Nothing to lose
Hasek, Sabres hope laughter is best medicine for bitter defeats
Posted: Sunday May 31, 1998 11:42 PM
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"We tried to have a little bit of fun," says Hasek (AP) |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dominik Hasek walked into practice Sunday
wearing a homemade-designed shirt with three words on the back:
"Kramer" and "Swiss cheese."
Kramer, a Seinfeld reference, was a nickname Hasek's Buffalo
Sabres teammates gave him last year. Hasek didn't appreciate it at
the time.
Swiss cheese, of course, was The World's Greatest Goaltender's
self-deprecating way of dealing with the two goals he allowed in
Saturday night's 2-0 loss to the Washington Capitals. The defeat
left the Sabres one game from elimination, down 3-1 in the
Eastern Conference finals with Game 5 in Washington on Tuesday.
"It's disappointing any time you lose. We tried to have a
little bit of fun," Hasek said. "The game is behind me. We're
down 3-1, but it doesn't mean everything is over. Tomorrow is going
to be more business, and Tuesday night is going to be just about
business. It's a must-win game."
Hasek and his teammates appeared loose during the workout,
playing on the theory that the pressure is now on Washington -- a
team that has blown three 3-1 series leads in 11 years -- to close
out the series. A few hundred miles to the south, however, the
Capitals went one better: They canceled practice altogether.
Peter Bondra was the only player to show at the team's training
facility in suburban Maryland. The 52-goal scorer had a relaxing
skate with his family before speaking to some of the 20 or so
disappointed fans who had expected to watch practice.
"It's going to take a lot of effort to finish the job," Bondra
said. "This is really big for the team and the players. We've
never been this far before. I've never been this far before."
The Capitals are one victory away from the franchise's first
Stanley Cup Finals appearance mainly because of goaltender Olaf
Kolzig, who has upstaged and outplayed Hasek after a shaky Game 1.
Kolzig's shutout in Game 4 was his fourth of the playoffs, tying a
league record. He has had seven shutouts since March 18 -- three
more than he had previously in his entire NHL career.
Were it not for Kolzig's performance, which is backed up by the
Capitals' stifling penalty-killing units, then perhaps Hasek
wouldn't be enduring the wrath of Buffalo radio hosts and newspaper
columnists over his Game 4 performance. Hasek allowed only two
goals, but his misplay of Joe Juneau's 70-footer late in the third
period looked like an all-time rookie mistake.
"You know, we don't score a goal and a 70-foot shot goes in, so
[the feeling is that] he's a bum," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said.
"That's from ground level on the bandwagon, back on the bandwagon
and back off again. He's carried us all year and throughout the
playoffs. It was a one-shot hockey game."
Also unshaken in their support for Hasek were the players,
including Matthew Barnaby, who had a very public feud with the
goalie last year.
"Dom got us to where we are," Barnaby said. "There's no
confidence we don't have in Dom. He let in a weak goal last night,
he knows it, and he was joking about it today. It's behind us. You
never know what Dominik can do in three straight games. I wouldn't
put anything past him."
That's exactly what concerns Bondra, who has been playing
against Hasek since he was teenager.
"He can always come back," Bondra said. "He can steal a game
or two or three. It's still not over yet."
But even if Hasek is perfect, the Sabres still can't win unless
they can get the puck in the net at least once. In addition to
Kolzig's solid play, Buffalo is just 2-for-22 this series against
the regular season's best penalty killers, a group so good that
Barnaby says some power plays don't even feel like power plays.
"They force you to make that quick pass, and a lot of times you
don't even have a chance to look," Barnaby said. "They're the
best penalty killer I've ever played against. ... We don't have
quite the clientele that they have on theirs."
Nevertheless, the Sabres refuse to sound like a beaten team.
"There's no question the pressure is off us," forward Dixon
Ward said. "Everybody has written us off and said we're done. We
came in with a really good attitude. We have a few wrinkles we'll
throw at them on Tuesday night and pull a few tricks out of the
trunk and see what happens."
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NHL Finals
