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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)

Price was right for Habs

If you didn't see the end of Tuesday's Habs-Hurricanes shootout in Montreal, spend two minutes before tonight's Sabres game watching this. Both teams went scoreless through five rounds before Montreal's Maxim Lapierre beat Manny Legace top shelf. Fair enough. But watch how Carey Price wins it -- with an unbelieveable pad save off Matt Cullen that ends with the puck tantalizingly close to the goal line.

(And the screaming French adds to the video too!)

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Road record is safe

One of the Sabres' most recent nuggets of NHL history will stay on the books as the New Jersey Devils lost Monday night in Philadelphia, 3-2. That ended the Devils' string of road victories to start the season at nine -- one shy of the Sabres' mark of 10 in a row that opened the 2006-07 season. Once in a while, folks in Buffalo actually have something to thank the Flyers for.

Never like to pump Versus but the network had that one Monday will have another big one Tuesday when Alexander Ovechkin likely makes his return for the Capitals in Madison Square Garden against the Rangers.

---Mike Harrington

Miller honored; Stafford, Lydman getting close

Ryan Miller was named the NHL's Third Star of the week today after winning all three games in goal for the Sabres, including the spine-tinglers Friday and Saturday against Calgary and Philadelphia. He gave up just four goals in the three games, also beating Edmonton on Wednesday.

Miller leads the league in wins (12), goals-against average (1.77) and save percentage (.939) in what's easily starting off as the best season of his career. Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk were stars 1-2.

The Sabres practiced for about 50 minutes today in HSBC Arena. Drew Stafford and Toni Lydman both were basically at full strength with Lindy Ruff said he's expecting to play Stafford here Wednesday against Florida. Lydman also should be ready but that will necessitate a decision on defense.

Mike Grier skated on his own and is still a few games away with his groin injury. Tyler Ennis was returned to Portland after scoring Saturday in his NHL debut.

The Sabres did a little cross-ice 3-on-3 at the end of practice. Players committing giveaways were sentenced to 10 pushups, although some apparently protested they had done calisthenics before practice. Ruff joked that he caught Tim Kennedy not doing the full 10 after one giveaway.

"I caught him cheating. South Buffalo math is different," Ruff cracked. "I'd like to meet his math teacher. Ten minus seven is three and that was the number we were missing on that last pile of pushups."

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

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So long, Spectrum

PHILADELPHIA -- After heading into the lot at Citizens Bank Park for tonight's World Series game, I snapped this shot of the old Spectrum next door (left). The final event in the 42-year-old building is tonight, a concert from Pearl Jam. After that, the former home of the Flyers and 76ers -- and the Sabres' former house of horrors from their early seasons -- is getting demolished for a series of shops and restaurants that's been dubbed Philly Live.

Comcast Spectator, the building's owners, has a fabulous Web site at Rememberthespectrum.com. It includes all kinds of trivia, notes, photos and the like. Worth a look. There was also a "Final Stroll" through the Spectrum last week for fans.  The Sabres, you may recall, didn't win a single game in the building until November of 1976, their seventh season in the league. They lost all three games of the 1975 Stanley Cup finals there -- and the great team featuring the French Connection scored just one goal in all three of those games!

Here's a video from the stroll featuring a chat with Flyers goaltender Bernie Parent, the Conn Smythe winner who stoned the Sabres in those games. Here's another one that includes a chat with  Bob "The Hound"  Kelly, who scored the Cup-winning goal at the Aud in '75.

As for this year's Flyers, Daniel Briere is sitting out today's game against Carolina with another groin injury. The Sabres will see the Flyers three times in November as their schedule gets dramatically tougher.

At 8-1-1 heading into tonight's game on Long Island, the Sabres have picked up 17 of their first 20 possible points. Don't mean to gloat but perhaps you recall that I pegged them for 19 of their first 24 in our preview section story on how they can make the playoffs. So if they merely split this home-and-home with the Islanders, which you would think would be the worst they would do, I'll be right on.

Then, of course, it gets a little more serious. The November schedule includes the Flyers (three times), Bruins (twice) and single games against the Capitals, Flames, Oilers and Senators.

OK. Back to baseball for me. And while you're watching the Sabres and Islanders -- and especially after the final buzzer -- stop on over to the Inside Pitch blog to check in what's going on with the Yankees and Phillies before, during and after Game Three. Time for another cheesesteak run.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

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