The Sabres' practice in HSBC Arena opened today with the usual skating and stretching. Then the players headed to the wipe board on the glass like they always do to go over the day's agenda. But Lindy Ruff had other things in mind. What's normally a 60- or 90-second chat turned into a five-minute speech and it was clear drills weren't much on the coach's mind. Stick in hand, Ruff was waving his arms and banging it on the ice. Even banged the boards once. Let's see if his words have any impact when the Bruins hit town Tuesday night.
(By the way, don't look for film at 11 from Ruff's speech. Oddly enough, three local affiliate cameras walked in a few seconds after the meeting broke up. One was in the bench but not shooting. They all missed it).
As for practice, Steve Montador and Patrick Kaleta are missing. Montador was injured during a fight Saturday in Columbus. (Post-practice update: Ruff said Montador might take the morning skate Tuesday. The defenseman injured his hip just before the fight and not during the actual battle with Jared Boll).
No changes on the forward lines either. It's still Hecht-Connolly-Pominville, Vanek-Roy-Stafford, Grier-Kennedy-MacArthur and Mair-Gaustad-Ellis. D pairs are Myers-Tallinder, Butler-Rivet (who got back together for a good chunk of Saturday) and Lydman-Sekera.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
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Sabres | Sabres coaching
