"It shouldn't have affected us," Sabres winger Dixon Ward said of the goal by defenseman Dan McGillis, "but it certainly seemed to pick up the Flyers."

There's a lesson here for the Sabres: Hasek has carried this team for years, and he can't do it any more. It's time to get him some help in the one additional season he promised his team. The Sabres are in desperate need of offensive players up front and on defense, and general manager Darcy Regier would be remiss in not addressing that problem immediately, rather than wait until the deadline next year.

Regier, to his credit, tried to kick-start the anemic offense with a pair of trades at the deadline. He acquired two playmaking centers, Doug Gilmour from Chicago and Chris Gratton from Tampa Bay. Neither provided much help in Buffalo's five-game postseason.

Gilmour was rendered ineffective by a virus that attacked his digestive system and weakened him so much, he rarely was elevated from the fourth line. He had one assist.

Gratton had just one assist, too, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the 6-foot-4, 220-pound floating forward is one of the most overrated players in hockey. At age 25, after seven NHL seasons, he remains a project. And this team has no time for projects as Hasek's watch draws to a close.

Daymond Lankow (right) and the Flyers scored five goals on Dominik Hasek in Thursday's game.(AP)

The Sabres remain an immature team that spends far too much time feeling sorry for itself when things go badly, like the "nothing-but-net" goal in Game 2 that forever turned the momentum of the series. In the end, the Sabres played like the No. 8 seed they were.

Blame Hasek if you must, but keep in mind Buffalo probably wouldn't even have made the tournament without him. He has been the world's best goaltender for almost his entire tenure in Buffalo, and the Sabres have taken advantage of him. Night after night, they look in his direction and expect him to carry them places this team has no business being -- like the Stanley Cup Finals last spring.

Now that he's showing he's human after all, the least Buffalo could do is get him some help in his farewell season.

Passing the torch

So who takes the mantle from Hasek as the world's best goaltender? The Florida Panthers nominate New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, who has regained the post-season touch that helped carry the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 1995.

Brodeur, who has started every New Jersey playoff game since 1994, was impenetrable in a four-game sweep of Florida.

"He was the best player on the ice. That's why they won," a dejected Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "We failed to score throughout the series."

After two years as a playoff wallflower, the Panthers made it their mission to make the playoffs this season, and they did. Still, Murray had a difficult time calling it a success after watching his team lose four in a row to the bigger, stronger, faster Devils.

"This is really hard, sitting up here and talking about being finished," Murray said. "It's really hard. It never even crossed my mind at the start of this series that this would be the scenario. It's disappointing. It's frustrating. We're a much better team than that."

Florida, in fact, contended for first overall in the Eastern Conference until the final few weeks of the season. Then they ran into Mr. Brodeur. His stats for the series: 4-0, just six goals allowed on 104 shots for a goals-against average of 1.50 and a save percentage of .942.

Slapshots

• Philadelphia will wear its third sweater -- black -- all through the playoffs on the road. The Flyers finished the regular season 12-3-1 dressed in their Doomsday motif. They are 25-14-7 lifetime during the regular season in the black sweaters.
• The Flyers' power play was 3-for-5 Thursday night and an incredible 9-for-28 for the series, which leads the NHL in the post-season with a 32.1 percent success rate. Not a great surprise, considering Philadelphia had one of the league's best power plays throughout the season.
• Another black eye for the City of Brotherly Love: Sabres coach Lindy Ruff sported a mouse near his left eye after he was hit by a plastic cup full of ice after the final horn sounded. Ruff handled it with dignity. "I've been hit harder," he said. "It's disappointing, but they're emotional here and they're great fans. One guys doesn't ruin it for 19,000 other fans."

The final word

"They made a decision and I'm telling you, as much as it is hard on me, I'm all for it. ... It sounds crazy for me to say I'm for it. It sounds phony. But it's not, because I've been there. I've done what Brian is doing now." -- John Vanbiesbrouck, who lost his No. 1 goaltending job in Philadelphia to rookie Brian Boucher in the playoffs.