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Sabres' Peca wants Stanley Cup

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Posted: Wednesday June 02, 1999 07:34 PM

There's a tradition in hockey that says the conference trophies don't mean anything, but Michael Peca, captain of the newly crowned 1999 Eastern Conference champions, took it to extremes for the Buffalo Sabres.

When NHL Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell came to center ice in Toronto to present the trophy to Peca, the Sabres captain refused to accept it.

He didn't make a big deal out of it. He posed for pictures with Campbell and even shook his hand, but he didn't pick up the trophy. Never even went near it.

"It's a conference final trophy,'' said Peca. "We want the Stanley Cup. It's the Stanley Cup that you work to touch and hold over your head and all that fun stuff. It feels really good inside to make a step up from last year and make it to the Stanley Cup final, but I'm sure everybody has been watching that other series very closely and there's a lot of work ahead of us."

You don't see a lot of players skate them around the rinks. In 1994, the year the New York Rangers went on to win the Cup, captain Mark Messier had to be cajoled by photographers just to pose for a picture with the thing.

Peca was acting after consultation with his coach and his teammates.

"I told him, 'Michael you guys did a helluva job and you deserve to go over there and take that trophy, but it's the big one that we want to carry around,'" said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

"Our goal was to win 16 games," said Sabres winger Dixon Ward. "We're three-quarters of the way there. We have four wins to go. Getting there isn't good enough. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup. If we don't we'll go through the summer thinking that we failed.''

Conference championship an achievement for Buffalo

While the team is pretty much focused on the next round, it's different for the city the Sabres represent.

In the long and oft-times sad history of playoff hockey in Buffalo, this is an achievement. Maybe it doesn't deserve a victory lap, but it is still worth savoring. This was a hard-fought win for the Sabres, and getting this far deserves some kind of an award of merit, a symbol of accomplishment. This was a victory that was earned with distinction. That it came at the expense of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the center of the hockey universe, makes it all the better.

I won't bore you with any Toronto bashing. Like the Sabres, they are a team that for much of the season worked hard to go further then anyone thought they might. Like the fans back in Buffalo, the people here also wanted desperately to have a trophy and a title they could call their own, a tangible confirmation that their effort was not in vain.

The Leafs proved to be worthy opponents throughout the series and they certainly gave their best in defeat. Yet when Erik Rasmussen lifted a backhander over the outstretched glove of Toronto goaltender Curtis Joseph midway through the third, it was as if 24 years of heartache, disappointment and plain bad luck were sent sailing into the net right along with it.

All those first-round losses, all those years when playoff success, heck, even the playoffs themselves, seemed to belong to hockey's other teams. They were finally in the past again.

No near misses, no wait until next year. The Buffalo Sabres actually won something. It will forever say so right there on the Prince of Wales Trophy.

For a city that has gone almost forever without much to cheer about in regards to its pro sports team, the Conference title is not just a consolation prize.

Sabres dominant when game on the line

Like so many times this playoff season when the game was on the line, the Sabres were the dominant team at the end.

"You could say it only went five games, but our team gave everything it had,'' said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff after closing out the Maple Leaves four games to one.

"In Games Three and Four in Buffalo, I asked them for everything they had. I asked them not to leave anything behind and they did that. It's why we didn't practice much or even go out and skate. I wanted them to give everything they had in the games and they did that. I didn't want them to leave it on the ice.''

In the coming days, Ruff will ask for even more. The Sabres haven't been to the Stanley Cup finals since 1994. Whether the opponent is Dallas or Colorado, the Sabres -- seventh seed in the East -- will be underdogs .

Short shots around the league

The New York Rangers are rumored to have slotted defenseman Stephane Quintal for their roster next season. Quintal was hoping to re-sign with the Montreal Canadiens for next season. The Canadiens have offered a four-year deal said to be worth $8.4 million, but Quintal didn't sign, preferring to test the free-agent market.

There's growing concern that Toronto will have a front-office shake up over the offseason. President and general manager Ken Dryden is said to be safe, but Dryden is rumored not to get along with assistant general manager Mike Smith. Smith has dropped big hints that he will be moving on if he doesn't get the general manager title and duties outright for next season.

Smith could be headed for Minnesota, where the expansion Wild will be gearing up to build a hockey department in time for the 2000-2001 season. Others are in the mix, but the betting is that Smith will leave Toronto unless he gets what he wants, even if it means going unemployed for awhile.

Those reports that Brian Sutter would return as coach of the Calgary Flames next season were premature. The club announced it was picking up the option on Sutter's contract, but Sutter has said there are matters that need to be discussed before he'll agree to coach again.

The big issue is money, but Sutter also wants some control over player personal decisions. Last season the Flames cut the heart out of the team's bid to make the playoffs by trading scoring star Theo Fleury before the trade deadline. Sutter was understanding of the move (Fleury would have walked as a totally free agent at the end of the season), but he wants a commitment from the cash-strapped franchise that they will have enough depth to be competitive.

The trade that sent Trevor Linden from the New York Islanders to the Montreal Canadiens was said to be a commitment to youth by the Islanders, but it's really a commitment to the bottom line.

Linden made $2.5 million last season and was scheduled to become a free agent at the end of next season. The Islanders could use his size, strength and experience, but because there is some confusion about the ownership situation there, the Islanders needed to cut the budget.

"We're facing a lot of tough decisions,'' said Islanders general manager Mike Milbury. "Yes there were financial considerations in our decision.''

The Canadiens are looking to retool in a hurry and feel Linden will give them strength up the middle, something they lacked last season.

The Islanders get a first-round draft pick in return, the 10th overall.

Jim Kelley covers the NHL -- and the Sabres -- for the Buffalo News. His notebook and rumor mill appear weekly on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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