Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 24th 2006, 12:09pm By Dave Staba

Sunday and Monday might have been the greatest consecutive October days in the history of Buffalo hockey.

In Montreal, the Sabres won their ninth straight game, setting a franchise record and pulling within one victory of the National Hockey League standard of 10 in a row to start a season, set by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993-94. All they have to do is keep it up for another 73 games, and they,Aeoll be the NHL,Aeos first-ever unbeaten team.

And in Philadelphia, Bobby Clarke is finally unemployed.

In truth, Clarke,Aeos dismissal -- sorry, ,Aeuresignation,Aeu -- after two tenures totalling 19 years of misdirecting the Flyers might not be such a good thing for the Sabres in the long run. The most annoying center in the game's modern era, Clarke was just as irritating as an executive. Only he didn't have Dave Schultz to hide behind in the front office.

Year after year, Clarke built teams that looked perfectly suited to win the Stanley Cup.

If it were 1995.

But even during the Dark Ages, from the mid-'90s until the lockout, when clutching, grabbing and the trap dominated, Clarke,Aeos collections of old, slow big-name brontosaurs always came up short in net come playoff time. Garth Snow, anyone?

After the lockout and the resulting rule changes, Clarke refused to adapt, leaving themselves helpless against those who evolved. Like the Sabres.

The only surprising thing about his firing -- excuse me, "resignation" -- was that it came Monday, and not as is players were leaving the ice after getting eliminated by the Sabres in last year,Aeos playoffs.

As usual, Clarke had an alibi -- injuries. Forget that he'd loaded the roster with older players more prone to injury. Captaining those Stanley Cup winners in the mid-'70s apparently earned him a free lifetime pass with owner Ed Snider. At least until Sunday.

Fans can take some satisfaction in the Sabres' role in Clarke's, um, burnout. Last week's 9-1 demolition of the Flyers certainly didn,Aeot do much to boost his enthusiasm, or Snider,Aeos.

The Sabres didn't crush Montreal in the same fashion on Monday, but the win might have been more impressive. The Canadiens had only one loss coming in and the usual rabid home crowd, but the Sabres steadily built a 3-0 lead by the middle of the second period.

Montreal threatened a late rally when Mike Johnson scored at the 9:06 mark of the third and was controlling play when Alexei Kovalev took a dumb penalty with just under seven minutes left, his mid-ice hack killing whatever momentum the Canadiens had going.

Buffalo's reaction to Thomas Vanek,Aeos late tripping infraction demonstrated how a team wins nine straight.

Playing two men short for most of the penalty after Montreal pulled goalie Cristobal Huet and with the Bell Centre going berserk, the Sabres calmly killed it off. (As an aside, the fact that name of Montreal,Aeos home arena doesn,Aeot contain the word "Forum" is richly deserving of one of those decades-long curses.) Then, as Vanek emerged from the box, defenseman Dmitri Kalinin fed him perfectly for an empty-net goal and a 4-1 final.

Buffalo tries to tie the NHL record for consecutive wins at the start of a season on Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum against Ted Nolan's New York Islanders, who haven't lost in regulation at home.