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Tuesday, October 24
Winless Buffalo seeks
to find groove, wins

By Rob Parent
Special to ESPN.com

He sat erect, eyes fixed straight ahead as if speaking into a mirror, yet dutifully taking on all questioning comers. His was an agenda to get a message across.

"We're making it too easy on other teams," said Buffalo Sabres captain Michael Peca. "We've just shown up at games this year, and we haven't put the work in for a full 60 minutes. We can't win without doing that. ... Obviously, it's frustrating because we're a team that's got to outwork teams like we have in the past in order to win."

Mike Peca
Mike Peca, who is an uncharacteristic minus-four after six games, is as much to blame as any Sabre for the team's poor start.
And down the hall ...

He stood erect, eyes defiant, almost daring somebody to ask him again how a goon of his ilk can look so potent against one of the stingiest defensive clubs in the NHL.

"We know how they play," Philadelphia's professional instigator Sandy McCarthy said of the Sabres. "They're a bunch of cheapshotters. They haven't changed the way they play at all. So when you get a chance to lay somebody out, you do it."

Oh, they did it to each other all right. All night long during what was scheduled to be an ESPN Sunday night clash of Philadelphia power and Buffalo discipline. Instead, it was two winless teams exercising all forms of early season frustration, with Dominik Hasek's absence particularly noteworthy if only because it shows just how far the Sabres are from finding themselves.

Even if noted critic Sandy McCarthy says they haven't changed a bit.

"They always try to get you off your game with all that bull ... (um, tactics)," McCarthy said. "But I think tonight we stood up to them and frustrated them."

And down the hall ... after he finally ended a 25-minute, players-only meeting, Peca didn't disagree. For it is painfully obvious that these same Sabres who carried themselves to the Stanley Cup finals four months ago and are now off to an 0-4-2 encore, are playing dumb instead of disciplined hockey.

Blame the underachieving leaders, such as Dixon Ward. Playing on a top line with Peca and Vaclav Varada, they entered this game with exactly one collective point and were a minus-14. But Ward didn't even enter it -- he was a healthy scratch.

Blame the underachieving goalie, or more specifically, his timing. Ever since Dominik Hasek announced to the Buffalo world that this would be his last season, neither he nor the Sabres have been on an even keel.

Blame the coach, if only because that's what general managers always do. But Lindy Ruff isn't coaching any differently than he used to. Nor does he sound any different. In the wake of what would be a 5-2 loss to the formerly fumbling Flyers on this evening, Ruff was asked why his players were still holed up in the visitors locker room.

"I don't know. I didn't call the meeting," he said. "You'll have to ask them."

Of course, it's still early enough for soul searching. First month of the season, that "Stanley Cup Hangover" always lasts this long, doesn't it? But it's not so much that the Sabres have started so badly in the standings as how terrible they've looked on the ice.

Hangover or not, the results have been a sobering sight.

"Obviously you've got to worry ... Right now our heads aren't in the right place. Our attitudes aren't in the right place. There's no excuse for taking so many penalties. No reason for it. We have to focus and get our attitudes back."

By the way, Michael, is that what was said in the meeting?

"That's none of your guys' business," he said.

It's ironic to see the Sabres at First Union Center playing with lost cool in the same way the Flyers used to fall apart at the hands of these same Sabres.

That had never been more evident than two years ago, when Buffalo frustrated the then-reigning Eastern Conference king Flyers time and again, and finally ousted the defending Stanley Cup runners-up in a five-game first-round playoff series that showed how discipline, speed, hard work -- and Hasek -- could always beat superior offensive might.

Two years later, it's the Sabres wearing that Stanley Cup finalist tag, and the question remains whether the Sabres are heading down the same path toward early playoff extinction?

Assuming they get there, of course.

"It's frustrating right now, but you can't write anything off yet," Peca said. "I think we've got to worry, though, because the results at this point in the season are unacceptable. It's not where it should be, and that's totally our fault."

Ah, but other factors are centering on this scary Sabres fall. Most center on their All-World goaltender, who during this meeting of winless former East elite teams sat on the bench, trying not to look the part of backup goalie, even if he's been playing like one lately.

This rest was unusually early. It wasn't until Jan. 2 last season that he surrendered his crease to backup Dwayne Roloson, the first of just 18 games for Roloson, most coming when Hasek was injured.

Although Hasek's numbers over his first two weeks (0-3-1, 2.83 GAA, .919 save pct.) aren't quite ineffective, they are far from his usual standard.

"I must play better," he said.

Never was a wizard with words, that Dom. Just pucks.

But in this case, Hasek's summary sentence spoke volumes for his whole team. So far, these Sabres have been a summer stink, and haven't acted like they're anywhere close to cleaning up. It was to the Flyers' fortune that they staggered into Philadelphia at just the right time. You'd think those Philly guys would be grateful.

"They played really stupid," usually diplomatic Flyers defenseman Eric Desjardins said of the Sabres. "They're spearing guys and slashing guys, taking runs at people ... you can't win hockey games like that. It's not how they got to the Stanley Cup finals. They're not playing the way they used to."

Go tell 'em down the hall.

Who's afraid of the big, bad Ulf?
Harsh reviews of Roger Neilson are scoring big ratings for the Philly radio talk shows these days, with most phone experts agreeing the Flyers' 65-year-old coach should be put out to scouting pasture. Yo, you thought they only cheered for the heads of Dallas Cowboys in that town?

