EASTERN QUARTER-FINALS
GAME DAY PREVIEWS
GAME 1:
#1 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS vs #8 BUFFALO SABRES
Series tied 0-0
Game time: Thursday April 13th, 2000 7pm at Philadelphia
The Buffalo Sabres' road to a possible second straight trip to the Stanley Cup Finals begins Thursday night as they visit a Philadelphia Flyers squad that endured lots of turmoil this season. Philadelphia ignored weekly distractions that would have derailed most teams and overcame a 15-point deficit in the final two months of the season to capture the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Philadelphia's reward is a first-round playoff matchup with Buffalo and a revitalized Dominik Hasek, who only two years ago left the Flyers shaking their heads after eliminating them in five games in the East quarterfinals.
In February, Flyers coach Roger Neilson left the team to undergo a stem cell transplant for treatment of bone marrow cancer. He is hoping to return to the bench during the playoffs.
In mid-March, Philadelphia lost All-Star center Eric Lindros after he suffered his fourth concussion in just over a year. Two weeks later, after Lindros criticized team physicians for misdiagnosing his latest ailment, he was permanently stripped of his captaincy.
Despite the turmoil, the Flyers went 17-8-1 to end the season and passed the floundering New Jersey Devils for the top seed in the East.
The Sabres had to go 7-2-1 in their final 10 games simply to secure the conference's final postseason spot. But they are as much an eighth seed as the New York Knicks were in last year's NBA playoffs.
After missing 41 games with an abdominal injury, Hasek returned in February but did not play his best hockey until the final 10 games. In between, Buffalo acquired centers Chris Gratton and Doug Gilmour at the NHL trade deadline, making the Sabres even more dangerous than they were during last year's improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals. Gilmour has been weakened by a battle with the flu that kept him out of the lineup for the final two games of the season.
All-Star left wing Miroslav Satan was unable to duplicate last season's 40-goal effort, but scored 33 to lead the team. Veteran Stu Barnes gave Buffalo five players with at least 20 goals. Captain Michael Peca is Buffalo's emotional leader and a key contributor at both ends of the rink.
The Sabres lost three of four meetings with Philadelphia during the season, but that was without Hasek, who allowed nine goals in five games the last time he faced the Flyers in the playoffs in 1998.
There are a few new faces in the Philadelphia lineup since then. Most prominent among them are All-Star right wing Mark Recchi and centers Keith Primeau and Daymond Langkow.
Finally healthy again, Recchi led the NHL with 63 assists and was third with 91 points. A protracted holdout and assorted injuries limited Primeau to 17 points in 23 games, but he combines with left wing John LeClair to give interim coach Craig Ramsay two big bodies to throw in front of Hasek. Langkow recorded career highs with 18 goals and 32 assists.
While goaltending is a strength for Buffalo, it is again a question mark for the Flyers. Rookie Brian Boucher is expected to get his first career playoff start -- ahead of veteran John Vanbiesbrouck.
Boucher led the league with a 1.91 GAA and was fourth with a .918 save percentage but has all of 35 regular-season games under his belt.
If goaltending is not a deciding factor in this series, special teams will be. The Flyers have the NHL's second-best power-play unit at 20.3 percent, while Buffalo struggled all season and finished last at 10.5 percent. In four regular-season meetings with the Sabres, Philadelphia was 6-for-24. In the last six road games against the Flyers, Buffalo is 1-for-19.
Game 2 is back here at the First Union Center on Friday.
#2 WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs #7 PITTSBURGH PENQUINS
Series tied 0-0
Game time: Thursday April 13th, 2000 7:30pm at Washington
The NHL's best team over the last four months of the season faces the league's best player as the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins renew their seemingly annual playoff rivalry. The Capitals and Penguins met in the postseason five times in the 1990s, with Pittsburgh winning four of those series. But the Penguins, even with Jaromir Jagr capturing his third straight Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring leader, are distinct underdogs in this meeting.
Jagr also is the reigning Hart Trophy winner but the hardware he really wants is another Stanley Cup. Jagr's health was the Penguins' more immediate concern as he described himself at 60 or 70 percent down the stretch following a nagging thigh injury. Without him, Pittsburgh could be looking at its third first-round playoff exit in four years.
Even with Jagr at 100 percent, the Penguins face a formidable task. After missing the playoffs last season and again stumbling out of the gate, the Capitals went 32-10-7 after Christmas and nearly secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Goaltender Olaf Kolzig regained the form that helped lead Washington to the Stanley Cup Finals just two years ago, finishing third in the league with 41 wins, fifth with a .917 save percentage and fourth with five shutouts.
