Jocelyn Thibault had the Sabres on the ropes. With the Sabres goalie pulled in favor of the extra attacker, time was ticking down to yet another Thibault shutout of Buffalo. Then it happened. His armor was pierced and Thibault proved to be human after all.

Left winger Ales Kotalik went on on Thibault as if he were about to shoot and suddenly flipped a pass over to Satan on his right. Thibault couldn't get over in time as Satan had a gapping net in front of him to shoot at. Satan calmly slid it in and the game was going into overtime.

"Al (Kotalik) made an unbelievable pass to me and served me an empty net," declared Satan. "All I had to do was tuck it in. We had to work hard for that one goal. We kept the pressure on, and that was one goal we deserved."

The Sabres continued to press in the overtime, but Thibault was up to the test, stopping all 4 Sabres shots and both teams came out of the contest with a point.

The Hawks scored much earlier in the game when Alexei Zhamnov was hauled down from behind by Curtis Brown when he broke in all alone on Biron. Zhamnov was awarded a penalty shot and was able to slide the puck under Biron's pads when the Sabres goalie went down in anticipation of Zhamnov going to his right.

"I thought I challenged him right where I wanted to be, and he was able to pull it off,'' lauded Biron. "It's probably the best move against me on a breakaway.''

Zhamnov saw Biron going out too far and deked him to make him commit.

"When I crossed the blue line, I saw the goalie move too far from the net,'' described Zhamnov. "That's why I decided to make the move.''

That goal stood until just 13 seconds left in regulation.

"They got that early goal, and then they seemed satisfied with it," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

Sabres pop the Caps

Last Saturday, the Sabres made another comeback and beat the Capitals 4-3. This time it was Adam Mair who scored the game winner with 2:03 left in regulation. That goal came just 1:08 after Dmitri Kalinin tied it. The two goals enabled the Sabres to post their first three-game winning streak of the season and it looked as if there was life in the dying patient. But that was before the Ottawa Senators came to town and put an end to any semblance to a winning streak.

The Senators took the game right to the Sabres and won their first game in Buffalo since October 1998. This was a big contrast to the games that the Sabres dominated against the Sens in their home building the last 4 years.

Marian Hossa was able to break through the last line of the Sabres defense and lift two pucks past Biron in a 4-2 win over Buffalo. Hossa, who leads the league in scoring, was a force the Sabres couldn't deal with.

"I was an offensive player before and now I try to play a two-way game,'' Hossa said. "We are stronger in our zone, and that helps create offense sometimes.''

The Sens played backup Martin Prusek and the Sabres could get only two pucks past him as he made 26 saves. Henrik Tallinder and Ales Kotalik were the only Sabres to score in one of the Sabres most uninspiring efforts of the season. The game was played before the smallest crowd in Sabres HSBC Arena history, 9,966. In fact, the actual count was probably much smaller than what was announced. Some estimates were in the range of 6,500.

Is bankruptcy in the future for the Sabres?

On Friday, the Buffalo News reported that the Sabres may be forced to declare bankruptcy to keep the Adelphia creditors at bay. With the $157 million owed Adelphia by the Sabres thanks to the imprudent actions of Rigas, the NHL is now exploring all the options available to the Sabres. During the Board of Governors meeting this week in Phoenix, the Sabres situation was probably discussed amongst the league's owners. They also questioned the aspects of Commissioner Gary Bettman's acceptance of the Hamister-Berman bid, especially the low $65 million bid.

The league will have to decide if going the bankruptcy route will clear the way for Hamister to become the owner of the Sabres so he won't be forced to pay for the Rigas sins. Originally, it was said that a lot of the $65 million in Hamister's bid would go to paying off what was owed Adelphia. Now it appears as if Adelphia is going for the whole enchilada. Thus, the only route would be Chapter 11 for the Sabres to put up a shield to protect Hamister.

The problem with going Chapter 11 is that it voids the current 30-year lease the Sabres have with the City of Buffalo and HSBC Arena. Bankruptcy also is the only scenario in which the Sabres could also be free to move to another city.

Next week will provide a glimpse into the Sabres future in Buffalo. Bettman will have to come clean with the Sabres fans on what the NHL plans are for the Sabres and if by declaring bankruptcy, the Sabres future in Buffalo will be bleak.

Sabres Talk

One of the happiest Sabres when Satan scored the game-tying goal against the Black Hawks was Biron.

"Miro buried it," said Biron. "When the bench jumped up, I was sitting next to Ray and just started punching him, and he was punching me."

Biron, who made a mistake in his defending the penalty shot, had a feeling the Sabres would pull this one out.

"How many times do you see a 1-0 game with a penalty shot as the game-winner," asked Biron. "When I went to the bench (late in the game), I said, "The odds have to be on our side.' "

After Mair scored the winning goal against the Caps, he was all smiles.

"It feels good. It's fun again to come to the rink,'' announced Mair. "They're baby steps but they're going in the right direction. We just have to build off of that.''

"It's a big difference,'' said Mair about the new attitude on the Sabres. "Before, it felt like everyone was deflated on the bench. But there was no quit on the bench tonight. We knew that we were on them, and if we dogged them hard enough, maybe they would give.''

The Sabres have to play with inspiration for the remainder of the season if they want to somehow get back into the playoff race and win the fans back. They lacked that on Tuesday against the Sens, but did show signs of life in the two games that sandwiched the loss. Now they have to stay consistent and with more heart than they have the last two years if they are to prevent this from being the most daunting season in Sabres history.

     HOME           SEASON'S RESULTS      SABRE TALK MESSAGE BOARD      NEWSROOM      99 PLAYOFFS    
THE PLAYERS      STATISTICS      SCHEDULE      PROSPECTS      LIVE GAME RADIO      HISTORY      TEAM INFO     
PHOTO GALLERY     MULTIMEDIA      SABRES POLL      TROPHY CASE      LINKS      THE STAFF      E-MAIL SABRESWORD

Copyright © 2002 Sabres Central, all rights reserved