The vocally demanding Philadelphia sports fan always seems to have an effect on the management of the local hockey team, however, which is why Neilson is publicly saying he's not worried while privately he's wondering if and when the ax will drop.

In fact, rumors are strong that he would have been canned Monday, had not those Buffalo Sabres dropped into town and graced the Flyers with their first win in seven tries. It may have improved their record to just 1-5-1, but it so pleased president and GM Bob Clarke that he finally issued a vote of confidence for his coach.

One that he swears isn't a kiss of death.

"It's ridiculous," Clarke said. "Firing a coach after five or six games? You can't do that. All we can do is deny it."

Right. So after a week of speculative stories in the papers and on the radio, he finally did.

But Clarke also took the time to boost his payroll to the $50 million mark, bringing in an all-time headhunter whose main mission will be to help Neilson keep from getting guillotined.

"I play a simple game," Ulf Samuelsson said after signing a two-year, $4.55 million free agent contract with the Flyers. "I won't change it here."

There are many new teammates with old scars courtesy of Samuelsson -- through his years in Pittsburgh and especially New York, Samuelsson was a nemesis to the Flyers, and in particular, to their captain.

Not that Eric Lindros didn't dish out everything he ever received, and then some. Ever since he was introduced to an 18-year-old Eric in a 1991 Canada Cup exhibition game in which the Canadian junior sent the veteran Swedish stud flying onto the disabled list with a ferocious check, Samuelsson has always kept one eye trained on Lindros.

"Just finishing my check," Lindros said innocently about the memory. Asked if he would miss playing against Samuelsson now, Lindros added, "Yeah, like a hole in the head."

Of course, Lindros did just that two years ago in New York, splitting Samuelsson's chin wide open with a cross check to the face. Couldn't wipe that same smile off big, bad Ulfie's face, though.

"We've had some good battles, but I still owe (Lindros) a few things," said Samuelsson, who ironically was scheduled to make his Flyers debut Friday in New York against his old Rangers teammates. "I have a few things I was going to pay him back for," Samuelsson said. "He's a broken shoulder ahead of me and a broken nose ahead of me. It's been nothing personal. When I played against him, I always tried to nail him. But I'm still a few hits behind. I can't get him back now."

All he can do is help the Flyers get the puck out of their zone, which in Philadelphia always seems to be an impossible mission.

Just a second, Senator
While Ottawa owner Rod Bryden is issuing warnings that he'll pack up his team and leave by Christmas if Canada doesn't start subsidizing its hockey teams, it doesn't actually mean the Senators will be allowed to leave. NHL regulations state that a team must firm up its relocation plan by Jan. 1 two years prior to a proposed switch.

Therefore, Ottawa would have had to file a relocation plan by Jan. 1, 1998. Of course, if Paul Allen tells Gary Bettman that he's ready to accept an NHL move into Portland, it'll be kind of easy to see the NHL change its rules to accommodate the entrance of one of the richest men in the world into their league. Don't you think?

Eastern shorts

Florida Panthers GM Bryan Murray, always a master of using the media, was "innocently" lobbying last week to get Jim Rutherford to consider a Keith Primeau trade. Murray wants to see Primeau next to Pavel Bure so badly he can taste it, and would easily deal Rob Niedermayer and any one of his defensemen and a draft pick or two to get it.

Of course, he didn't say that. "Would I trade a couple players to him? Well, I've never had any problems dealing with Jim before," Murray said. "If both teams were perceived to help each other, I don't see it to be a problem."

By the way, Rutherford might be wavering a little on his feeling that he won't trade his famous unsigned Group II free agent, but he wouldn't do it for three Rob Niedermayers. Nor, Rutherford said on the sly the other day, would he do it for one Eric Lindros.

Unsigned Group II free agents Brendan Morrison and Patrik Elias are threatening to take their act to the IHL if the Devils don't soon offer them a new deal. They're in Ann Arbor, working out at the University of Michigan while trying to get the media to build a case against cheap Lou Lamoriello.

In a game between the Penguins and Rangers last week, Pittsburgh defenseman Andrew Ference leveled Petr Nedved near the Penguins' bench, prompting a mini-riot. Ference, who is all of 5-10 and 190 (in skates) was penalized for obstruction/interference. It was a borderline call, one you usually see when a premier offensive player gets violently belted. Said Ference: "That's not something I'm thinking about. I'm not going to say, 'Ooooh, it's Nedved, I better take it easy.' "

More on Ference, who's always being paired with 6-6, 240-pound Peter Popovic, essentially a Pittsburgh Mutt 'n Jeff act: "It has got to look funny out there," Popovic said. "Me, I'm like a big giant, and Andrew's just a short guy. I heard they're calling him 'mini-me.' I don't know if it's true."

Quotable
"I was watching NHL2Night at midnight to see if they were going to make a big deal out of it. And Anthony said, 'Daddy, you got kicked out? Did you slash somebody?' He asked me again at breakfast, so I said, 'They put me in time out.' " -- Devils goalie Marty Brodeur, on trying to explain to his 4-year-old why he was a little too feisty in a game against the Penguins the night before.

Rob Parent covers the NHL for the Delaware County (Pa.) Times. His NHL East column appears every week on ESPN.com.


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