Coach Ron Wilson also deserves credit for the turnaround, coaxing a career-best 29 goals from Chris Simon, who got eight more than injury-plagued sniper Peter Bondra. Largely responsible for Simon's stunning success was Adam Oates, the team captain who was second in the league with 56 assists.
Left wing Steve Konowalchuk is a tenacious checker who played all 82 games for the first time in his career. Rookie Jeff Halpern was a surprise with 18 goals, including four shorthanded tallies, and right wings Ulf Dahlen and Joe Murphy were this season's reclamation projects for Wilson.
Defenseman Calle Johansson is a veteran of all five playoff matchups with Pittsburgh, while Sergei Gonchar was sixth in scoring among NHL defensemen with 18 goals and 36 assists.
A scheduling conflict at Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena forced the NHL to alter the format of this series. The opener is Friday at the MCI Center before the Penguins host the next two contests. The scene shifts back to Washington for Games Four and Five before alternating over the final two contests.
At 26-7-8, the Caps had the best home record in hockey. They were an impressive 19-3-4 at the MCI Center over the final four months, but one of those losses was a 4-3 overtime decision on March 30 that helped Pittsburgh secure a playoff berth.
The Penguins were five games under .500 before general manager Craig Patrick made a series of bold moves at the March 14 trade deadline. He shipped Tom Barrasso, the winningest goalie in team history, to Ottawa for goalie Ron Tugnutt and defenseman Janne Laukkanen. Patrick also landed center Josef Beranek from Edmonton, left wing Rene Corbet from Calgary and defenseman Dan Trebil from Anaheim.
The Penguins responded, winning nine of 13 games after the roster shuffle to nail down the seventh seed in the East. Jagr returned from his injury and had five goals and six assists over the final 11 games.
More importantly, during the same stretch, right wing Alexei Kovalev had six goals and assists, center Martin Straka contributed five goals and six assists and center Robert Lang added three goals and nine assists. Those are the kind of efforts those players produced last year, when Pittsburgh upset top-seeded New Jersey in the opening round.
Tugnutt should see most of the action in this series after Jean-Sebastien Aubin went down with a sprained ankle. A former Capitals' farmhand, Tugnutt is a remarkable 8-2 with a 1.38 goals-against average against Washington over the last four seasons.
The midseason acquisition of pugnacious Bob Boughner provides the Penguins' defense with another physical presence alongside Darius Kasparaitis.
Pittsburgh won three of four meetings with Washington this season.
#3 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #6 OTTAWA SENATORS
Series tied 0-0
Game time: Wednesday April 12th, 2000 7pm at Toronto
The potentially-explosive "Battle of Ontario" kicks off tonight as the Toronto Maple Leafs host the Ottawa Senators in Game One of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
Toronto is coming off the first 100-point season in its storied history and has reached the conference finals in three of its last five playoff appearances. However, the Maple Leafs have lost 11 of their last 12 postseason games against other teams from Canada.
Ottawa has lost three of four playoff series in team history, only upsetting top-seeded New Jersey in the 1998 Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
The bad blood between the Senators and Leafs is sure to surface as this series evolves. But the seeds of a spirited matchup already began during the regular season.
It was an inadvertent high stick by Ottawa right wing Marian Hossa on March 11 that cost Maple Leafs defenseman Bryan Berard the sight in his right eye. Five months earlier, a shot from Senators center Radek Bonk broke the ankle of Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin. Also, Ottawa goaltender Tom Barrasso was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in December when he slashed Yanic Perreault, breaking the left forearm of the Leafs center.
If Toronto defenseman Danny Markov returns following a foot injury, Berard will be the only regular missing from the lineup. The Senators, however, may be without top defenseman Wade Redden (foot) and leading goal-scorer Shawn McEachern (thumb).
Filling in for missing players is nothing new for Ottawa coach Jacques Martin, who guided his team back to the playoffs despite All-Star Alexei Yashin's potentially devastating holdout. In Yashin's absence, the Senators had a team-record five players with at least 50 points. Bonk led the way with 23 goals and 37 assists while serving as a top checking center. His line, with left wing Rob Zamuner and right wing Hossa, should be matched up with Toronto's top unit centered by Sundin.
Hossa matched McEachern's total with 29 goals, although he proved to be a streaky scorer.
In case Redden is unable to go, Ottawa recalled John Gruden from the IHL. But most of the playing time on defense will go to the likes of Igor Kravchuk, Jason York and Sami Salo.
