Morning skate: Lydman in, Roy and Connolly OK

Lots of questions and only some are forthcoming at the morning skate for tonight's Sabres-Bruins game. Lindy Ruff said Thursday was a "maintenance" day for Derek Roy and Tim Connolly and didn't seem to think they would be out tonight, so we'll see if there's any news on that front when the Sabres hit the ice at 10 and meet the media afterwards.

UPDATE: Roy and Connolly are both on the ice in their regular spots. The lines are MacArthur-Roy-Pominville, Vanek-Connolly-Stafford, Hecht-Kennedy-Kaleta, Ellis-Gaustad-Mair. Mike Grier is also out skating lightly.

UPDATE II:  Toni Lydman will be back in the the lineup, skating with Steve Montador. Andrej Sekera and  Nathan Paetsch are the scratches on defense.

The bigger question surrounds the Bruins. They won in a shootout last night in Atlanta and are not expected to skate here this morning after making the late-night charter flight. So we may not find out until pregame warmups if Tim Thomas will be in goal or if Tuukka Rask will make this third straight start. Thomas is out with coach Claude Julien last night called a "minor undisclosed injury." Yeah, thanks for nothing there, Coach.

Marc Savard is expected to stay out one more game due to the broken foot that has kept him out the last 14. He's likely to play Monday in St. Louis. Savard, by the way, is on the verge of signing a seven-year contract extension that's in the $32 million range. Rugged winger Milan Lucic (finger) returned last night after missing 14 games but was hardly himself with just one hit in 14 minutes. Ex-Sabre Daniel Paille has two goals and four assists in 14 games since his trade to Boston last month.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Comments

[Jeff]

Definitely a little bigger than normal tonight. Lindy is probably thinking of going Lalime tomorrow, but he'll struggle to go through with that if they lose tonight.

[CalgarySabre2]

Huge weekend for the team. Two games against teams in our division, and we could see Ottawa pass us by the end of the weekend. So if we do not win tonight, then Lindy has to go with Miller again tomorrow. Much handwringing in Calgary as Flames lost 2 in a row at home and were absolutely demolished by the Hawks last night. Current resident of doghouse: Dion Phaneuf.

[dawn]

we need a win tonight...

[DG]

If I was Lindy I would sit Butler instead. He is not helping the team in his own end. He is slow to get to the puck when it is behind him (dumped in) and doesn't like getting hit and sacrificing his body. Also his outlet passes seem to end up along the boards or to the other team.

[TJ]

Aside from his rare brain cramp the other night in taking the late penalty, Kaleta has filled in admirably for Grier IMO. As much as I agree with Grier's value, Kaleta brings some more physical energy to the line with Kennedy than Grier does.

Huge sigh of relief to see Lydman return in place of Sekera - the turnovers were starting to reappear in Sekera's game recently and I don't trust him in close games.

[boos]

should be interesting to see how they react with the dogs nippin' at their heels...not sure i'd get too emotional one way or the other...this team's still growing with two rooks and a sophomore playing integral roles on the team and growing pains still evident

[Dave]

I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Lori]

I agree..we need Grier. I'm on edge about tonight, we don't need to drop two. This weekend will be a test and will show whether we fans are being overly optimistic. We've played great--a few clunkers aside, let's hope we bounce back tonight.

[Jeremyo]

The Sabres miss Grier. I hope he returns quickly. This weekend is a major test. If Buffalo wins both games they firmly establish themselves as the top dog in the division. If they lose they fall back to the pack.