RAYZOR: 1998-99 Sabres were tight on and off the ice

Remember what we were called during the late nineties?

"The hardest working team in hockey."

It was true. Our team back then was just a group of hard-working guys who played a simple game and didn't try to do anything more. Yes, we had Dominik Hasek. And, yeah, we could count on Miro Satan to provide offense.

But, more than anything, we played tight. We frustrated teams when they crossed our blue line. Lindy Ruff laid out a clear, simple game plan and we followed it on a nightly basis. You'll see that as we go through the 1999 playoffs this week on "Sabres Classics."

We might have been the tightest team in hockey off the ice, too.

We had already been through so much together by the time we reached the 1998-99 season. We went from missing the playoffs in 1995-96 to losing to Philadelphia in the second round in 1996-97. We made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final in 1997-98.

During that last run, you heard people on the outside tossing around terms like "overachieved" and "lucky." Losing to Washington that year sucked. But it also brought us closer. It gave us a taste of what making a long run is all about, and we wanted more.

It was like, "Wow, we can play with the big dogs."

We were young and energetic and, after what had happened the year before, nobody wanted to let each other down. We got even better in March with the addition of Stu Barnes, who added a veteran leadership presence to the room and a calmness to any situation he was in on the ice. Stu wasn't the "rah-rah" type, but he forced guys to raise their games.

We opened the playoffs on the road against Ottawa. Dom was lights out in Game 1 and we were able to come away with a 2-1 win. In Game 2, Miro Satan tied the game late in the third period and then scored to win it in double overtime.

Going to Buffalo up 2-0, all the pressure was on the Senators. Our building was electric in those days. I think we just had that blue-collar style that people could relate to. They respected how we worked, and we could feel it. Our guys would run through a wall because we knew our fans appreciated it. We were young and dumb enough that it was like, "Let's just keep feeding the fire. This is fantastic."

Guys stepped up to finish that series off in four games: Brian Holzinger, Dixon Ward, Vaclav Varada. We carried that confidence right through the following series against Boston and into the rest of the playoffs. Everything came together. Our power play worked great after being mediocre all year. Penalty killing was fabulous.

And, most of all, we stuck to the plan. There was rarely ever a time when Lindy had to come into the room between periods and get us back on track. We worked hard, we played tight, and we frustrated the hell out of our opponents.