Sabres Edge

Here's the attendance report as the Sabres have just opened practice in First Niagara Center:

---Jason Pominville and Luke Adam are not here. They went directly to Montreal from Ottawa.

---Jochen Hecht and T.J. Brennan are not on the ice as they continue to battle their concussions.

---Brayden McNabb is back on the ice in his first workout with the team since getting concussed against the Leafs on Jan. 13, the night before the Sabres left for their road trip. Tyler Ennis is also skating on a line with Nathan Gerbe and Drew Stafford. We'll see if he returns tomorrow.

---The lines aren't that valid because Adam and Pominville aren't here. But for the record, it's Vanek-Roy-Gragnani, Gerbe-Ennis-Stafford, Kaleta-Boyes-Leino and McCormick-Gaustad-Ellis. The D pairs are Sekera-Myers, Weber-Regehr and Leopold-Ehrhoff.

Stay tuned for a full update after the workout ends.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

The Sabres are taking off from practice today, the last day they're allowed to work out prior to the NHL all-star break. They return to the ice Monday at First Niagara Center and have their next game Tuesday in Montreal, where they might be able to add Tyler Ennis and Paul Gaustad back to their lineup.

---Maybe pigs do fly because the Sabres won a road game with Tuesday's shootout win at New Jersey. Guess that means no trades and no firings? Oy. Still no back-to-back wins though with the next chance coming in Montreal. The Sabres are 10-19-5 since their last winning streak and the 34 games currently stands as the third-longest drought in franchise history -- behind only 40+-game lulls in their first two seasons. Ugh.

---Forget about trading Jochen Hecht for a pick at the deadline. Forget hockey altogether. It's time to worry about the veteran's health in general after he apparently got another concussion Saturday in St. Louis. For Lindy Ruff to say, "Emotionally, he was really unstable" after last night's game is nothing short of alarming. 

---Bucky Gleason's column today talks back to the fans and answers some of their fury.

---There's only one game today and it's Detroit at Montreal at 7:30 on NBC Sports Network. The Habs, Islanders and Sabres are all tied at 45 points. If Montreal loses tonight in regulation, it would drop to 14th place while the Islanders would improve to 12th and Buffalo to 13th. The Sabres would stay in 14th if Montreal gets a point.

---This week's edition of "NHL 36" is tonight at 6:30 and it features 36 hours in the life of Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. His first day was last Monday, when the Sabres were in Detroit, and the cameras rolled pregame and during the contest. Might be an interesting watch.

---NHL.com has Jason Pominville pegged as Mr. Irrelevant in the all-star fantasy draft, as in the last guy chosen. At least he would get a car for his troubles. I loved the draft last year. It was better than the game.

---Jerry Sullivan offers this take on Tim Thomas' snub of the Bruins' White House visit. Good post, good reasoning but I don't agree. My feeling is Thomas should have been a teammate and gone. A fun argument for sure on both sides.

---Speaking of the All-Star Game, James Neal will replace Alex Ovechkin in Ottawa. Caps owner Ted Leonsis obviously did not agree with the Great Eight's suspension, as he wrote the other day on his blog. Boo to that, Ted. He jumped and contacted the head. Almost automatic these days. To me, it was a test case to see if Brendan Shanahan would give a Shanaban to a name player. He passed.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Be sure to join our live game blog tonight at 8:30 from the MTS Centre in absolutely horrifically frigid Winnipeg. Paul Gaustad is out tonight and probably the next two games as well and Lindy Ruff said a forward may join the team tomorrow in St. Louis.

The building here is really neat. A tiny little bandbox. Our man John Vogl used to work in Georgia and he loved Atlanta trips. He's still mourning their loss. So on the day the Sabres make their first trip to Winnipeg in 1996, give a look back to June at this link to Vogl's Winnipeg-Atlanta comparison.

I went somewhere today that Atlanta doesn't have -- the coldest intersection in North America (click the pic for a bigger view). That's the billing of the corner of Portage Avenue and Main Street in downtown Winnipeg. The temperature was minus-27 Celsius and the windchill was minus-35 Celsius according to the radio (so we're talking minus-16F and wind chills of minus-31F). Your breath barely escaped your mouth. You could feel your cheeks. I could hear John Facenda in my ears because this truly was The Frozen Tundra.

