Sabres play goes south as Sabres lose two straight in Florida
By Rick Anderson
Sunday, November 14, 1999

It's back to the drawing board for Lindy Ruff and the Buffalo Sabres as they come back from a disastrous Florida romp in the sun and try to find answers to their new two game losing streak. After having their four game winning streak come to a complete halt in Tampa Friday night, the Sabres are now going the opposite way in the standings as the Florida Panthers handed them a 3-1 shellacking in Miami last night.

Ruff decided to give Martin Biron a rest last night as Dwayne Roloson got his first action in almost a month (October 17 was his last start). It didn't seem to matter who was in goal as even Dominik Hasek in his prime wouldn't have been able to prevent the Florida breakout last night in warm and humid Miami.

Pavel Bure attempts to get control of the puck while sitting down on the job

After playing to a scoreless tie in the first period, the Sabres became unglued again in the second stanza, allowing three Panther goals and looking like a team that had its collective mind on the golf course. Radek Dvorak opened up the flood gates when he put the puck past Roloson on the open side of the net after the Panthers attacked the Sabres zone on a three-on-two break. Ryan Johnson was able to fed a pass under a diving Alexei Zhitnik to Dvorak who was alone in front of the Buffalo goalie.

"It was a nice pass by Johnson because the defenseman was down," said Dvorak. "I don't know where it the puck went in. All I know is that I saw it in the back of the net."

Pavel Bure, who returned for his first game since missing 3 with a broken finger, had an assist on that goal and had given Dvorak advice earlier in the season.

"Three weeks ago, Pavel told me that the goals would come," Dvorak said after scoring his second and third goals of the season. "He knows how to score goals, so I listen to him."

Dvorak scored another goal in the period and had an assist on Bure's breakaway goal on Roloson.

"He's playing great," said Bure about Dvorak who scored 19 goals last season. "I told him to keep doing what you're doing and that the goals will come."

"It's always fun to play because I hate to just hang around the gym and ride a bike," said Bure about returning to the lineup. "It's not what I choose in my life. I choose to play hockey."

Dvorak made his mark again only five minutes after his first goal when Johnson recovered a loose puck laying around mid-ice and passed directly to Dvorak charging into the Buffalo zone. He skated in on a breakaway and shot a backhander over Roloson's glove to up the score to 2-0.

"I knew he was there because I could hear him screaming at the top of his lungs," Johnson said . "Then it was a great play by him to score."

The Sabres had a chance to get right back into the thick of things when they got a man advantage later on in the second period. However, Dvorak got control of the puck and fed Bure around center ice. Pavel only had Michael Peca to beat, and Peca, who was way over on right wing, didn't have a chance to catch the speedy Russian. Bure rocketed down the ice and put the puck under Roloson's right arm and his to give Florida a commanding 3-0 lead and the game.

"You make a couple of mistakes and it ends up in our net," Ruff said. "We made some big mistakes. We run the risk of giving up a shorthanded goal when you have a forward at the point. That's what happened the last two games."

"We had a breakdown at the blue line and bang," said Roloson. "We had a couple of costly turnovers early and it put us behind the 8-ball."

The Sabres finally got a goal when Curtis Brown ruined Trevor Kidd's shutout bid with only 3:39 remaining in the third period. Kidd was spectacular in goal, making 36 saves in the game. However, the Sabres have the knack of making opposing goalies look like world beaters.

"It wasn't a lack of opportunities," said Brown. "It was a couple of glaring errors that cost us. I don't think they earned that much. But when you turn the puck over you're going to be chasing."

This was the second consecutive night the Sabres have given up a goal on the powerplay and major adjustments to the special team units is essential for the Sabres to succeed. The Sabres went 0-for-5 on the power play and is 8-for-77 overall this season. Lindy has to not only tinker with the powerplay personnel but also with the team's mind set.

"We struggled on the power play," said Zhitnik. "We're fine five-on-five. But as soon as we play five-on-four we're waiting for someone to make a play. There are no excuses. We have to put the puck in the net."

After starting six straight games, Martin Biron was given the night off. His four-game winning streak was broken on Friday when the Lightning struck four times on only 28 shots.

"I think Marty needs a break," said Ruff. "If you look at the game (Friday) night, it wasn't a good game for Marty. Rolie deserves a chance to play, too. I said if one guy got hot, he would play. We were on a pretty good roll."

Change that to "were" Lindy. The Sabres are now on a two-game slide and get back to action on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

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