Sabres find their new whipping boys
By Rick Anderson
February 4, 2000
The Buffalo Sabres have finally found an opponent that they can beat with consistency. The Sabres won their third straight game against the Ottawa Senators Thursday night as they beat them 4-2 before another sellout in Marine Midland Arena. By beating the Sens, the Sabres won the series between the two teams 3-1-1. After losing their fist game to Ottawa 4-0 on October 23, they played to a 0-0 tie on December 10 and then beat them 7-4, and 1-0 last week.
"Thank God we don't come here anymore this year," said Senators' defenseman Chris Phillips .
The continuing Hasek saga put Biron back in the spotlight and he was solid in the nets in helping the Sabres extend their unbeaten home streak to 3-0-1.
Michael Peca scored his tenth goal of the season at the 14:56 mark of the first period while the Sabres were on a power-play. Vladmir Tsyplakov got a pass behind the net and faked a pass across the crease before he made a perfect feed to the Sabres captain at the top of the crease. Peca flipped it top shelf over Ron Tugnutt's right shoulder for his fourth goal in six games.
"A lot of credit goes to the guys who I'm playing with," said Peca. "We've been getting a lot of chances, and we've been fortunate to capitalize. We've been happy with the chances we've been creating the last few games."
Miroslav Satan got his 26th of the season at 10:40 into the second period when he picked up the puck right off a faceoff and beat Tugnutt on the stick side. Brian Holzinger got the assist on Satan's goal.
Brian Holzinger scored with 15:44 gone in the second period to lift the Sabres to a 3-0 lead. Rob Ray made a nice pass over to Holzinger who poked the puck into the open side.
Like in their previous game against Anaheim where they led 2-0 after two and then allowed 2 goals in the third, the Sabres lead was not safe. Once again they allowed their opposition to get back into the contest with a couple of third period goals.
Petr Schastlivy stole the puck and one second later Marian Hossia got a slap shot past Marin Biron to snap his shutout streak against the Senators at 5 periods. The puck actually went off Rhett Warrener's skate as he lifted his leg to block the shot, and it glanced off his skate and into the net.
Maxim Afinogenov scored Buffalo's fourth goal when he took a snap shot from the lower part of the right faceoff circle that got past Tugnutt. Curtis Brown and Satan got the assists.
Vaclav Prospal made it a two-goal game again as his wrist shot got past Biron on his stick side.
Biron was named the first star of the game as he made 32 saves and came in under a lot of pressure after the spectacular performance of Hasek in Tuesday's game.
"If Dom comes back and plays most of the 29 (remaining) games, I'll handle it the way I wanted to at the beginning of the year: just sit back and look at him," the 22-year old rookie goalie said. "If I go back in and play a lot, it's more experience. Everybody at one time in their career has to go through a spot like that."
Peca, who is starting to get his own game back on track after a horrendous first half said, "He was looking for this opportunity. He's playing tremendous."
Hasek will have this weekend off to come to grips with the nature of his prolonged groin recovery. It seems as if he rushed back to get some playing time before the All-Star game and after being extremely stiff and sore after his first game experience, he has a lot of decisions to make. As a man who demands perfection in his game, knowing that he will not be able to go all out game in and game out must be a devastating blow to him.
On Thursday, Hasek was too sore to take many shots today as Miroslav Satan took a ten-minute shooting drill on Hasek and the Sabres veteran goalie had to leave. Now Hasek has this weekend to ponder his future.
"I just cannot do what I used to do," the Dominator said. "Nothing happened during the game (against Anaheim). I didn't feel any special pain or anything different. I felt very tired, and I still haven't recovered. It feels like it did three or four weeks ago. It's not a good sign."
Biron, who may have been sent back down to Rochester if Hasek felt good after Tuesday's game and was ready to resume his No. 1 goalie job, now is thrust back into the limelight as the Sabres starter in the nets for the majority of upcoming games.
"It's a good thing knowing you have to be ready all the time," Biron said. "It teaches you that it doesn't matter if you have a guy that's injured or not. You always have to be ready. I've learned is not about quantity but quality."
"I'm a first-year kid and a lot of people say you get into your prime when you get around 30 years old," Biron said. "There are a couple young guys that are trying to prove them wrong. I'm trying to learn more about the game and show I can be a good goaltender at a young age."
"The kid shows a tremendous amount of poise and confidence in himself," Peca said. "It translates into us having confidence in front of him. It's always an emotional lift getting your superstar back, but knowing now his imminent future is unpredictable, we're more than content to play with Marty in net."
Meanwhile, Hasek is contemplating his future.
"I plan to stay here," Hasek said. "It's too early to make this decision. We'll see more after two or three weeks. I hope it gets better, at least a little bit, because right now I don't feel very good."
"All I can say it that it's very frustrating," Hasek continued. "There is nothing I can do about it. All I can do is hope it's going to get better. If you want to play, you have to practice. It's not like you play the game and take four or five days off and play the next game. You have to practice and get ready for the next game. Right now, I don't feel I can do it."
This leaves the Sabres in a sticky situation. Dwayne Roloson has asked to be traded because he has not been getting the playing time he would like. Hasek has a dark cloud over his future and Biron is becoming a solid candidate for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
"You see the situation Dom is in, so we have keep three goalies around," Ruff said. "Dom, if he plays, may not be able to practice the next day. That's something we have to keep weighing on a day-to-day basis."
Hasek appears to be as mystified with the injury as anyone else.
"It's just soreness, nothing else,"said Hasek. "There's not any injury. . . . It's much weaker. Things I could do one, two, three weeks ago, I cannot do with my legs today. If it's weak, you cannot do fast moves. Just to watch the other goalies play - I look at Rolie or Martin - and I say, ""Oh, I cannot do it.' I know I cannot do it because my groin is weak."
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Martin Biron was back in the nets against the Senators as Dominik Hasek could not complete his second straight practice because of soreness in his groin muscle and announced that he would not play in Sunday's All-Star game. Hasek also said that with the pain that he has experienced after playing his first game since late October, he is not certain if he can endure playing every game like he has in the past. He indicated that he may be able to only handle one game a week from now on.
Stu Barnes tries to pass the puck while down on the ice as Ron Tugnutt and Jason York cover the angles
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