When I took my glove off to snap the shutter,  I could feel my hand freezing. What's that they say about how many seconds it takes for exposed flesh to freeze? Believe me, it's true. Went to a convenience store underground -- a lot of buildings are mercifully connected -- and the clerk asked where I was from. She said in broken English, "Winnipeg is worse than Buffalo. Crazy freezing, eh?"

Eh. Crazy freezing. But mighty friendly people. Stay tuned.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

CHICAGO -- Jhonas Enroth has led the Sabres on to the ice at the United Center (left, view from The News seat) and will start in goal tonight against the Blackhawks against Corey Crawford.

The game, remember, is a 7:30 start and you Time Warner blackoutees can watch on NBC Sports Network. No MSG for tonight.

Enroth is 8-8-3 with a 2.42 goals against and .924 save percentage (Ryan Miller is 11-13-2,  3.12, .898). In his last four games, including Monday's relief outing in Detroit, Enroth is 0-1-2 but has a 1.90 GAA and .949 save percentage.

"He went through a tough stretch and I asked him what was different," coach Lindy Ruff told me today during his pregame session with the Buffalo media. "He said he's battled harder. ... If you look at his last couple starts especially, pucks aren't going through him. When he was struggling, he had some go in under the arm, some long-range ones going in. When a goalie struggles, pucks tend to go through  you. When they're playing well, they seal pretty good and he's doing a good job of that."

Ruff said Patrick Kaleta, who missed practice Tuesday with the flu, is OK and will play tonight. Cody McCormick and Joe Finley are expected to be the healthy scratches, although McCormick is on the ice for warmups.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

CHICAGO -- Patrick Kane hears plenty of chatter about the hometown team and the Chicago Blackhawks winger said he's curious to see what the struggling Buffalo Sabres put on the ice tomorrow night in the United Center.

"I know the owner [Terry Pegula] and the fans aren't really too happy with the way things have been going down there," Kane said today after practice at Johnny's Ice House, just down West Madison Avenue from the UC. "That's fine with me. I can't really care any more about the Sabres. Hopefully we can make it even worse for them and get a win against them."

Of particular interest to Kane is the problems of former U.S. Olympic teammate Ryan Miller, who has dropped to 42nd in goals-against average (3.12) and 40th in save percentage (.898). 

"I still think the fans get on Miller a little bit too much back in Buffalo. He's definitely the guy there," Kane said. "He's not having the kind of season he wanted to and maybe things are getting caught up in everything back there. I think they can be a good team. They've got everything in place to do well. You want them to do well, especially being from there.  Not better than you're doing but at the same time, growing up there I know a lot of people who root for the Sabres. It's a city that deserves the team to do well."

For his part, Kane's 10 goals and 39 points have him on pace for career lows. 

"It's something you're going to deal with in your career," he said. "I'm trying to have a new clean slate when I come to the rink every day, whether it's practice or game day. Not get too high or too low."

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

DETROIT -- The Red Wings are going for a franchise-record 15th straight home win and the Sabres are trying to break their all-time skid of eight straight road losses in regulation tonight. That's Story 1A at Joe Louis Arena. But a clear 1B is the fifth career meeting of Ryan Miller and his younger brother, Red Wings winger Drew Miller.

The Millers haven't met in two years (Drew was a healthy scratch last season in Buffalo and Ryan missed the teams' December meeting with his concussion), and even got to spend all day together yesterday as the Sabres got the day off after arriving from Long Island. Their father was out of town but a younger brother and sister and some family friends had lunch and dinner at Drew's house.

"We didn't talk about hockey so that was nice," Drew said. "It didn't work out the last two years. I wanted to play last year and I know he wanted to get back from his injury to play against us. It will be fun to get back on the ice and play against each other."

"A lot of people are looking down like he's playing horrible and I don't think it's all on him," Drew said. "I don't think he's playing that bad. I think he expects more of himself. The injury is improving every day. The injuries have been pretty unfortunate for him and the team hasn't been winning like they'd like to so a lot of the pressure goes down on their big players. He's one of their guys that has to answer to that and that's tough."

As is usually the case here, Ryan had some long chats with Detroit-area reporters. Among the items he discussed was a change from a titanium mask to steel to help ease some of the puck impacts on his head.

As for the Sabres predicament tonight, Miller said, "This is a good place to start for this season. It's time to get our feet under us and play consistent hockey. [The Red Wings] had a little bit of a slower start than I think they wanted. It just shows they demanded something higher and they turned it up a notch."

