Buffalo Rising Online

May 8th 2007, 2:46pm By Dave Staba

One question remains from Buffalo’s six-game triumph over the New York Rangers:

On the Sabres’ final goal of the series, which provided the final margin in their 5-4 clincher, was Jochen Hecht really, really good or really, really lucky?

Try it for yourself. Stand with a hockey stick in your hands and your back to a goal, or your garage door with the borders of a goal mouth drawn on it, or better yet, your neighbor’s garage door with the borders of a goal mouth drawn on it. Then have someone throw hockey pucks at you -- preferably someone who likes you, and will aim them about waist high and slightly off to the side, rather than at the tempting target presented by your skull.

Try using that stick to redirect the flight of the puck so that it turns right at an abrupt angle and into the goal, or the garage-door facsimile thereof.

Of course, you’re not going to go to all that trouble and neither am I. But it looks as though it would be just about impossible to pull off intentionally, even if you have spent most of your life mastering your stick skills.

I didn’t catch Hecht explaining the goal and whether that's the way he planned it to the media after the game, but I’d like to think the exchange went something like Eric Idle’s interview of footballer Jimmy Buzzard, played by John Cleese, in an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus:

Interviewer: What I'm getting at, Jimmy, is you seem to have discovered a new concept with a mode in which you dissected the Italian defence, last night.

Buzzard: (pauses for thought) I hit the ball first time and there it was in the back of the net. (smiles and looks round)

Interviewer: Do you think Jarrow will adopt a more defensive posture for the first leg of the next tie in Turkey?

Buzzard: (confidently) I hit the ball first time and there it was in the back of the net.

Whether due to Hecht’s dexterity or good fortune, the goal capped a weekend featuring a pair of hockey games bursting with the drama and up-and-down action largely missing from Buffalo’s previous nine postseason contests, as discussed at length in this week’s Niagara Falls Reporter.

On Friday night, the Buffalo Sabres staged the greatest comeback, in terms of drama and what was at stake, in the franchise's history.

Sunday afternoon, they got what had been the National Hockey League's most prolific offense during the regular season going full-bore over an extended period for the first time in 11 playoff games, then held off the New York Rangers to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year.

Next up for Buffalo are the well-on-their-way-to-being-hated Ottawa Senators. But there’s still plenty of time before Thursday night’s opener to appreciate what the Sabres have already accomplished.

(Photo from the aftermath of Friday's game by Mark Dellas for Traffic East.)