Quickies from the Sabres-Penguins warmup:
---Something happened just as the Sabres took the ice. It's believed that a strobe light from the ceiling crashed to the ice and shattered just inside the Buffalo blueline. The house lights are at half, remember, when fans enter the building and immediately go to full when the players take the ice for warmups.
Glass was swept off the ice and some players left and returned to the locker room. Lindy Ruff came out and had a discussion with Jason Pominville, at which point Ryan Miller left the net and stopped facing shots, instead moving to center ice to do some light stretching. The Penguins' warmup at the zamboni end went on unaffected. Light crashing down kind of a metaphor for the season, isn't it?
UPDATE: The Sabres got an extra five minutes of warmup at the zamboni end after the penguins left.
---It will be Miller against Pittsburgh backup Brent Johnson after Marc-Andre Fleury, who is 11-4-2 in his career against Buffalo, played yesterday in Philadelphia.
---Evgeni Malkin leads the league in scoring with 70 points and had five in the Sabres' 8-3 loss Dec. 17 in Pittsburgh. Get this: Malkin has 29 points in 12 games this year against the Northeast Division.
---The Penguins announced this morning that winger James Neal, enjoying a breakout year with 30 goals, has signed a six-year, $30 million contract extension. The Sabres are paying Ville Leino $4.5 million. Just sayin.
Join me at 12:30 for our game blog.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