The Senators took a big gamble at the March 14 trade deadline when they acquired Barrasso from Pittsburgh. He was 3-4 with a dismal .879 save percentage in seven games with Ottawa. While Barrasso backstopped the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in the early 1990s, he's won just one playoff series in the last three years.
Goaltending is a strength for the Maple Leafs, who boast proven playoff performer Curtis Joseph between the pipes. He again was Toronto's most valuable player, finishing fourth in the league with 36 wins while recording a 2.49 goals-against average and .915 save percentage.
Sundin is the Leafs' offensive leader with 32 goals and 41 assists in 73 games. Jonas Hoglund had a career season with 29 goals and nine of Steve Thomas' 26 tallies were game-winners. Sergei Berezin pitched in 26 goals, while hard-hitting center Darcy Tucker may prove to be one of the better trade deadline acquisitions after coming over from last-place Tampa Bay.
The teams' specialty units are virtual opposites. Toronto was sixth on the power play at 17.8 percent, while the Senators ranked 12th at 16.8. But the Maple Leafs were a dismal 20th in penalty-killing, a category in which Ottawa ranked third. In five regular-season meetings, Toronto was 2-for-13 with the extra man, while the Senators went 4-for-18.
Ottawa took the season series from Toronto for the second time in three season, taking this year's 3-1-1. Bonk lead the Senators with three goals and six points in the five games and Perreault paced the Leafs with the same amount.
#4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS vs #5 FLORIDA PANTHERS
Series tied 0-0
Game time: Thursday April 13th, 2000 7:30pm at New Jersey
The New Jersey Devils hope their dismal finish to the regular season does not result in a third straight playoff disappointment as they host the Florida Panthers tonight in Game One of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
After spending most of the season at the top of the East, the Devils floundered down the stretch and went 9-14-2 since mid-February, which resulted in the firing of coach Robbie Ftorek. His successor, Larry Robinson, voiced concern over his team's conditioning as New Jersey nearly squandered home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
The Devils hope they sent a message by defeating Florida in overtime in their regular-season finale Saturday on Jason Arnott's slap shot past Mike Vernon.
New Jersey has won just one playoff series since capturing the Stanley Cup in 1995. As the top seed in the East, the Devils were knocked out in the opening round each of the past two seasons.
New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur led the NHL with 43 wins but only Olaf Kolzig and Arturs Irbe logged more minutes in the nets.
Up front, the Devils got nearly one-third of their goals from the line of Patrik Elias, Petr Sykora and Arnott. With 35 goals, Elias became the first New Jersey player to net more than 30 in six years. He also was among the league leaders with nine game-winners. Rookie Scott Gomez is the favorite for the Calder Trophy after totaling 19 goals and 51 assists.
The Devils surprised many by adding right wing Alexander Mogilny at the trade deadline, and he finished with 24 goals. Early in the season, New Jersey raised even more eyebrows by re-acquiring right wing Claude Lemieux from Colorado. Lemieux scored only 20 goals, but general manager Lou Lamoriello is hoping he lights a fire under the Devils.
New Jersey starts the series without puck-carrying defenseman Scott Niedermayer, who is serving the final game of a 10-game suspension for chopping Florida's Peter Worrell over the head on March 19. The teams met twice in April without incident, but Panthers right wing Mark Parrish said "it would have been more of a street fight and a bloodbath" if the game was played at midseason.
If the series does become a "street fight," Florida is well-equipped. Defensemen Todd Simpson and Paul Laus combined for 374 penalty minutes, while Worrell finished with 169. Simpson, Laus and Lance Pitlick provide physical play on defense, where Robert Svehla and Jaroslav Spacek handle the puck-carrying chores.
All talk about Florida starts with Pavel Bure. The "Russian Rocket" won the Maurice Richard Trophy after leading the league with 58 goals, 14 more than his closest competitor. He had three goals in four games against New Jersey during the season and his speed presents a problem for the Devils' aging defense.
Left wing Ray Whitney had 29 goals, Parrish 26 and Mike Sillinger, who came over from Tampa Bay at the trade deadline, contributed a career-best 23. All-Star center Viktor Kozlov tied for fourth in the NHL with 53 assists, but the Panthers' production tails off dramatically.
Vernon is expected to get the start in goal in Thursday's opener, although Panthers coach Terry Murray has a history of switching netminders in the playoffs and Trevor Kidd is a more than capable backup.
Special teams are always big in the playoffs and the Devils boast among the best in the NHL. They were third on the power play at 20.1 percent and tied for third in penalty-killing at 87.5 percent. Florida ranked eighth and 11th, respectively.
New Jersey went 3-1 against Florida this season and will host Game Two here on Sunday.