Sabres Finest Hour

[wonderbread]

I had not heard that, but I can believe it. The Sabres looked like a perfect example of a successful expansion team in the early 1970s... why they did not make it to the mountaintop remains such a puzzle to me.

Its all eddie shacks fault.

[Stoner]

I had not heard that, but I can believe it. The Sabres looked like a perfect example of a successful expansion team in the early 1970s... why they did not make it to the mountaintop remains such a puzzle to me.

 

Former Sabres beat writer Budd Bailey offers some interesting clues in his excellent history of the first 20 years of the franchise -- "The History of the Buffalo Sabres." It's out of print, which is too bad.

 

Anyway, in his account of the end of the 75-76 season, we read:

 

That Punch Imlach "blew up" when he learned some of the players played golf and tennis between games 3 and 4 on the Island.

 

A quote from Punch, after the series: "Hopefully the players now realize how hard they have to work. Maybe because they went so far so fast they didn't understand how hard they do have to work to win it all."

 

A quote from Danny Gare: "(The Islanders) did not want to lose. They had a hungrier attitude than our team at the time. I still felt we weren't aggressive enough then to beat out teams like that. We never won too many games in other teams' buildings when we had to."

 

A quote from Craig Ramsay on how the hot start to the 75-76 season dissipated: "Teams started to catch up with us. They started to find ways to shut down our offense. They did it through some attempts at intimidation. Toughness was becoming a very big factor in the NHL."

 

76-77 starts with a discussion of how Imlach made only one significant change after the disappointment of the 76 playoffs, and that was with a "proverbial gun to his head." Next chapter, Gare talks about how the one knock on Imlach was how loyal he was to his players, how he hung onto them too long. Imlach himself is said to have admitted the team needed a major shakeup, but he never could pull the trigger. Bailey relates that a chapter in Imlach's book, years later, was titled, "I should have traded Schoenfeld."

 

The beginning of the 77-78 chapter just about said it all: "If you liked the 76-77 season, you liked the 77-78 season."

 

It all sounds really familiar.

[Bullwinkle]

I remember that game very well...I had season tickets but decided not to go to that game - don't recall why, always sorry I didn't - like I didn't attend the All Star Game either.

 

Yes, those days were magical. If you weren't there, it's impossible to know the atmosphere the Old Aud had - and how much of it is missing at the HSBC Arena, if nothing than because it's 4x the size and the seats are miles away from the ice.. I have never experienced that much excitement in my life - and I'm an old fart!

 

Thanks for that video.

[Overeducated Homer]

Excellent research, and so very painfully familiar. Imlach built a good team, but was unable to make the changes necessary to create a championship team. The big irony was that the team had a rep for being high-scoring, but was actually pretty easy to shut down in the playoffs once the Flyers showed teams how. I was and am a huge Perrault fan, but he could be almost Satan-esque in playoff series.

 

That sense that the team was too finesse-oriented also led to big misfires, such as drafting Ric Seiling in the first round over Mike Bossy in 1978....

 

It still hurts.

 

 

 

Former Sabres beat writer Budd Bailey offers some interesting clues in his excellent history of the first 20 years of the franchise -- "The History of the Buffalo Sabres." It's out of print, which is too bad.

 

Anyway, in his account of the end of the 75-76 season, we read:

 

That Punch Imlach "blew up" when he learned some of the players played golf and tennis between games 3 and 4 on the Island.

 

A quote from Punch, after the series: "Hopefully the players now realize how hard they have to work. Maybe because they went so far so fast they didn't understand how hard they do have to work to win it all."

 

A quote from Danny Gare: "(The Islanders) did not want to lose. They had a hungrier attitude than our team at the time. I still felt we weren't aggressive enough then to beat out teams like that. We never won too many games in other teams' buildings when we had to."

 

A quote from Craig Ramsay on how the hot start to the 75-76 season dissipated: "Teams started to catch up with us. They started to find ways to shut down our offense. They did it through some attempts at intimidation. Toughness was becoming a very big factor in the NHL."

 

76-77 starts with a discussion of how Imlach made only one significant change after the disappointment of the 76 playoffs, and that was with a "proverbial gun to his head." Next chapter, Gare talks about how the one knock on Imlach was how loyal he was to his players, how he hung onto them too long. Imlach himself is said to have admitted the team needed a major shakeup, but he never could pull the trigger. Bailey relates that a chapter in Imlach's book, years later, was titled, "I should have traded Schoenfeld."

 

The beginning of the 77-78 chapter just about said it all: "If you liked the 76-77 season, you liked the 77-78 season."

