Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Referees for the Buffalo Sabres Losing the 1999 Stanley Cup

Puck: In net. Foot: In crease. Rule: In place.

June 19, 1999, 20 years ago: The Dallas Stars win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Buffalo Sabres 2-1, in triple overtime, in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

At 14:51 over the 3rd overtime, Brett Hull, frustrated through years of not reaching the Finals with the St. Louis Blues, scored off a rebound over a sprawling Dominik Hasek. It ended the longest Cup-clinching game ever. Another 25 seconds, and it would have surpassed Game 1 of 1990 (Edmonton over Boston) as the longest Finals game ever.

The Sabres protested, citing the NHL rule of the time that a player could not be credited with a goal if any part of his body was within the goal crease. The replay showed that Hull's right foot was in the crease.

But the referees ruled that he had possession of the puck prior to entering the crease, making the goal legal and the Stars the World Champions.

Before the next season, the NHL changed the rule, allowing players to score from within the crease freely, as long as they did not interfere with the goaltender.

Sabres fans from Plattsburgh in the north to Binghamton in the south, from Albany in the east to Cleveland in the west, still say they got screwed. And, given that no major league team from Western New York has won a World Championship since the Syracuse Nationals were NBA Champions in 1955, they need all the correct calls they can get.

But did they get screwed?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Referees for the Buffalo Sabres Losing the 1999 Stanley Cup

5. The Rule. It was in place. Was it a bad rule? Yes. Was the change made for the next season worse? Yes. But does anybody who wants the Sabres to win have a case? No, not as the rule was written at the time.

Think about it this way. You know what kind of person the typical North Texan is when he talks about politics or the Dallas Cowboys. Now, imagine that the goal had been waved off. And that the Sabres had gone on to win Games 6 and 7 and take the Cup. We'd have spent the last 20 years hearing people from Texas calling the '99 Sabres the greatest cheats in the history of sports, and that the Stars deserved to win the Cup.

4. Dominik Hasek. Despite having one of the best regular seasons that any NHL goaltender has ever had, he wasn't nearly so good in the Finals. He had already allowed 12 goals in 22 periods, nearly 1 every 2. Had he stopped this shot, we wouldn't be talking about it now.

But even if the goal had been waved off...

3. The Stars Still Could Have Won the Game. Had the goal been waved off, the game would have gone on, and would still have been tied, and the Stars could still have won it.

2. Game 7. If the Sabres had won Game 6, then the series would have gone to a Game 7, it would have been played in Dallas, and the odds would still have been against the Sabres.

The Stars got back to the Finals the next year, against the New Jersey Devils, winning Game 5 in triple overtime at the Meadowlands, before the Devils won Game 6 in double overtime in Dallas. Moral of the story: If you want to beat the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals, do it before the game gets to triple overtime. (The Sabres did win Game 1 in the 1st overtime.)

1. The Stars Were Better. I don't like Texas, especially Dallas, and I despise their teams. I don't want to say a team from the State of Texas is better than a team from the State of New York, even if they are about 400 miles from both Midtown Manhattan and my Central Jersey nerve center.

But Brett Hull, Ed Belfour, Mike Modano and Joe Nieuwendyk are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Guy Carbonneau, Jere Lehtinen, Darryl Sydor and Derian Hatcher could be. (UPDATE: Carbonneau has been elected.) Only one '99 Sabre has made it: Dominik Hasek. Granted, the more talented team doesn't always win, and may not even deserve to win. But the Stars were, easily, the more talented team. And they did clinch on the road. There is something to be said for that.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Before the beginning of the play that ended with Hull's goal, the chances of the Sabres winning the Cup were already remote. Did they get screwed? Maybe. But would it have mattered in the end? Probably not.

There is an unusual postscript to this story. In 2002, Hull and Hasek would be teammates on the Detroit Red Wings, winning the Stanley Cup together.

Hasek would win another Cup with the Wings in 2008, giving him 2, as many as Hull -- and twice as many as Hull's father Bobby, who only won it with the 1961 Chicago Blackhawks.

For all the good any of that did the Sabres.