Sabres

Flyers: Philadelphia is 8-1-1 since starting the season 0-4-2.Islanders: New York has won one of its past six and has a league-low 24 goals.Penguins: Pittsburgh is winless in its past eight games (0-6-2) and is 0-3-2 at home.Sabres: Buffalo has won five of its past six games after starting the season 0-5-2.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Sports teams often receive a lift in games immediately following a coaching change. The Capitals' lift from replacing Terry Murray with Jim Schoenfeld lasted less than six minutes.Schoenfeld, hired only a few hours before the opening faceoff, watched his new team take a 1-0 lead in the early going. The Capitals then played like a team deserving of its fourth straight loss, losing, 7-2, to the Sabres last night.The Capitals had few moments where they played like they were trying to impress the new boss, but in fairness, a couple of other factors were involved in the defeat.

Some thought last season's strong start by Southwestern was a fluke. Others thought its performance against Dunbar late last season, in which it led for more than three quarters, was also a fluke.But yesterday, the Sabres took a big step in the maturing process of a competitive team.The No. 11 Sabres upset visiting and No. 3 Southern, 82-72, in the Maryland Scholastic Association Gamper Conference 3A-1A Division.Southwestern (4-1, 1-0) gained control of the game midway through the second quarter and led by as many as 16 points before a late three-point assault by the Bulldogs (3-3, 0-1)

Baltimore's boys basketball giant killers struck again yesterday.Unranked Southwestern defeated visiting Edmondson, 70-69, in a Maryland Scholastic Association interconference basketball game. It was Southwestern's third straight victory over a team ranked in The Baltimore Sun's top 20.Senior guard Haywood Eaddy led the Sabres with 13 points and six assists. Devo Weems came off the bench to add 11, and Wilbert Smith had 10. Eddie Rivers scored 21 and Randolph Edison 19 for Edmondson.Last weekend, Southwestern (3-1)

Tuesday, Southern played its first home game of the season in its gymnasium that has earned the nickname the "Dog Pound." In its second game yesterday, Southern was seeking to avenge a December loss to Southwestern.Southern was successful, with a 72-53 victory in a Maryland Scholastic Association Gamper Conference 4A-1A Division game. But also in the process, the Bulldogs sent a message to their division rivals."We're getting our respect back starting with today's game," said junior guard Damon Cason.

DALLAS -- Dominik Hasek should own Buffalo the way Michael Jordan owns Chicago. Or John Elway owns Denver. Or Troy Aikman owns Dallas.You would think he would never have to buy a dinner or a cocktail.You would think his face would be plastered on billboards throughout the blue-collar city of slightly more than 300,000 in western New York.But that's not the case.Hasek, considered the world's best goalie, is a complex, mercurial perfectionist who seems to have an antagonistic relationship with Buffalo Sabres fans and the media.

OK, there are a million ways to look at the deplorable behavior involving Hartford Whalers captain Pat Verbeek, star rookie Chris Pronger, Geoffrey Sanderson, Marc Potvin, Mark Janssens, Todd Harkins and two assistant coaches last week in Buffalo.For those who missed it, the Whalers were arrested after being involved in a barroom brawl at 3 a.m. Thursday when they refused to leave after last call.The players pleaded guilty to trespassing and were sentenced to 20 hours of community service after prosecutors agreed to drop other charges, which included disorderly conduct and obstructing justice.

Washington -- THE GREAT Depression was under way and Franklin Roosevelt was president. So a federal make-work agency called the Works Progress Administration came to the rescue of thousands of idle talented musicians by funding a score of symphony orchestras in cities throughout the land.One of the best of them was the Buffalo Philharmonic. Soon, however, the Philharmonic may be playing a final funeral dirge for itself. In recent years, federal, state and city subsidies have dried up, leaving the county government as its sole sugar daddy.

"When shall blood cease to flow in the mountain?" runs a local proverb. "When sugar canes grow in the snows" comes the answer.The mountains are the Caucasus, and the saying is Chechen. This is not a saying of recent vintage, though it has been invoked with prophetic foreboding ever since the Chechens declared their independence from the Russians in 1991. It was already ancient in the 1830s when the Caucasian Muslim leader, Shamyl, declaring that "the Caucasus must be freed," took up arms against the Imperial Russian expeditionary forces of Czar Nicholas I.A handsome and fearless warrior, Shamyl was known to his men as "the Lion of Daghestan."

The Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League have put together a group of investors "committed to bringing soccer back to Buffalo for the 1992-93 season."The Sabres will be the primary investor in the group, whose goal is to acquire a Major Soccer League indoor team or an American Professional Soccer League outdoor team."We want to give this new franchise every opportunity to succeed on and off the field," said Seymour H. Knox III, chairman of the board and president of the Sabres. "To do that, we think the necessary preparation will take more time than is available between now and October, when the next indoor season starts."