About a dozen Sabres took part in an optional morning skate in preparation for tonight's game against the Ottawa Senators. Jason Pominville and Shaone Morrisonn, both on the road back from injuries, were among them. Morrisonn skated on his own beforehand and then stayed on the ice and joined the team for the first time since suffering his groin injury in the final three minutes of the Oct. 13 overtime loss to New Jersey.
"It's getting better every day so that's really positive," Morrisonn said. "I don't know if I caught a rut in the ice or what happened that night. But I felt that pop and I couldn't really move. It hurt to walk for a couple days but from a week ago, it's making great progress."
Struggling Brian Elliott is expected to be in goal here tonight for Ottawa. After winning 29 games for the Senators last season, he's 1-2 with an ugly 4.62 goals-against average and .863 save percentage this year.
Maybe seeing Buffalo will get Elliott back on his game as he's been an absolute Sabre-killer, going 8-0 against them with a 1.89 GAA and .937 save percentage.
Ryan Miller, meanwhile, will play for Buffalo. For the season, he's 2-3-1, 2.35 and .915. But, like his team, Miller has been much better of late.
Miller's first three starts: 1-2-0, 3.39, .880
Miller's last three starts: 1-1-1, 1.33, .951
With New Jersey's win last night in Montreal, the Senators (1-4-1) are last overall in the NHL with three points. And GM Bryan Murray has been threatening changes, even indicating he's spoken to Minnesota GM Chuck Fletcher about a possible deal.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
tagged
NHL | Sabres
