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The signs of spring, or our rendition of it, are everywhere--only gray, gravel-filled snow remains along crumbling streets, the off-green of Mount Trashmore is visible as you cross the North Grand Island Bridge and the pigeons are squawking a little more.
So it must be time for the real hockey season to start.
The Buffalo Sabres clinched their berth in the National Hockey League playoffs by pounding the undermanned, demoralized Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0, on Friday night. A year ago, Buffalo had to scramble for every point to reach the most intense tournament in professional team sports, but had little left against Philadelphia in the first round.
This time, the Flyers, Sabres and Penguins are battling for the fourth through sixth seeds in the Eastern Conference. But regardless of where they land in the bracket, Buffalo enters the postseason in a stronger position than at any time in the Dominik Hasek era.
The Sabres won a division title under Ted Nolan in 1997, but the late-season culmination of front-office intrigue involving Nolan, John Muckler and the thankfully departed Larry Quinn spun the team into chaos and a second-round defeat.
In each of the next two seasons, the Sabres snoozed down the stretch, then shocked the NHL in the playoffs, reaching the conference championship series and then the Stanley Cup Finals.
This team has more offensive firepower than the '98 and '99 versions, more veteran leadership and Hasek recalling his unbeatable peak.
As always, the last factor is the most important. Hasek's resurgence from some early inconsistent-for-him stretches led to questions about Hasek's age and effectiveness. Each soft goal over the first four months fueled calls to trade him.
So much for that thinking. Hasek posted three shutouts in five games, including the win against Atlanta, giving him an NHL-best 11 on the season.
Hasek's return to form, along with solid team defense and a balanced attack make the Sabres at least as dangerous as they were during their two recent long playoff runs.
And unlike '98 and '99, Buffalo doesn't need to flip the switch when the Stanley Cup tourney opens. These Sabres have played their best since the All-Star break 9-4 in February and 9-5 in March.
The most likely playoff permutations match Buffalo with Philadelphia in the first round. While the Flyers have been the Sabres' main nemesis since goalies wore those thin plastic masks, they'll be without Keith Primeau for at least the first part of the series.
The key to a Buffalo-Philadelphia series won't be Hasek, or the Sabres' swarm of quick forwards, which grew with the deadline acquisitions of Donald Audette and Steve Heinze. Instead, the Sabres' shot at getting by the Flyers depends on their power forwards--Chris Gratton, Eric Rasmussen and Vaclav Varada. Even without Primeau, Philadelphia holds a size advantage. The Flyers used that edge last year to smother the Sabres down low, negating the speed of Buffalo's forwards.
The Sabres have to put more pressure on this year's rookie Philly goalie, Roman Cechmanek, than they mustered against Brian Boucher last year. Hasek's Czech countryman supplanted Boucher this year. As of Sunday, he had a better goals-against average and save percentage than Hasek, and just one fewer shutout. But Cechmanek has never played in an NHL playoff game, much less out-dueled the likes of Hasek over a seven-game series.
Another uncertainty is how the Sabres will perform when it counts without Michael Peca. Their holdout captain could be counted on to neutralize any opponents' top offensive center in the five series Buffalo won in '98 and '99, and epitomized the team's overachieving image.
There's too much talent on the Sabres roster and they've been paying too well for too long to shock anyone this spring. But they'll have to show they can keep it going before anybody starts talking about playing into the summer.
Niagara University's men's hockey team reached the high point of the school's brief hockey history by reaching the NCAA Tournament last year. But a year later, the Purple Eagles are at a major crossroads.
Blaise MacDonald's candidacy for the coaching job at UMass-Lowell is no surprise--he was an assistant there early in his coaching career, a decade before he built the Purple Eagles' program from an idea into a success. And if he leaves, no one on Monteagle Ridge should be shocked, either. He was a finalist for the opening at UMass-Amherst following Niagara's College Hockey America championship and NCAA berth a year ago.
The future of Niagara's hockey program depends on MacDonald's reasons for leaving, if he does, and whether the school's administration strengthens its commitment to the sport without him. Since his arrival in 1996, he's battled for improvements to the program and its home arena--improvements promised by the college's administration. Despite the program's early success, the school still lacks the facilities to move into college hockey's big time.
UMass-Lowell, meanwhile, has a 6,496-seat facility that's newer and bigger than Niagara's Dwyer Arena, as well a spot in Hockey East, a more prestigious conference than the CHA.
Don't be surprised if MacDonald, a master tactician on and off the ice, parlays UMass-Lowell's interest into a raise and accelerated arena improvements. But if Niagara can't afford to keep him (UMass-Lowell does have the larger coffers of a bigger public school and a superior money-making building), the administration needs to assess the future of hockey at the school.
If Niagara's brass wants to reach the point where success doesn't price the architect out of the university's price range, it needs to stick to the plan MacDonald has laid out and fought for.