The Sabres will get Andrej Sekera back tonight in place of Robyn Regehr. Joe Finley looks like a healthy scratch with T.J. Brennan arriving from Rochester and appearing to be in the lineup as well (Lindy Ruff said that would be a game-time decision)

Click below for audio from both Drew and Ryan Miller. (Sorry for the abrupt end to Ryan's interview as I had to jump off to chat with Andrej Sekera).

Drew Miller

Ryan Miller

Click below to hear Ruff's pregame chat, where he updates the injuries,  gives his thoughts on the Red Wings' streak, the problems of the Buffalo defense and Miller's road back from the concussion.

Lindy Ruff

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

DETROIT -- Greetings from Motown, where the Sabres have recalled defenseman T.J. Brennan from Rochester in the wake of the injury Robyn Regehr suffered Saturday night on Long Island. The team is hopeful Andrej Sekera can return to the lineup tonight after missing eight games but Lindy Ruff told me yesterday that's still uncertain. The morning skate here at Joe Louis Arena doesn't begin until 11:30 so we'll have to see how Sekera holds up.

If Sekera can't play, the Buffalo defense would be woefully thin going against a Detroit team looking for its franchise-record 15th straight home win. Brennan, Joe Finley, and Marc-Andre Gragnani would make up half the D corps, which would mean plenty of ice time for Tyler Myers, Jordan Leopold and Mike Weber. Sekera, Regehr, Christian Ehrhoff and Brayden McNabb all out.

Holy moly.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Like I said before the game, remember Thursday when Lindy Ruff said he was riding Ryan Miller and wanted to get him going? Remember Friday night in Carolina when Miller gave up the winning goal in the third period on a 2-on-1 when Chad LaRose beat him clean?

Jhonas Enroth  got the start Saturday but don't read into Miller's 15th game of three or more goals in the last 18. And least not according to Ruff.

The coach said after Saturday's 2-1 overtime loss to Winnipeg that Enroth -- who made 39 saves -- started because the Sabres are going to be busy. It's a back-to-back and there are six games in nine nights and Ruff felt it would be tough to get Enroth a game. Hmmm.

Of course, Enroth had a shutout in November in Carolina. I might have started him there but Ruff doesn't generally use team-vs-team matchups in determining goalies. He goes more on rest days.

"The decision is just the schedule, just the amount of back-to-backs and six games in nine nights," Ruff said. "Ryan had a pretty busy night last night. That's really all it was. Ryan last night probably had to make more difficult saves inside that game (because of the odd-man rushes). ... If we don't get Jhonas a game when we go to use him in the six in nine, it's going to be a good period of time that he hasn't played."

The loss dropped Enroth to 8-7-3 with a 2.46 GAA and .923 save percentage -- but he's just 1-6-3 in his last 10 decisions. Miller is 10-11-2, 3.05, .901. Miller has more wins in his career against Toronto then any other team, so the bet here is he plays both games against the Leafs Tuesday and Friday. And then we'll see where Ruff is headed in net.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Remember when Lindy Ruff said he was going to ride Ryan Miller and get him going? That apparently lasted all of one game.

Jhonas Enroth -- who is 1-6-2 in his last 10 decisions -- led the Sabres on the ice for pregame warmups prior to tonight's game against Winnipeg. Miler is on the ice as well so this appears to be a coach's decision and not injury-related.

Miller, of course, is struggling mightily and has given up three or more goals in 15 of his last 18 starts. The game-winning goal by Carolina last night on a 2-on-1 by Chad LaRose was one that had to rankle Ruff because Robyn Regehr had the pass played and Miller didn't stop the shot.

So we have a pretty easy question at the start of tonight's postgame presser.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

There's usually never enough space in a story for all the interesting things Ryan Miller can say in one interview and my story in Friday's paper on Miller is no exception. From his quest to break Dominik Hasek's team victory record to his own sub-par play this season to Jeremy Roenick's critical comments in an NHL.com blog, Miller was his usual forthright self following practice Thursday.

Here's a large chunk of that interview as the Sabres hope the change in the calendar from 2011 to 2012 will help change Miller's fortunes.

Ryan Miller

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Get ready for lots of Ryan Miller in the Buffalo Sabres' net. For starters, figure on both games this weekend.

That was the clear message Lindy Ruff gave after practice Thursday in First Niagara Center before the team took off for Carolina. Miller is just 10-10-2 this year with a 3.05 goals-against average and .900 save percentage, easily the worst figures of his career. 

"I really want to get Ryan going," Ruff said. "If he's feeling comfortable playing well and not tired, I'm going to try to lean on him a little bit more and see if that helps him."

