart, the character and the desire were all there right to the end."

"It's what we've been about all year - never quitting," Drury continued. "We all thought we had a chance right down to the buzzer. Obviously, it stings right now and it should. But when the dust settles and a few days go by, I think there's a lot to be proud of this year."

The Sabres could not hold the lead in the third period. Doug Weight capitalized on the defense's inability to get the puck out of their zone and scored the tying goal. Then, like the crease rule had been a controversy in the 1999 SCF, one of the new rules put into effect this year was the bane that doomed the Sabres once and for all. Clearing the puck out of play from the defensive zone into the stands now merits a penalty. I have definite issues with this rule and feel it should never have been put into the books. It should be treated like an icing where there is a faceoff in the defensive zone and the team cannot make a line change. That is all it should be. It should not be a penalty, especially if the puck was not intentionally flipped into the crowd.

The rule is the rule and the Sabres now had to once again kill a penalty with its very depleted defensive corp. Rory Fitzpatrick, who was on the ice for both Hurricanes goals, did not see the puck laying at his feet and didn't clear it out. Rod Brind'Amour quickly hopped on the puck and flipped it top shelf in what proved to be the game-winner and series clincher with 8:38 left.

The Sabres had to come out in the third period with fire in their eyes. They had to be like mad bulls and charge everything in red. Instead, they came up with one of their weakest periods in the playoffs. Three goals were scored, all by Carolina. The Sabres did not get one shot off on Cam Ward during their 4 powerplays in the game. They had two in the third period, and that was when they had to stop trying to set up the pretty play and instead charge the net and put tons of rubber on Ward.

In the end, the Sabres ran out of gas. The defense did its best in the first two periods, but the inexperience caught up with them when it counted the most and couldn't prevent the Canes 3 goals in the final stanza. The offense has to take the majority of the blame for this loss, however. The European players just didn't have the drive, the intensity that it took to overcome the defensive shortcomings of their team. Except for Hecht's wraparound goal late in the second period, the Sabres Euro contingent was being shutout in the series. Ales Kotalik was nowhere to be found. Maxim Afinogenov was all flash and no finish. Thomas Vanek became and invisible man and was scratched for most of the series. These were the players that had to step it up like the defense did, but they were nowhere to be seen.

In the end, it was a remarkable season and Hollywood could make a movie about this team. However, the fact that it came so close and didn't finish off the job will linger in the minds of the Buffalo fans who have been longing for a championship team for a lifetime.

This team is young and it matured during the playoffs. If Darcy Regier can keep players like Jay McKee and a number of other unrestricted and restricted free agents, then this team will be a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

Mike Grier, who is an unrestricted free agent and may be lost to the Sabres this summer said, "It was definitely a good experience and a growing experience. There's a lot of good young players here, and a good nucleus. I'm sure they'll take that experience and grow from it over the summer, gain confidence and come back that much stronger."

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