 

It all sounds really familiar.

[deluca67]

I can't help but watch old clips like that and just be amazed at just how bad the goaltending was.

[Stoner]

I can't help but watch old clips like that and just be amazed at just how bad the goaltending was.

 

haha Yeah me too.

[darksabre]

I can't help but watch old clips like that and just be amazed at just how bad the goaltending was.

 

I think that's the thing that I really enjoy about watching classic games. The complete lack of positional technique makes me wonder how it was ever possible for these guys to make saves. I think it really speaks for just how good you had to be athletically and how good your hand eye coordination had to be. Most goaltenders now can rely on taking away the angles and playing a positional game but the old timers didn't have that. It was ALL reflexes.

 

I wish we could see how someone like Jaques Plante or Ken Dryden would fare against players like Ovechkin and Crosby with all the new technology there is in sticks and how fast and precise players have gotten.

[deluca67]

I think that's the thing that I really enjoy about watching classic games. The complete lack of positional technique makes me wonder how it was ever possible for these guys to make saves. I think it really speaks for just how good you had to be athletically and how good your hand eye coordination had to be. Most goaltenders now can rely on taking away the angles and playing a positional game but the old timers didn't have that. It was ALL reflexes.

 

I wish we could see how someone like Jaques Plante or Ken Dryden would fare against players like Ovechkin and Crosby with all the new technology there is in sticks and how fast and precise players have gotten.

They would get destroyed. They wouldn't make it on a junior team today. In reverse a goalie like Lalime would be a All-Star/HOF goalie back in the 70's.

[shrader]

They would get destroyed. They wouldn't make it on a junior team today. In reverse a goalie like Lalime would be a All-Star/HOF goalie back in the 70's.

 

But at the same time, what if the guys of those days had access to all the training and equipment from the game today?

[wonderbread]

But at the same time, what if the guys of those days had access to all the training and equipment from the game today?

 

 

My head is starting to spin...

[deluca67]

But at the same time, what if the guys of those days had access to all the training and equipment from the game today?

It doesn't automatically mean that their skill sets would be improved to the equivalent of today's goaltenders. From the clips I have seen from games in the 70's I have yet to see any goaltender with enough basic skills to compete today.

[shrader]

It doesn't automatically mean that their skill sets would be improved to the equivalent of today's goaltenders. From the clips I have seen from games in the 70's I have yet to see any goaltender with enough basic skills to compete today.

 

It's an impossible comparison to make. There are just way too many differences that can never be accounted for. People love to have those "which player" is better debate, but there is no answer to that question.

[Marvelo]

Excellent research, and so very painfully familiar. Imlach built a good team, but was unable to make the changes necessary to create a championship team. The big irony was that the team had a rep for being high-scoring, but was actually pretty easy to shut down in the playoffs once the Flyers showed teams how. I was and am a huge Perrault fan, but he could be almost Satan-esque in playoff series.

 

That sense that the team was too finesse-oriented also led to big misfires, such as drafting Ric Seiling in the first round over Mike Bossy in 1978....

 

It still hurts.

 

If only Buffalo had hung onto Fred Shero.

[Stoner]

If only Buffalo had hung onto Fred Shero.

 

Or gone after his son. :censored:

[nfreeman]

Or gone after his son. :censored:

Because it took so much GM acumen to draft Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury?

[Stoner]

Because it took so much GM acumen to draft Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury?

 

It took some. And it took a lot to build around that talent, manage the cap and change the coach a few months before winning the Cup.

 

Come on... you really wouldn't trade Darcy for Ray?

[nfreeman]

It took some. And it took a lot to build around that talent, manage the cap and change the coach a few months before winning the Cup.

 

Come on... you really wouldn't trade Darcy for Ray?

No. Ray's done a good job with the amazing bounty he's been given, but not an great job. He hasn't found a good linemate yet for Crosby and they pretty much wasted last year. He also hasn't put together a team, as Darcy has done twice, that is a Cup contender without having any Crosby/Malkin - level talents.

[Stoner]

No. Ray's done a good job with the amazing bounty he's been given, but not an great job. He hasn't found a good linemate yet for Crosby and they pretty much wasted last year. He also hasn't put together a team, as Darcy has done twice, that is a Cup contender without having any Crosby/Malkin - level talents.

 

Maliferous.

[shrader]

Because it took so much GM acumen to draft Crosby, Malkin, Staal and Fleury?

 

Actually, Staal is the only one he drafted. Craig Patrick picked the other three.