Prospector74
Registered User
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.