I have some questions about the 98-99 team...

[Prospector74]

Ahh '99.
...

The thing I remember most about that run was how the team hit. They were just pounding teams into submission. Varada, Peca, Rasmussen, Brown, Satan, Dixon, Primeau, Holzinger, Juneau, the D, Cunnyworth had a big hit I remember when they put him in...that team top to bottom during that run laid the body like no team I can remember. They pounded teams into turnovers and when they got them had the wheels to make teams pay in transition. I also remember thinking, after the Ottawa series of course - that was all Dom, how amazing it was that Hasek wasn't totally carrying us as was the norm. Not until Dallas at least, then it was back to all Dom again. The guys fought so hard though.

My other fond memory from that run was Stu Barnes. We got him at the deadline for Barnaby and the guy almost instantly got so many chances but didn't bury any of them, not one. He didn't score during the end of the regular season, not during the first round, not during the second round, and then in the middle of the Leafs series - BOOM - he gets one on the PP and then he goes off. Starts scoring left and right. Haha it was awesome, LOVED that part.

Like what has already been said - everyone stepped up, literally it was a different guy every night, and it was a super easy team to love. I still remember Juneau talking after the last game about how it was his favorite locker room he'd been in, and how he couldn't believe they'd lost, and how loose the team was - during the OT intermission before the Hull goal they were all talking turns in the room describing what they were going to do when they scored the game winner. Sigh...

What I remember is how Darcy didn't do anything to improve the team prior to the playoffs by bringing in someone like like a Stu Barnes type to help at the deadline and how Lindy couldn't get the players to play with heart or to exceed their potential either in the regular season or in the playoffs and how rotten the locker room attitude was and Lindy couldn't fix it AND then after that year how Darcy never did a darn thing to make the team better like trading for someone like, like Dumont, Drury, or Briere or trying to make us better by drafting someone like, like Max, Tallinder, Miller, Gaustad, Vanek, or Pominville. I tell ya that coach and GM were worthless, never did a darn thing right, and Buffalo was never going to do anything with them in leadership positions. [/sarcasm]

NOTE: sarcasm above not aimed in any way at Circusboy. Just used a great post from Circusboy which got me thinking of all the haters on Darcy and Lindy who say they have always been failures. While I agree it was time for Lindy to go, it was not because the guy couldn't coach a winner.

 

[HogtownSabresfan]

Satan 40/26/66
Peca 27/29/56
Grosek 20/30/50

That's your top 3 scoring. 5 players on the entire roster with over 35 points. Was that the year Hasek had like 8 shutouts in December? Reminds me of a save on Lemieux that the refs had to come over and check his glove because they didn't believe he stopped it.

Not putting a better team in front of the most dominant goalie in NHL history (for a span of six years, for sure) is our biggest crime.

 

[BUCKSHOT]

this is what got me 'hooked' on hockey !


was on vacation in Richmond, VA and a bunch of my buddies were Sabre fans so we had to watch the Finals that week.

 

[Jame]

I remember the Sabres hitting the crossbar on a shot from the point in that game 6 OT.

Ugh.

the James Patrick shot plays over and over and over in my head... all the time... it's never left my mind... i think about almost once a week during hockey season.

 

[Paxon]

the James Patrick shot plays over and over and over in my head... all the time... it's never left my mind... i think about almost once a week during hockey season.

Yea, well...
"You miss every shot you don't take" -- Michael Jordan
"You miss every shot you take" -- Alexei Zhitnik*



*Zhitnik is one of my all-time favorite players

 

[Chainshot]

Hey, if we are posting video --

 

[5 Minute Major]

the James Patrick shot plays over and over and over in my head... all the time... it's never left my mind... i think about almost once a week during hockey season.

Though we will never know, I remember feeling that if we could just win that game, Dallas would have been dead in the water heading into a game 7. I think we would have handled that team coming off a ridiculously long game 6.

 

[sba]

Sanderson's 1 handed breakaway goal vs Toronto while being hooked from behind is one of my favorite goals of all time. Tucked it 5 hole like Gerbe on a fan in the front row.

Also his goal in Game 4 of the Finals, I thought the arena was going to cave in.

The only guy I really remember being "disappointed" in was Juneau, until it came out that he played through having a back constructed out of balsa wood and Elmers Glue.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

Not putting a better team in front of the most dominant goalie in NHL history (for a span of six years, for sure) is our biggest crime.

I still stand by him being one of top 5 NHLers of all time. He accomplished so much with so little on those Sabres rosters. He also ruined this place for goalie.

 

[Erie89]

I remember the Sabres hitting the crossbar on a shot from the point in that game 6 OT.

Ugh.

I was right there, front row, up against the glass. I knew it wasn't gonna roll our way after that. So close.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Not Shannon?

James Patrick hit the crossbar in game 6.

I remember a ton of great Sabres' plays....

- Briere in game one against Philly in '06.
- Mayday goal.
- LaFontaine's first goal.
- Derek Plante's game winning to win the NE.
- Pominville's OT goal to close out Ottawa.
etc.

The two plays that are etched in my memory are Drury's game 5 goal, and Patrick hitting the crossbar - for completely opposite reasons.

 

[Prospector74]

I still stand by him being one of top 5 NHLers of all time. He accomplished so much with so little on those Sabres rosters. He also ruined this place for goalie.

Seconded.

 

[VaporTrail]

Don't remember a lot of the little stuff from that cup run....But I do remember it being fun....I had asked my boss if he would change my work schedule around the Sabres playoff schedule....When he didn't, I quit my job so I could watch all the games.....

I was in college at the time, and frequented many watering holes for the games...I do remember the bars being jam packed with a ton of fans yelling and cheering.....

I don't have any tattoos at all but I do remember saying that if the Sabres won the Cup that I was going to get a stanley cup tattooed on my arm....lol, good times......

And wow I know Hasek carried us but to only have 5 scorers over 35 points, LMAOOOOOO....THAT'S NUTZZZZZ.....

 

[Meichel Kane]

Fun fact: Geoff Sanderson's hometown doesn't exist any more.