Bring on the Off-Season

May 29, 2007

After deciding to take the wait-and-see approach on how I feel about the Ottawa Senators trouncing the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference Finals, I believe now is the time to get the the emotions off my sleeve and into words.

I'll admit it. I was just about in tears when Daniel Alfredsson split through three Buffalo defenders and ripped a shot that ricocheted off the stick of Brian Campbell and past Ryan Miller to ascend the Sens to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in their recent franchise history. Reliving it right now puts myself in a similar situation. The Sabres lost in pure Buffalo fashion, breaking the hearts of fans in the Western New York sports scene.

The problem I have with the series that sent the Sens to the Cup finals isn't the appeared-to-be harmless play by Alfredsson who didn't have a stick on him as he skated by three skaters and ripped a distant shot that broke the back of the Sabres, but the mental mistakes by certain team members, particularly Hank Tallinder and Lindy Ruff, can not go unnoticed.

On the 2-on-1 goal by Spezza late in the second period, Tallinder misplayed the rush terribly. He didn't take the shooter, didn't play the pass and by the time he made the decision, it was much too late. His half-hearted attempt to block the shot was easily telegraphed by Alfredsson as he slid the puck across to Spezza who put the puck past an out of position Ryan Miller. Play the pass and let Miller, who has been your best player, make a play because he can, and he will.

Lindy Ruff led the Sabres to 53 wins and the team scored 308 goals on their way to the President's Trophy. The team was 40-0-0 in the season, 6-0-0 in the post season when they held 2 goal leads and blew it for the first time in game 2. Ottawa, for the first time in team history, won the first 2 games in a series. Ruff needed to make adjustments and did not. This holds true through the second and third rounds. He was line matching, getting the Drury line out there against Alfredsson-Spezza-Heatley, and the Jagr-Nylander-Insert Useless Forward Here lines. Why? He lost control there. The team fired on all cylinders when he would put out a line and say "You try to stop my guys from scoring" rather than "I'm gonna shut your top line down." Make the opponent's top line backcheck. Ruff let the opposition's coach dictate play with that sediment. Ruff's refusal to stop line matching may have also taken a bit of confidence away from younger players like Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville, who were absent for much of the Conference Finals. And finally, not juggling the lines to stir up the chemistry was another mistake.

The offense sputtered in the playoffs. Goal scoring around the league in the playoffs was down. Whether it's because of the dinosaurs of the league influencing the game to go back to clutching and grabbing or the offense going dry or even Ottawa's defense upending the Sabres, changes were inevitable but nonexistent until it was too late.

Ruff made changes in Game 4, which was the lone win, but they should have been done sooner to earn the possibility of a longer series. Nonetheless, Lindy Ruff is a future Hall of Fame coach and hindsight is always 20/20. The talk of Briere or Drury in the offseason is overshadowing the fact that Ruff and Regier's contracts are up, and Larry Quinn needs to lock up that duo for many years to come, as he will bring home the Cup for Buffalo.

The idea of pinpointing a time in the series where it was won or lost for a team is somewhat idiotic, but relevant at times. I believe the back breaker of the Sabres "Power"play was early game one when giveaways stranded Miller twice, and Mike Fisher buried his second opportunity. When Fisher slipped the first goal of the series past Miller on a shorthanded break, the Sabres lost all confidence, and they didn't have much to start with, in their man advantage play. With their inability to score on the powerplay, the chance of winning the series went up in smoke. Declaring the first goal of the series to be the clincher sounds ridiculous, but don't most knowledgeable hockey fans say scoring the ever-so-important first goal as a key to a game? Oddly enough, their first PP goal came in game 4, when all the changes were made. Coincidence?

Drawing connections from last year's run-in with the Sens with this year's downfall is simple. Last year, Alfredsson and Emery were made fools of by Jason Pominville. This year's playoff brought a determined Alfredsson and he charged his team in this year's post season. This time Pominville, along with Jochen Hecht, was floating and made a lackluster effort to stop Alfredsson. Hopefully next year, Pominville takes a page from Alfredsson's book and reaches his full potential to become a force in next year's playoff.

Despite underachieving in the post season, the Buffalo Sabres had a phenomenal year. They were the best team in the NHL from January 2006-January 2007, unfortunately that is not when it counts. I am proud to be a die-hard Sabre fan and I love this team. The Stanley Cup inches closer to Buffalo with 4 Eastern Conference Final appearances in the last nine seasons. The Stanley Cup is only handed out once a year, and 29 teams will miss out on it. But the same goes for the President's Trophy. Thank you for an amazing season.