Sabres Edge

Three stars: Sabres 1, Predators 0

poll by twiigs.com

Live from the Arena: Sabres vs. 'Yotes

Greetings from HSBC Arena as the Sabres face the Hamilton Steelheads in their first ever visit to Buffalo since moving from .... oops. Didn't happen. Still the Phoenix Coyotes in town. Never mind. But they are the unbeaten and now-Wayne Gretzky-less Coyotes as new coach Dave Tippett has them off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2004.

A shout out to the Sabres' game staff from this Inside Pitch blogger for putting the end of the riveting Phillies-Rockies playoff game on the HD board prior to the warmup instead of the usual Sabres classic footage (which is always entertaining too). Folks then saw Matt Holliday's home run for the Cardinals in LA before the hockey teams took to the ice and warmups went up on the board. Nice.

Ilya Bryzgalov got the shutout for Phoenix last night in Pittsburgh so Jason LaBarbera will start in goal for the visitors tonight. Ryan Miller for the Sabres (Patrick Lalime Saturday in Nashville? You wonder).

Live updates to come.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Third Period

18:05 left: Gaustad goes for slashing. The Coyotes are 0 for 2 with three shots on the PP so far.

17:23 left: The Coyotes convert as Matthew Lombardi tips home a perfect pass in the slot from Adrian Aucoin to make it 1-0. Watch the visitors sit back now and protect the lead and try for their second shutout in two nights.

15:46 left: Never mind. GREAT play by Myers to keep the puck in and feed McArthur, who scores on the backhand to make it 1-1. Myers, however, was lying in a crumpled heap on the ice as he was wiped out by Shane Doan. Looked like Myers hit his head on the ice as his helmet came off just as he was going down.

13:37 left: Repeating: Kaleta is in the Coyotes' heads. Upshall just got a four-minute high sticking penalty for going after him when a whistle was blown. Sabres have to take advantage of such stupidity.

9:23 left: HORRIBLE move by the game staff. They just showed the Kaleta-Prucha hit again on the HD board as the collision of the night, sponsored by your prominent local collision shop. Several Phoenix players were looking at the board and barking about it. No class move by the folks here. And a good way to fire up the opponent in a 1-1 game. Think about the game, people. Not your stupid little videos and promotions.

8:18 left: Great save by Miller stopping a Vrbata tip-in. Shots are 7-3 this period and 37-21 for the game.

5:47 left: Another stupid Phoenix penalty as Vandermeer drills Vanek to the boards with a cross check from behind in back of the Coyotes net. Sabres HAVE to convert on one of these, right?

3:53 left: Finally, the PP converts as Vanek bangs one home from the slot to make it 2-1. Great feed from the corner by MacArthur after a quick touch pass from Roy.

1:00 left: LaBarbera is out.

Sabres survive: A 2-1 win after a couple close calls in the final 30 seconds. Final shots were 39-24.

Second Period

19:28 left: This one just heated up as Kaleta destroyed Petr Prucha along the boards near the Buffalo bench and Martin Hanzal jumped in to battled the Buffalo winger. Looked like a clean hit. Ed Jovanovski jawed at Kaleta as he headed to the box. Hanzal gets four exta minutes (roughing, instigating) and a 10-minute misconduct. They both get five. So it's a four-minute power play for Buffalo.

14:03 left: The Sabres got six shots on the PP after a rough opening minute but LaBarbera made great saves on Stafford and Myers. Shortly after the penalty ended, Miller made his best stop of the night on Radim Vrbata's one-timer from in front. The Sabres have doubled Phoenix in the shot column, 22-11. That's 57 shots in the first 1 1/2 games -- and just one goal.

12:51 left: Montador loses the puck in the neutal zone and has to take a hooking penalty. Phoenix to the PP for the first time.

11:18 left: Tripping call on Tallinder leave Buffalo two men short for 28 seconds.

8:58 left: Sabres kill it off. Good work by Connolly-Butler-Rivet to start and then Grier when it became a 5-on-4.

2:53 left: James Vandermeer takes a silly roughing penalty for Phoenix with an after-the-whistle shove of Kaleta, who's clearly inside the Coyotes' heads. Would be nice, of course, if the power play would convert on one of these chances.

End-2nd: No score through 40 minutes. Sabres had a 17-10 edge in shots and it's 30-18 through two. It was a wild final two minutes as a video review of a potential Buffalo goal showed Bill McCreary had blown his whislte and then Miller had to stop Vandermeer coming out of the box. Drew Stafford has six shots on goal in the game and Derek Roy has four. But no goals. The Sabres are 0 for 4 on the power play with 11 shots on goal with the man advantage.

First Period

13:29 left: No score as each team has one shot on goal. The Coyotes had the best chance but Miller neatly stopped Scottie Upshall's redirection from just off the crease. No changes in the lines for the Sabres. Kaleta-Ellis-Stafford were the starters. They were followed by Vanek-Roy-Connolly, MacArthur-Kennedy-Pominville and Hecht-Gaustad-Grier. Defense pairs were Butler-Rivet, Montador-Sekera and Tallinder-Myers.

8:30 left: So much for that track meet Lindy Ruff talked about after today's morning skate. The Sabres have a 6-5 edge in shots but had just two in the first 11 minutes. The third and fourth lines have easily been their best. A sprawled-on-his-belly LaBarbera just made a dynamite save on Stafford with his left toe from point-blank range to keep the game scoreless. The Roy and Kennedy lines have generated nothing.

4:50 left: The second line gets a great chance as MacArthur is stopped from in tight after a beautiful feather pass from Kennedy. The kid can really pass the puck. Shots are 10-7 for Buffalo.