Ruff's decision isn't easy. Miller has been below par and backup Jhonas Enroth in a 1-6-2 slide. Looks like the only choice may be to ride the $6 million man.

"You worry about numbers in short periods of time," Ruff s aid when asked about Miller's stats. "Don't worry about the global numbers. Worry about your next game, that those numbers are good. Put a good three-game stretch together. Short-team goals, smaller goals. What's behind him right now is behind him and he's got to put together the best 40 games he's ever put together."

"Right now it's just win and the stat you really start to care about is the wins," Miller said. "I know people pay close attention to it and I even make preseason goals of where I want to be and I'm not 
anywhere near where I'd want to be. You look at it from where you're at in this point in time. You do the best you can from this point forward. I can still have good stats from here on out, help the team get to the playoffs."

Tyler Myers said he's ready to go for Friday night's game. Ruff said Ville Leino is being overly optimistic about playing Saturday against Winnipeg, but next week is likely for him. Tyler Ennis had another setback with his ankle and didn't practice today, with Ruff saying he's going to keep him off the ice the next two days and that he may be on a week-to-week schedule.

Click below to hear Ruff's full chat on injuries, Miller and the Sabres' need to forge that two-game winning streak that's eluded them since mid-November.

Lindy Ruff

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Lindy Ruff was cautiously optimistic after today's morning skate that captain Jason Pominville will play tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. Pominville, who came down with the flu on Sunday and left practice early on Monday, was not on the First Niagara Center ice this morning.

"We held him off. I think he'll be all right," Ruff said.

The coach also said he's not completely sure about Brad Boyes, who did skate after suffering a stinger to his injured ankle in practice Monday.  So the line combinations, which reunited struggling Derek Roy with Thomas Vanek and included Zack Kassian on the other wing, would get changed again if Pominville is able to play.

Ruff wouldn't say if he would keep Roy with Vanek, and said that's no panacea for his No. 1 center's trouble either. Roy has two goals in his last 21 games.

"I look at how many inside opportunities a player gets and it's not whether somebody  else can get him going. You've got to get yourself going," Ruff said. "And that's by getting to the inside. That's when you've got to get down on your knees and stick the puck in your teeth and crawl into the net. that's how dirty you've got to get when it isn't going as good as you want it to go."

One other good bit of news: Ville Leino skated with the team for the first time since suffering what he revealed to be a broken foot suffered when he blocked a shot Dec. 13 against Ottawa.

"It's his first time out but he skated a couple times on his own," Ruff said. "In his case, he should be able to progress pretty fast."

After a half-hour of extra skating, Leino surprised me by saying he's not ruling out Saturday's game here against Winnipeg for a return, although sometime next week is likely more realistic.

"It was a lot of fun," Leino said. "It's been a while and it's exciting to be back on the ice. Actually, I"m in a little better shape than I thought I was. They made me work to be tired and I most definitely am but it's fun."

Ryan Miller will start in goal tonight against Edmonton's Nikolai Khabibulin. The Oilers will be without NHL rookie scoring leader Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who suffered a shoulder injury during Monday night's 4-3 win in Chicago.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Quick update as Sabres practice begins in First Niagara Center with the current line combinations:

Vanek-Hecht-Pominville
Gerbe-Roy-Stafford (Gerbe gets a bump up after a strong game Saturday)
Boyes-Adam-McCormick
Ellis-Gaustad-Kaleta

Zack Kassian, who was scratched Saturday, is skating as an extra forward with Tyler Ennis. Tyler Myers is skating as an extra defenseman with the six who played Saturday (Leopold, Regehr, Weber, Gragnani, McNabb, Brennan).

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

It might be a holiday in the business world today but there's no holiday on ice. A quick rundown of what's in store:

---The Sabres return to the ice at 11:30 a.m. in First Niagara Center in advance of Tuesday's game here against Edmonton (as usual, the practice is closed to the public).

---The Flyers-Rangers Winter Classic has been pushed back two hours, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., to allow for a tad colder weather and thus better ice at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The NBC coverage, however, will still begin at 1. NHL Network, which has done a great job all weekend, will be on the air all day leading up to the game and will have plenty of postgame coverage.

---With lots of drama surrounding the Sabres and in the hour leading up to the Winter Classic, I will host another On the Beat chat here today at 2 p.m. Be sure to join me. Somehow, I think Lindy Ruff might be the subject of a question or two. Or three.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)