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The Buffalo Sabres are three months into the 2000-01 season. Forty-plus goal scorer Miroslav Satan's dry spell is threatening to turn Marine Midland Arena into a veritable dust bowl. One-time Selke candidate Curtis Brown has become an invisible man, and former Selke winner and team captain Michael Peca presumably is working as a shopping mall Santa as the organization shows no signs of caving to his $3.5 million salary demand.
De facto on-ice general Doug Gilmour's health is crumbling as he waffles about whether he's looking at retirement at the end of the season. And--as of this writing--the team's premier defensemen Jay McKee and Rhett Warrener are letting their brains descramble from late-November concussions.
And the Sabres still are only two wins away from first place in the Northeast Division. With so much going wrong, the Sabres still are managing to win games. This is the same team that hovered at .500 last season, squeaking into the playoffs before being quickly escorted out by the Eric Lindros-less Flyers. So have the Sabres finally managed to come together in the face of adversity and learn to win the games they should have lost? More importantly, can this team roll with the punches and make another run to the Stanley Cup finals?
We should have a pretty good idea by the end of this month.
Though he doesn't sport a staple in his navel, Dominik Hasek traditionally has been Mr. December. Though he sat out last December with his much-ballyhooed groin injury, Hasek was named NHL Player of the Month for December 1998 after going 9-2-1 with a 1.45 goals-against-average and a .954 save percentage with four shutouts. For the first two weeks of that month, Hasek was honored as the NHL's Player of the Week, becoming only the seventh player in NHL history to receive the honor in back-to-back weeks.
In December 1997, Dom's six shutouts tied an NHL record dating from 1929 for most shutouts in one month. Not so coincidentally, Hasek was named NHL Player of the Month for December 1997 as well.
In December 1996--the year Hasek became the first goaltender since Jacques Plante to capture the Hart Trophy for league MVP--Dominik recorded four shutouts over a 13-game stretch between Nov. 27 and Dec. 23. And in 1993, Hasek shared the designation of NHL Player of the Month for December with Grant Fuhr.
If Hasek can repeat his Yuletide heroics this month, the Sabres can head into the second half of the season at the top of the division, a crucial necessity to earn home-ice advantage in the not-so-distant playoffs.
After all, this is a team that went unbeaten at home in the first 12 games of the season. But is Hasek physically able to regain Hart form after injuries to his knee and groin, injuries that can drastically limit a twineminder's mobility?
"I feel great. I feel the best I've felt in the last two years," Hasek said after a recent practice at the Amherst Pepsi Center. "Because of the long off-season, my groin could heal. I feel great. My flexibility is the same as many years ago.
"You never know. In this game, anything can happen, but right now I'm feeling great, I'm healthy, and I feel I can play lots of hockey," he said. Defenseman Alexei Zhitnik said he's confident that Hasek still is able to perform at the at the previous-December's levels.
"(The) most important part (of the game) for any player is consistency, to play on a hard level," Zhitnik said. "We have to give him a lot of credit. He played for us really good. We missed the playoffs only once in the last six years. When you're a player, you know you have someone behind you who can save your ass and make great saves. ... When you play with him, you feel confident. You know what he's going to do. The more security you have."
Between the time this issue of the Niagara Falls Reporter hits the streets and New Year's Day, the Sabres will play eight games, including home games against division rivals Pittsburgh and Ottawa.
With sporadic scoring and without a captain, the Sabres' hopes lie with Hasek between the posts, and the next few weeks should provide a clue as to whether this team can climb onto "The Dominator's" shoulders for one final run for the Cup.