The set-up: Everyone, and I mean, everyone knew that there was going to be an NHL lockout in 2004. I can remember listening to Jim Kelley on WNSA in 2001, and he would talk about how the sh#t was going to hit the fan when 2004 came. It was a total death knell that could be seen from a mile away. The NHL had so many financial problems that it made a Bernie Madoff trust fund look like a safer investment. First, you had all the Canadian teams, who couldn’t compete with the American dollar (Besides Toronto). Then you had large markets like NYC and Philly, who would didn’t care about the payroll, and would outspend the smaller market teams like Buffalo, by a 2-1 margin. It was a complete mess. Not only were the finances screwed, but so was the game on the ice. The Trap had suffocated the league and 2-1 hockey games were the norm. The league was in the shit#er.
What happened: The 2004/2005 NHL season never happened. The league and the players union couldn’t come up with a CBA deal to save the season. Some felt that the NHL knew all along that this was going to happen. They were prepared for this, because they knew it would be the only way their teams would survive. The worse part of the lockout was when reports came out that the league was coming back for like 30 games, but it was all a hoax, which to this day, I have no clue why it was leaked out.
Of course, hockey had to return, as there’s no way McDonalds would hire Gary Bettman to flip burgers. Now, here is how the end of the lockout affected the Sabres. First, the NHL came up with a revenue sharing plan and a salary cap system that was designed to help small market teams like Buffalo. I assure you, if there wasn’t any sort of revenue sharing plan, Tom Golisano would have returned the Sabres to the NHL.
Secondly, the NHL decided to rewrite the rule book. 2-line passes were a thing of the past and officials were going to call more penalties for obstruction. As for the Sabres on the ice, we all know the 05-07 season was a magical ride. The team clicked offensively and a lot of NHL teams didn’t adjust to the rule changes as well as the Sabres did. Stupid teams like the Flyers, were still trying to have big, physical players on the ice, while ignoring the speed aspect of the game. Other NHL teams were still trying to play the same style of defense prior to the lockout, and it just wasn’t going to work. If you were going to grab or clutch a player, you were going to the box.
I remember during the 05/06 season, media types were always talking about how Lindy and Darcy spent so much time in the AHL during the lockout year (AHL had already implemented the new changes), that it really helped them adjust to the changes in the NHL. All you had to do was look at the first round series against Philly to understand how much better the Sabres prepared for the post lockout than the Flyers. Philly was lost and couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, while the Sabres skated them out of the rink.
What if the lockout never happened? This can go in a couple of directions. Lets take the money matters. We all know that Tom Golisano was always about the bottom line. He didn’t care about winning. He only cared about making a sh#tload of money. If there isn’t a revenue sharing plan, I don’t think Golisano owns the team in 2006. Hell, I don’t think Golisano even buys the team in the first place. Remember, everyone knew that the NHL wanted revenue sharing and I’m sure upon the purchase of the team, Golisano was told that. Plus, if there wasn’t revenue sharing, teams like the Flyers and Rangers would have cornered the market on buying players.
Now, to the ice part. If you were to look at the rosters of the 03/04 Sabres (Which didn’t make the playoffs) and compare them to the 05/06 squad, personnel wise, they are kind of similar. The Sabres still had Drury, Briere, Dumont, Grier, Hecht, Max, Kotalik, McKee, Campbell, Hank and Roy. Now, the 05/06 season had the likes of #29, #26 and #30, but the 03/04 team still had Miro Satan (Who had 28 goals) and Alexei Zhitnik, who was arguably, the Sabres best defensemen. Again, I think the rule changes really helped this group take the next step in 2005.
If the rules were the same, do you think the same core would have been just one win away from getting to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006? I don’t know. Maybe the additions of #29, #26 and #30 are what put this team over the hump, but #81 and #44 weren’t slouches. OK, fans hated them, but they still played at a decent level. It’s just funny how a lot of guys stepped up their game after the rule changes. Briere/Drury became all-stars and Brian Campbell become a household name in Buffalo. If those guys don’t become household names, Buffalo doesn’t become such a huge hockey hotbed.
Now, it should be noted that the lockout forced the rule changes. The NHL had just endeared a PR nightmare with the lockout and they needed to find ways to make the game fun. They needed to put a jolt in the hockey world. If there isn’t a lockout, who knows if the NHL’s old ways of thinking, would have made the rule changes. I’m sure there was some resistance by the Don Cherrys of the world, but you can only imagine that Bettman said something along the lines of “We haven’t made a dollar in a year and our sport is dying. Lets try something new.” The NHL was desperate and they needed ways to breathe life into their sport. These sort of rule changes were always on the table prior to the lockout, but there would always be some old-school coalition, who would be against them. I think with the sport coming off a lockout, Bettman didn’t care what the old guard was thinking.
Just always remember how slow and dull hockey was before the lockout and how it changed afterwards. Those changes helped the Sabres become a Stanley Cup contending team from 05-07.
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