Right at the trading deadline last year, the Sabres traded Alexei Tezikov for Joe Juneau. At the time it seemed like a steal for Buffalo. Not anymore! Of all the trades that Darcy Regier made last year, this one seems to have come back to haunt him.

Tezikov scored the game winner last night as the Washington Capitals defeated the Sabres in their home opener before a sellout crowd in Marine Midland Arena. The Sabres' 7th round draft choice of 1996 did his former club in and was quite happy about it after the game.

Hasek makes save on Jeff Toms

"It's awesome," Tezikov said in the locker room. "They traded me; maybe they didn't believe in me. I showed them."

"We played real smart on the power play and Peter Bondra gave me a great pass," Tezikov continued. "I had all the time in the world to look around and I just let the shot go on the net and it caught the far side."

The other star of the game was the Sabre killer himself, Olie the Goalie. Olaf Kolzig stonewalled the Sabres, making great saves throughout the game and out-dueling his counterpart at the other end of the ice. He made 26 saves in beating the Sabres for the third time in the last four regular season games. The Sabres were only able to get 5 past him in those games and 2 came last night.

"He seems to really rise to the occasion when he's playing against a big-time goalie at the other end," Ron Wilson beamed about Olie. "It's nice to have a guy like that who rises to the top when there's a challenge."

Wayne Primeau and rookie Brian Campbell got the only Sabres goals. At around the six minute mark of the first period, and the Sabres on a powerplay, Primeau pounced on a rebound of a Brian Holzinger shot. He poked it into the net past Kolzig to put the Sabres in their only lead of the game and the season so far.

"I love to get in front of the net and take a beating," Wayne said. "Sometimes you'll get that lucky bounce. That's where my size works to my advantage."

"I thought we started out really well and got the early goal," Lindy Ruff said during the post game conference. "The second half of the first period, we got into a little trouble and somebody had to kill a lot of penalties and obviously gave them the one goal. We were worried about the start, got off to a good start and then after that, traded chances with them."

Primeau also came to the rescue of Campbell when Chris Simon clobbered the rookie with an elbow. Jason Woolley was about to take on the Simon, and it would have been a mismatch, when Primeau came all the way over from the other side to take on the Capital tough guy. The two threw a few punches before Primeau hauled him down and the refs broke it up. Primeau was given an extra penalty for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct. However, he showed that at least one Sabre was willing to sacrifice himself if the opposition took liberties.

"I've always stuck up for myself," said Primeau. "Once in a while it's good to show you'll stand up for yourself and your teammates. It'll go a long way."

"That's something you like to see out of him," Ruff said. "It's a mismatch to have Woolley go up against Simon. He went right over and got involved."

"I was very impressed," said Woolley. "It shows a lot about his character. He's going to shut up a lot of people. If he does it a couple of more times they'll be talking about how much he sticks up for his teammates."

During the power play, the Capital almost got a shorthanded goal scored against them when Mike Peca broke down the ice. But the play was called as Peca was given an interference penalty. Being down two men, the Capitals capitalized when Curtis Brown attempted to clear the puck and Peter Bondra picked it off and put it past Dominik Hasek up high in the top corner.

Jan Bulis got the Caps back on top when he surprised Hasek with a long shot from the left faceoff circle and the puck caught Hasek going the wrong way. The puck squeezed in past the left post. Hasek did not look good on that goal.

Campbell got his first NHL goal when he pinched in as the Sabres got some pressure on Kolzig. Holzinger got a shot off that Kolzig stopped, but Campbell shot the rebound between Olie's pads and into the net. It was a play the rookie will never forget.

"I shouldn't be smiling so much. My jaw will get sore," Campbell said. "There's a lot of dreaming about scoring your first NHL goal. It was a wonderful feeling.I was very proud. It was something very special," he said. "It was nice, but three minutes later you have a game. Two hours later, you're disappointed because you lost."

The Sabres have only won one home opener this entire decade. The game had some bright spots for the Sabres (Primeau, Campbell and some of Hasek's outstanding saves), but on the whole, the Sabres still have not gotten out of their preseason mode.. It could have a lot to do with the free agents just getting back and the fact that their defense sorely needs Jay McKee and Rhett Warrener back.

Tonight, the Sabres go to Atlanta to play the expansion Thrashers. They have to take the Thrashers seriously if they want to win their first game of the season.