Sabres Classics: 1999 playoffs open with first-round sweep of Ottawa

Michael Peca has heard the refrain used to describe the Buffalo Sabres of the late '90s. You probably know the line: The Sabres were an OK team with a great goaltender.

Peca, who captained those teams, begs to differ.

"I've always pushed back on that because if you define what a great team is, it's a group of guys who are really focused on the same thing regardless of their own success or intentions," he said. "How many times have we seen the Rangers or the Leafs of the '90s or 2000s who signed all these free agents but weren't very good?

"We may not have had a lot of the high-end talent at all the positions like other teams, but I think the true thing that makes a great team which we had is we got along so well off the ice, sometimes more than we did on the ice. That is such a powerful thing for any team in any sport."

That team will be in the spotlight on MSG during the next two weeks as "Sabres Classics" focuses on select games from the 1999 run to the Stanley Cup Final. Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal against Ottawa airs Monday at 8 p.m.

The Sabres had been following a playoff progression entering the 1998-99 season, from making it to the second round in 1997 to then falling to Washington in the Eastern Conference Final in 1998. That latter run opened their eyes to their potential.

"It was like, 'Wow, we can play with the big dogs,'" Rob Ray wrote for Sabres.com.

With their eyes on the next step, the Sabres earned 91 points during the regular season to secure a fourth straight playoff berth. Hasek won his fifth Vezina Trophy as the league's top goaltender as the Sabres allowed 175 goals, second fewest in the NHL behind the Dallas Stars.

It all added up to a first-round date with the Ottawa Senators, who had won the Northeast Division with 103 points. They were led by a 25-year-old Alexei Yashin, whose 94 points ranked sixth in the league.

The Sabres had dispatched the Senators in the first round two years prior. The two teams tied in four of their five regular-season matchups in 1998-99.

"I didn't feel like we were intimidated by Ottawa at all," defenseman Jason Woolley said. "I don't remember how the season went, but I do remember that they had some big-time players. I felt we matched up well. But like every series, we felt like we outmatched them on the back end with the goaltending. All the time. So, I always felt like we had that Dominator edge."

It was Hasek who stole the show in Game 1, allowing just one goal despite facing 41 shots. The Sabres, meanwhile, only managed 15 shots but received goals from Michael Peca and Curtis Brown to earn a 2-1 victory.

The Sabres stormed back with a 39-shot effort in Game 2, a chippy contest that featured a combined 40 penalty minutes. Satan was the hero this time, scoring to erase a 2-1 deficit in the third period and then netting the winning goal midway through the second overtime period.

With the pressure now squarely on the Senators, the Sabres kept their foot on the pedal once the series turned back to Buffalo. Brian Holzinger scored twice while Hasek 31 saves to win Game 3, 3-0. They finished off the sweep with a 4-3 win in Game 4.

Yashin was held without a point in the series thanks in part to the shutdown efforts from the line of Peca, Varada, and Ward.

"We put a lot of pressure on each other to play the right way, to possess the puck, focus on offense because every great player hates playing defense," Peca said.

"… We believed in doing it as a group because we relied on each other to be the down-low guy in our zone if they were the first guy back, and that was a huge responsibility. But I think our main focus was to just literally outwork the other team, possess the puck, and just be physical."