'75 Buffalo Sabres + ? = Stanley Cup

[jkrx]

Pretty much. In all honesty Housley is the best defenseman Buffalo has ever had that I can think of off the top of my head. In 43 years no one else has really come close. Who is the next best? Jim Schoenfeld? Jerry Korab? It is really quite a drop.

Offensively, yes but they did have Mike Ramsey, Zhitnik and Teppo Numminen.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

Offensively, yes but they did have Mike Ramsey, Zhitnik and Teppo Numminen.

Yeah, Housley's the most statistically significant defenseman in Buffalo history, but his defense was so putrid that I have a hard time calling him the "best." I think Zhitnik and Ramsey get you further in the playoffs, even if Housley is top 5 in points.

I wouldn't enter Teppo into this discussion, though, at least for his time in Buffalo.

 

[Big Phil]

Mike Ramsey??? But he did come later, just throwing the name out.

For that era Bill Hajt was more than stout back there, maybe he doesn't get enough recognition because he was such a throw back even for that era. But yeah, they don't have very many great D-men to speak of at all.

Yeah I guess him then. Or you could say Brian Campbell. Either way, the Sabres are unlikely to have a defenseman ever get into the HHOF, unless Housley does. That's unusual for a 40+ year franchise with some success in its lifetime.

 

[struckbyaparkedcar]

The Brian Campbell who was leading the entire league in TOI while playing shutdown minutes has pretty much only existed last season in Florida. He didn't up his defensive game until his time in Chicago, and wasn't more than a #3 with the Sabres. Lallinder played shutdown minutes, Numminen, then Campbell ate up the easier ES minutes behind them.

 

[Leaf Forever]

I remember that year quite well. Bernie was the major difference between the two. Buffalo badly outplayed them for 1st 2 periods of Game 1 then Philly broke the ice. The games in Philly after that were not close but in Buffalo they were nail biters and Game 6 was like Game 1 leading up to the 3rd period. That year the 3 top teams were Phl, Buf & Mtl. What was unusual that year was Phl could beat Buf but not Mtl, Buf could beat Mtl but not Phl and Mtl could beat Phl but not Buf. So whoever met in the final you were almost sure who was going to enevitably win.