Sabres sleepwalk in Vancouver
By Rick Anderson
March 16, 2000

There were a lot of tired grumpy Sabres fans Friday morning as they had to trudge to work after watching another inept effort by their favorite team in the wee hours earlier that same morning. A lot of coffee was downed in an effort by the fans/workers to wake up and drown the agony of another Sabres' defeat. The Vancouver Canucks became the second team in two nights to score 6 goals on Buffalo as they trounced the Sabres 6-3. This time Martin Biron was the victim of a weak defensive effort and had to hold on for dear life in order to escape the terrible fate of allowing goals in the double digits.

Brendan Morrison shoves Miroslave Satan to the ice and out of the play in the opening period of the Canucks 6-3 victory over the Sabres.

[AP Photo]

Twelve goals in two nights! With the Sabres desperately fighting for their playoff lives, this kind of effort leaves fans wondering if they are really serious about making the playoffs this year. On Wednesday night, the San Jose Sharks ate Dominik Hasek alive when they put six behind the future Hall of Fame goalie. It was hoped that Biron would turn things around, but the Canucks quickly dashed any such positive thoughts.

"For 40 minutes we didn't show up,"said Lindy Ruff. "We were awful. We didn't pay the price defensively. That's as soft as I've seen us in our end."

The Sabres, who had hoped to win all three games on their west coast swing, will now be lucky to win one Saturday night in Calgary. The team does not have the drive nor the heart to win too many games now and that is a serious problem if they want to nail down that last playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. The defense has to share much of the blame for the twelve goals scored against the Sabres these past two games. Sure, the goaltending was not at its best, but defensive meltdowns at this stage of the season are unacceptable.

"This time of year, you can't be giving up that many opportunities," said Rhett Warrener. "If you do, you have a problem. You can call it soft. You can call it whatever you want. We didn't get the job done."

As dismal as this game turned out, the Sabres actually had the first lead in the game. Dixon Ward opened the scoring when he scored on the Sabres first shot on net with a little over 3 minutes gone in the first period.

Then the roof caved in for the Sabres. Vancouver scored two goals off the skates of Sabres' defensemen and from that point on, it was all Canucks. Near the five minute mark, Brendan Morrison, who was part of the trade package that sent Alexander Mogilny to the Devils, scored a goal that glanced off Jason Holland's skate and past Biron after he had made the original save.

"It was a lucky one, but I'll take it," said Morrison, who hails from Pitt Meadows, a short drive from Vancouver. "I had a lot of people here and obviously, growing up in the area and coming down and watching the Canucks, it doesn't get much better than this."

Markus Naslund scored 2 ½ minutes later when he too got a break when his shot went off Jay McKee's skate making it 2-1. Todd Bertuzzi put the Canucks up by two when he scored his 17th of the season when he was left alone on Biron in front of the net and banged his own rebound home with just 39 seconds left in the first stanza.

Curtis Brown got his 18th of the season when he stuffed a rebound of Miroslav Satan's shot to put the Sabres right back into the game, if only for a brief moment.

Naslund, Mattias Ohlund and Mark Messier scored three unanswered goals in the second period to turn this game into a rout. The Ohlund and Messier goals were ever so close to being both scored while Matt Cooke was serving an interference penalty. Messier put a rebound past Biron just an instant after Cooke stepped on the ice. With Cooke still out of the play, it can almost be ruled the second straight night that Buffalo allowed two goals while on the same power play.

Dour Gilmour scored the final goal of the night with 12:56 left in the game when Brown fed him a pass right in front of Potvin and Gilmour scored his second Buffalo goal in two nights. Even though he scored, the newly acquired Sabres was not happy and his expressions showed it. He raised his stick only briefly and skated away with a somber look on his face.

Reflecting upon the current state of the Sabres, Gilmour said, ""I know we can do it, but we can't play like that. The last two games we just gave it to them. We can't keep doing that."

With the team about to go down the tubes, it may take a player of Gilmour's experience and leadership to get the team out of their funk and back on track - if it isn't already too late. He will have to knock some sense into the listless Sabres immediately if they want any chance of making the playoffs.

Biron, who faced 35 shots and made 29 saves, was not too happy after the game.

"It was definitely not our `A' game," Biron fumed. "We have been playing well defensively here all year. It's been two games where we have given up six, and that doesn't happen often. We have to snap out of it and return to a sound defensive game."

While the Sabres defensemen refused to give any big hits in the game, Biron got the biggest hit in the game when he bumped Cooke after the Canuck center ran into him while Biron was out to play the puck in the right corner. Biron, who has been in several scuffles both in Buffalo and Rochester this season, started to throw punches with his blocker. The two were separated quickly before any damage was done. Hasek viewed the feisty play of Biron with a wide smile. He also must have realized that he'll be back in the nets on Saturday when the Sabres take on the Calgary Flames.

"We have to play a little more pissed off and show them they're not going to get a free ride," Biron said about the lack of physical play from the team in front of him.

"Marty probably feels like Dom did last night," said Ruff. "There were breakaways, three-on-twos. You can't expect a goalie to stand on his head in those situations."

"I've been worried about this team for three months," Ruff admitted. "We had a couple of breaks go the other way early in the game and then for 40 minutes we didn't show up. When guys can have second and third rebounds without getting touched, you're in trouble."

Even with the two losses in a row, Buffalo still remains two points behind the eighth place Montreal Canadiens. However, the Canadiens have two games in hand on the Sabres as do a few of the other teams in front of them. The Sabres have to beat Calgary if they want to earn a split in the possible six points available on this west coast trip.

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