Puck Stop	How Could This Have Happened? by Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell

By the time you read this column, the Buffalo Sabres season may be over. It may as well be over. The team marched into the Conference Finals against the Ottawa Senators with great hope and promise, but Stanley Cup dreams have quickly faded across Western New York, as the Sabres have been outscored, outplayed, outhustled and been handed a classic beatdown during this series.

During these playoffs, it has been the Ottawa Senators that have been “scary good”. They have soldiered through two series against Pittsburgh and New Jersey and have executed their games almost flawlessly. Meantime, Buffalo has struggled through their first two playoff rounds, and the confidence and swagger that his team enjoyed in the first part of the regular season has just about evaporated.

Go back to October 28... Buffalo had just lost their first game of the season, in a shootout to Atlanta. The team had gone through the entire month of October and had claimed 21 of a possible 22 points. Fans were wondering if this team would ever lose. The feeling everywhere was that this was the Sabres’ time... this was the Sabres’ year.

So what happened? How could this team with so much hope and so much promise come up so badly at this most crucial time? There are several reasons.

Through three games, the Buffalo power play has been abysmal, going scoreless through 18 opportunities. Furthermore, the team generated few scoring chances and little pressure during the man advantages. Perhaps Coach Lindy Ruff was watching a different game than the rest of us, saying on Monday, “The power play did a real good job last game. It generated some real good chances. It looked like a power play. We may have had one, two that Ottawa did a real good job against, but we had some situations. We had one called back. We had some great opportunities on it. You know, we’re just going to have to execute. We get the opportunity, it’s to make sure we finish them.”

Tim Connolly’s return to the ice was supposed to reignite the power play, but it hasn’t happened. While Sabres fans weren’t looking for a savior and a suddenly explosive power play, it’s not good when Ottawa scores more goals on Buffalo’s man advantage opportunities than the Sabres.

So much more...you could see Ottawa working...the defense laying down to block shots, collapsing on the net to keep the puck from getting past the shaky Ray Emery. Their effort in the defensive end was stellar and it had the look of the Sabres from a year ago. Anyone seen Jay McKee?

There was a desperation, a hunger, a desire the Sens had in those first three games that frankly we haven’t seen from the Sabres, at least not to that extent. Winning the battles in the corners, keeping the puck out of their own zone by any means necessary. When Coach Ruff was asked earlier in the playoffs if he misses Mike Grier, Ruff candidly replied “I miss his toughness.”

One of the few bright spots of the series has been the fact that these two teams have hit the ice playing hard hitting, yet clean hockey. There have been no real cheap shots, nothing really controversial coming from on ice play.

And the scary thing is, the Sabres were THIS close to remaining in the series. What if Vanek deflects that puck into the net off of any other part of his body or equipment other than his glove. And if Danny Briere is no longer a Sabre after the season will our final memory of him be the puck slipping off the edge of his stick with a wide open net in front of it in the opening moments of Game 3?

When this series is over, we can take heart that this team is well positioned to remain among the league’s elite and compete for the Stanley Cup year in and year out. As we head into this weekend and look back on this series and the way this year has seemingly concluded so brutally, right around now that is small comfort.

TWO AMERICAN

TEAMS IN MEMORIAL CUP

We have previously railed in this space about our good friends from across the border, including those living a stone’s throw from the Peace Bridge, and how they immediately and blindly cheer for ANY Canadian franchise over our Buffalo Sabres. Such is the case again as fans sitting in their living rooms from Yellowknife to Halifax to Port Colborne have had the sudden revelation that the Ottawa Senators are “their” team.

So bear with us a moment while we portray this absurd thinking from the American perspective. Here goes...

This past Sunday the Plymouth (Michigan) Whalers became only the third American based franchise in league history to win the Ontario Hockey League championship, dispatching the Sudbury Wolves four games to two.

Earlier last week the Lewiston (Maine) Maineiacs captured the championship of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, sweeping the Val D’Or Foreurs. Lewiston is the first American based franchise to ever win the QMJHL’s Presidents Cup.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Both Plymouth and Lewiston now move on to the Memorial Cup tournament, which will also include two Western Hockey League teams, the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants. The round robin tournament starts May 18 in Vancouver and the championship game will take place on May 27 at General Motors Place. No American based team has ever captured the Memorial Cup.

So now it’s time for every American to show off their pride and patriotism and the red, white and blue and cheer loud and proud for our beloved Whalers and Maineiacs. No matter that the Plymouth roster has only five Americans and the Lewiston squad but three.

Let’s bring the Memorial Cup to American soil!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

TARO SEZ...

■ A stray squirrel somehow got loose on the ice at HSBC Arena last week, and it took a while for arena staff to corral the poor creature, in the media interview room, no less. The high jinks were captured on video, and viewed by the arena crowd at game 2. Sabres Assistant Equipment Manager George Babcock was the guy who saved the day, and got a nice ovation when he was shown on the Jumbotron.

■ Coach’s Corner last Saturday, live from the 200 level at HSBC Arena. Didn’t Don Cherry look soooo fabulous dressed in lavender!

■ The Sens in Game 3 shut out the Sabres for the first time all season. Two thing of note: That’s the first time the Sabres had been shutout since Game 4 of last year’s Conference Final. Also the goalie who shut them out last season (Martin Gerber) was on the bench in Ottawa for this one.