GILMOUR INFECTS THE SABRES WITH THE FEVER
By Rick Anderson
March 28, 2000

Doug Gilmour was a very sick man. He had lost around eight pounds over the weekend and was on intravenous fluids on Sunday. That night, he ate four meals to see if he could regain some of the poundage he had loss from the bout with the flu. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Gilmour would be playing against the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night. Not in Lindy Ruff's mind, not in the players' minds and especially not in Gilmour's mind. Gilmour dragged himself onto the ice and played probably his best game as a Sabre as he helped Buffalo blast the Hurricanes into submission by winning this pivotal game 5-1.

Doug Gilmour, who had a 4-point night, has this shot blocked by Canes' goalie Arturs Irbe.

[AP Photo/Bob Jordan]

Gilmour has not let illness get in the way of contributing to the Sabres since he was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks for Michal Grosek a couple days before the NHL trading deadline. When the Sabres were out on the West Coast recently, he was seen with a small garbage can next to him on the players' bench. He was not going to let nausea keep him off the ice!

With the Sabres missing captain Michael Peca due to his two-game suspension for elbowing Calgary's Valeri Bure, Gilmour knew that he would have to pick up his game, whether he was sick or not. His play seems to have given the Sabres the fever: they were playing with a feverish pace against the Hurricanes.

"When you lose a guy like Mike Peca, others have to step up," Gilmour asserted. "We said in the locker room before the game that we have to be accountable and we came out and worked hard together."

What Gilmour did was to continue his point streak since joining the club, getting a goal and three assists for four points. On one of his three assists, Gilmour became the 20th NHL player to record 1,300 points in a career. His playmaking was directly responsible for four Buffalo goals, including his own.

"I don't think we can say enough about how Doug has helped provide some offense," remarked Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "Ever since he has gotten here our offense has gone up dramatically. He has had a history of being a great playmaker."

Gilmour was not the only Sabre to convert four points on the night. Miroslav Satan also got a goal and three assists in a banner night for the Sabres. Buffalo came into this game one point behind the Montreal Canadiens for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and left the rink in sole position of that spot.

Gilmour has been the leader the Sabres have been lacking ever since Pat LaFontaine left the team. By his very presence on the ice despite being so ill over the weekend spoke volumes to the rest of the players on the team. If he could battle through tough times and still play such an outstanding game, the players knew that they had no excuse for not doing the same. That's the kind of example Gilmour has set since landing in Buffalo a couple weeks ago and getting the red carpet treatment from the Sabres' brass. He has reciprocated in kind.

The Sabres opened the scoring when Jay McKee got his third goal in three nights. McKee's shot from the left point bounced off Hurricanes' defenseman Steve Halko and trickled past goalie Arturs Irbe. The goal came at the 9:08 mark in the first period and was unassisted.

Gary Roberts tied the game up on the power play 7:19 into the second period when he poked in a rebound of a Ron Francis shot. But 17 seconds later, Gilmour set up Satan, who dashed in on Irbe. Irbe made the initial save on Satan's slap shot, but Curtis Brown tapped in the rebound as it was inching towards the goal line, and that turned out to be the game-winner.

"I saw Brownie on the side," Satan remarked. "I figured I better shoot so he could get the rebound if I don't score. That's exactly what happened."

"They had the momentum right there," commented Gilmour. "We just tried to jump into the play. We had a turnover real quick and we capitalized on it."

"The teams that are the most dangerous, the teams that are the most successful, are the ones that bounce right back," added Brown. "We took the momentum right away from them and we never looked back. It was huge."

Still in the second period, Satan, who had a late-season surge of goals last year to reach 40, scored his 32nd of the season when Roberts turned the puck over to Gilmour in the Canes' zone. Gilmour found Satan, and the Sabres' top goal-getter blasted a shot from the right circle that beat Irbe to make it 3-1.

In the third, Satan, taking a page out of Maxim Afinogenov's book, broke in on the right side with over half a period left in the game, faked a shot and took the puck completely behind the net before cycling around and setting up Vladimir Tsyplakov, who one-timed it for a 4-1 lead.

Then came the Gilmour goal that showed his hustle. Satan took the puck down the right side, skated in on Irbe and put a shot on net. The puck bounced free and Gilmour took a whack at it, but Irbe blocked it. Then Satan fed the puck across the crease while Gilmour circled around the net. By the time he reached the other side, to Irbe's right, the puck came right to him and he lifted it in for his 25th of the season.

Talking about his 1,300th point, Gilmour said, "I will reflect back more on this more when I retire, but if you look at when I broke into the league you never expect to do anything like this. You just want to play and survive out there."

Dominik Hasek pushes Gary Roberts in attempt to clear the crease. Curtis Brown is on the bottom of the pile. Hasek made 31 saves in this game that the Sabres won 5-1.

[AP Photo/Bob Jordan]

This was a game in which the Hurricanes could have quickly taken the lead over the Sabres if it weren't for part of Dominik Hasek's essential equipment - the goal posts. The Canes hit four of them during the course of the game, something that frustrated the Hurricanes.

"It was very frustrating," said Glen Wesley. "We were hitting the posts. We didn't pounce on the rebounds quick enough. We had some opportunities. We just didn't capitalize."

"Four posts and there was the game," said Hurricanes' coach Paul Maurice.

"I was just lucky," admitted Hasek, who made 31 saves.

"Dom only covers the inside of the post," Ruff elaborated. "We don't tell him to cover the outside."

"We've got a tough hill to climb right now," Hurricanes' defenseman Glen Wesley said. "It's not the best scenario we would have liked, but we've still got opportunities. We can't count ourselves out."

Hasek did use his regular equipment to make some outstanding saves, especially in the third period when he stopped 10 shots.

"He was unbelievable," Satan said about Hasek. "If he doesn't make a couple of those third-period saves, it could have given them a chance to come back. He was just solid."

The Sabres have off until Friday, when they take on the Hurricanes again at HSBC Arena. Then they start their final stretch which will make or break them. The Sabres have a brutal schedule next week as they take on the Canadiens Saturday in Montreal, host the Leafs on Monday, go to New Jersey Thursday and come home to host the Penguins on Friday, April 7. The last game of the season could be a playoff preview as they travel to the nation's capital to face the Washington Capitals on April 9.

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