As the league's MVP settled into the crease last Saturday night at Marine Midland Arena, the public-address announcer committed the unpardonable error of saying, "Starting in goal for the Buffalo Sabres, number 39, Dominik Hasek." Some things are better left unsaid. There was a smattering of applause at the mention of Hasek, but mostly there were boos. There were throaty boos and timid boos, 86-proof boos and sober boos, boos from the luxury suites and boos from the nosebleed seats. Buffalo fans' collective amnesia had seemingly wiped out all memory of Hasek's goaltending alchemy, which earned him the nickname the Dominator and helped transform the Sabres into one of the true spectacles in hockey last season. "We told Dom that his name had been changed to Lou," Buffalo right wing Rob Ray says, "that they weren't saying boo, but Lou. For a minute there, I think he believed us." Maybe Sabres fans have been braying loo, because Hasek's game, by his standards, has been in the toilet. When asked to assess Hasek's play, in an interview televised on the arena scoreboard alter the first period of Buffalo's 4-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Nov. 6, commentator Don Cherry replied, "Horse——." Following the Sabres' 3-2 loss last Saturday to the New Jersey Devils—a game in which he was caught in no-man's land on a Doug(Gilmour first-period breakaway tally—Hasek had a mediocre 3.39 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage. The latter stat, which tied him for 27th among the 35 goalies who had played in at least seven games by week's end, was more reminiscent of Jose Offerman's fielding percentage than of Hasek's league-leading numbers of the last four years. No Vezina Trophy winner of the past 15 seasons (Hasek has won the award in three of the last four) has experienced anything approaching this kind of slump the next season (box, page 48). Hasek is giving up more than one additional goal per game and his save percentage has dropped by .042. He can't stop a beachball, can't stop the rain, can't stop in the name of love and, most tellingly, can't stop the boos. The boos aren't just about his shaky goaltending. They are also a sign of alienation from the team, a cry not of the merely disappointed but of the truly disaffected. The Sabres won the Northeast Division in 1996-97 with a happily improbable season that included hard work, a load of fights and impeccable goaltending, but they—and Hasek—unraveled in the playoffs. He strained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, physically attacked a Buffalo News columnist who intimated that Hasek was having difficulty dealing with postseason pressure, was suspended by the NHL for three games for the incident and didn't play even after receiving medical clearance because of what doctors described as "residual pain." In May, John Muckler, the general manager, was fired. Ted Nolan, the NHL coach of the year, who was wildly popular with the Sabres and their fans, didn't return after being offered a paltry one-year contract. That offer came after Hasek remarked in June that "it would be better for me next season if [Nolan] were not here." Matthew Barnaby, the excitable Buffalo right wing and fierce Nolan loyalist, told The Hockey News magazine that he would run Hasek the first day of training camp, which would have been an even ruder welcome than the goalie receives from ticket holders these days. Barnaby, however, didn't follow through on his threat. When camp opened, the players held a team meeting to address the resentment toward Hasek, opting to hash out the problem rather than thrash each other. "When you say things, you have to suffer the consequences sometimes," Barnaby says of the booing Hasek has received. To counter the jeers during Hasek's introduction at Buffalo's home opener, a sound technician inserted a cassette of a cheering crowd. The Sabres, who at week's end were 5-10-4 and in last place in their division, haven't heard many cheers since then. In their first eight home games, attendance slipped by an average of 3,191 fans, to 13,721, and the mood was drearier than a Lake Erie winter. A member of the Buffalo marketing department dreamed up a moneymaking Stop of the Game promo—a great defensive play by one of the Sabres is broadcast on the scoreboard—sponsored by an auto-body and-glass business. Hasek earned the honor last Saturday with a split save on a three-on-one rush by the Devils, but for much of the season the Sabres had shown defensemen making good plays to avoid giving Hasek too much face time, which most likely would have subjected him to further abuse. Hasek has always been a marvel. He tends goal the way Kramer enters Seinfeld's apartment, a package of flailing arms and wild gesticulations that somehow has a perfect logic. But in the past six weeks it has become apparent that Hasek is even more of a freak of nature than originally thought: His auditory canal is connected directly to his glove hand; there can be no other explanation for his substandard play, especially in the first period. The Dallas Stars' Mike Modano scored on a breakaway 55 seconds into the home opener. The Montreal Canadiens' Vincent Damphousse scored 59 seconds into the Sabres' third home game. Hasek has been beaten within the first five minutes in five of his seven home starts. Fourteen of the 22 goals he has allowed at home have come in the first session, including three on nine shots on Nov. 10 against the Edmonton Oilers. That night coach Lindy Ruff replaced Hasek with Steve Shields, and the Sabres clawed back for a 4-4 tie. "[The early goals] are frustrating," the Czech-born Hasek says in halting English. "In the beginning I made jokes about it. You know, if I save the first four or five shots, I get a shutout. It's not funny anymore. I don't say no [about the connection between the early goals and the boos]. It's possible. But it's not an excuse. There's nothing pleasant about being booed. You have a better feeling when people are behind you, but there's nothing you can do about people's opinions."  
 
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