Sabres get burnt in the desert
By Rick Anderson
January 21, 2000

Marty Biron wishes he could play that shot all over again. One huge mistake probably cost the Buffalo Sabres at least a tie against the Phoenix Coyotes Thursday night. Another colossal mistake in the second period by Geoff Sanderson resulted in the Coyotes scoring a short handed goal. All in all, the Sabres outplayed the Coyotes yet they still suffered their second straight defeat as the Coyotes squeaked a 2-1 decision over Buffalo in the desert.

Brian Holzinger crashes into Sean Burke

With the two teams battling to a scoreless tie, Keith Tkachuk took what looked like a harmless shot on the Sabres' rookie goalie. With a little less than 5 minutes left in the first period, Tkachuk took a wrist shot from a bad angle in the right faceoff circle. The puck stayed on the ice and Biron had full vision when it approached him. Somehow, someway the puck trickled through his pads and into the net. It was the kind of goal even a Bantam goalie would be ashamed of.

The Sabres, who were controlling the play and had momentum going against the Coyotes before that goal, suddenly found themselves in a hole they could not climb out of. Buffalo outshot Phoenix 9-5 in the first period and had the majority of the scoring opportunities but they left for the intermission behind 1-0.

The Sabres fell even further into their hole when they were on a power play with over 5 minutes left in the second period. Geoff Sanderson took a hard shot on Phoenix goalie Sean Burke that went wide of the net and took a huge bounce off the back boards. It came right to Teppo Numminen who passed right to Trevor Letowski. Letowski skated down the ice on a 2-on-1 with Dallas Drake, leaving Sanderson in his wake. He took the shot and Biron made the save but the rebound came right to Drake all alone at the top of the crease. Drake couldn't have had an easier goal.

"I was playing the point on the power play, and I just got a little too anxious jumping down," Sanderson explained.

Erik Rasmussen and Stan Neckar collide into the boards

"In Geoff's defense, two of our last three power-play goals came with him at the point," Lindy Ruff defended his winger. "It was a two-on-one that Woolley didn't play very well. He didn't take away the shot, and he didn't take away the other guy. There weren't many mistakes. It's pretty tough to criticize them when you only make five or six in a game."

"We're more concerned with not letting them score, but sometimes you've got aggressive power plays and there's an opportunity there, and that's what happened tonight," Drake said about his second goal of the season.

The Coyotes lead the NHL with shorthanded goals at 10. From that point, it was an uphill battle for the Sabres.

The Sabres finally got on the scoreboard with less than half a period remaining when Chris Taylor got the puck behind Burke, ruining his shutout bid. With only two minutes remaining, Dixon Ward had a glorious opportunity to score and tie it up when he shot from point-blank range, but Burke made a sprawling save to preserve the victory for Phoenix.

"Playing the fourth line and killing some penalties, you try to create some excitement and give the players a break," said Taylor who was up from Rochester. "That's my job, and I love doing it. I wanted to stay here and be part of this team. Obviously, when you can contribute like that, it makes you feel good."

The Sabres dominated a major portion of the game but could not capitalize on their scoring opportunities. They outshot Phoenix 29-23, came out with a good hitting game and their blue line corp was better than their last game against the Kings. Still it wasn't enough as two mistakes led to disaster.

"When you only make two mistakes that cost you the game, you have to look at your offense," said Sanderson. "We shouldn't lose on two mistakes in the game. I just don't think we're scoring enough goals."

The Sabres players were chalking up the game as a moral victory.

"Obviously, it is a positive thing and we are happy that we are playing well and probably deserved to win. But we're at a point in the standings in a point in the season where we just can't be happy with a good effort," said Michael Peca. "We were a little sluggish but we had a chance to win." "We had a good effort," Sanderson agreed. "We played our system strong. Those two mistakes cost us. Obviously, the one on the power play was the one that killed us."

Moral victories don't count in the standings. You get more points if you lose in overtime. For the players to accept any loss, no matter how well they played, is intolerable. That attitude underlines the main problem with the Sabres this season: complacency. The team is obviously complacent since they appear to show no emotion in most of their losses. Is it still the "Stanley Cup hangover?" That's just another excuse. Some have put the blame on the coaching staff, others point the finger at the players. For some reason, the team doesn't seem to care about what it takes to be a winner. They've been there, done that and they are now here just because their contract forces them to play hockey.

Maybe the Sabres could learn some lessons about the proper attitude to take from their opponents.

"It's our fourth game in six nights, and there was absolutely no gas in the tank," said Coyotes' coach Bob Francis. "I thought it was a gut-check and a character win. It might have been ugly to watch, but can't fault the players or their work ethic."

"Anytime you get a lead and the other side gets a goal and gets the momentum, it makes it tough. We didn't give them a lot and we kept our composure," said Burke. "We let it slip away the last game, so it was pretty fresh in our minds. That probably led to a little bit of reservation on our part, but we responded."

Meanwhile, Ruff was still puzzled why his team lost another game.

"Well that's the way the puck bounces sometimes," Ruff said. "Sometimes you don't get what you deserve. Other nights you get something handed to you that you probably don't deserve. Tonight we probably deserved better and didn't get it."

The Sabres hope the puck bounces better for them on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Carolina Hurricanes. They are now 5 games below .500 and a playoff berth is starting to slip away.

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