4:23 left: I protest the heavily advertised "concession special" on the HD board: a hot dog, chips and souvenir soda all for the low, low price of ..... $9.25?? Yeesh.

2:17 left: Super glove save by Miller on a rising slapper from Upshall. Came a few seconds after Stafford dipsy-dooed too much in front of the Phoenix net and got checked. Fire it, dude.

End of the 1st: No score as Buffalo has a 13-8 edge in shots. Sabres had too many turnovers and too many poor passes over the first 12 minutes. Much better in that area over the final eight. The Roy line continues to overpass and I would imagine Ruff might do some shuffling with that trio if this keeps up. They blew a 3-on-2 in the final minute with overpassing but Butler followed the play and took a loose puck for a good scoring chance. The Coyotes won 11 of 16 faceoffs in the period; Gaustad went 3-1 while the rest of the team went 2-10.

Lindy wants 'track meet' vs. Coyotes

The Phoenix Coyotes hit town tonight 2-0 with a pair of three-goal wins to their credit. Beating Los Angeles isn't all that impressive but Wednesday night's 3-0 win at Pittsburgh certainly was.

So was Petr Prucha's goal from his back. Be sure to click that link to check the video. 

"They played a great game, showed real good team speed, real good discipline," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said this morning. "Their speed drew four or five penalties. They deserved to win, got the better chances. ... They dominated Pittsburgh in areas."

For his part, Ruff said he wants to see the Sabres increase the tempo. They got 35 shots on goal in Saturday's loss to Montreal but the coach felt the tempo wasn't what he wants it to be.

"I told them I'm looking for a track meet, a race up ice, a  better fourth man on the rush," Ruff said. "I thought our edge offensively wasn't good enough. We didn't attack enough. We took plays for granted. I told them I'm looking for a lot better edge offensively."

Thomas Vanek, for one, said he wasn't happy with his game Saturday and certainly has to be better tonight. Should be interesting to see if the Sabres go for an early kill with the Coyotes on the end of their season-opening road trip and preparing to return for the opener in Bankruptcy Land on Saturday.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

More on Habs' first goal

I completely hate Montreal's first goal last night. Pushed from behind by Andrej Sekera, Travis Moen is dumped into Ryan Miller and his slide propels Miller and the puck over the goal line as the net is jarred off. Check out the video here.

Seriously now, how many goals might Alexander Ovechkin get this year if a play like that is allowed? 70? 80? Just plow through the goalie like it's no problem. And isn't every team going to need about three goalies to get through the season with all the injuries that would result?

So I checked the rulebook on this one this morning. Here's what I found:

Rule 78.5: "Apparent goals shall be disallowed by the Referee ..."
    Section ix When a goalkeeper has been pushed into the net together with the puck after making a save. See also 69.6.

Seems pretty obvious. Miller said he made a save and stopped the puck's momentum (although the puck still appeared to be sliding through his legs on the replay). If that's the case, no goal, right? Hmmm. Let's see 69.6.

"In the event that a goalkeeper has been pushed into the net together with the puck by an attacking player after making a stop, the goal will be disallowed. If applicable, appropriate penalties will be assessed. If, however, in the opinion of the Referee, the attacking player was pushed or otherwise fouled by a defending player causing the goalkeeper to be pushed into the net together with the puck, the goal can be permitted. In the event that the puck is under a player in or around the crease area (deliberately or otherwise), a goal cannot be scored by pushing this player together with the puck into the goal."

OK, the underline is mine for emphasis. I think that's the out to allow the goal to stand as goofy as the whole thing is. The section itself is pretty contradictory too -- the referee can allow the goal but the goal can't be scored by pushing a player that has the puck underneath him?

I think when push comes to shove (bad pun I know), the officials have the case to count the goal. But I wouldn't want to be a goalie if this kind of stuff is let go all season. We don't want to be back to where we were with stupid crease rules in No Goal days but the NHL better find a happy medium to protect the goalies too.

---Mike Harrington

(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Three stars: Canadiens 2, Sabres 1 (OT)

poll by twiigs.com

Live from the Arena: Sabres. vs Habs

Welcome to HSBC Arena and another season of Sabres Edge game updates. It's the Sabres and Montreal Canadiens in the season opener. Keep it here all night for updates and thoughts.

---Mike Harrington

OT

2:18 left: Habs win, 2-1, on a fluke as Gionta takes one off the backboards out of the air and beats Miller. Final shots 35-17. Tough way to lose.

Third Period

First off, kudos to the game staff for their intermission music choice. Just as the clock hit 9 came cued up, "It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday" and there was a pretty good Billy Joel singalong going. See, we don't need crazy videos and heavy metal to have a good time here. Hope they remember that.

19:05 left: Sekera is back but just got hit with a tripping penalty.

12:00 left: Sabres have outshot the Habs, 6-1, in the period and 29-15 for the game. You have to like their grit, the push-back edge they're showing in this one. We'll see if it turns into two points but it's definitely a good sign for the rest of the season.

10:49 left: Steve Montador has had a pretty good debut game but that was not a smart play. An obvious hit from behind on Maxim Laperriere. Got two minutes for boarding. Lucky it wasn't more.

8:45 left: Great work by Myers and Hecht kills off another power play. The Habs are 0 for 5 tonight.

7:43 left: Myers draws his second penalty of the night, a tripping call on Andrei Kostitsyn behind the Buffalo net. Sabres could use a strong PP here -- and, of course, a conversion.

5:30 left: Never mind. Two shots, not much puck control.

4:52 left: A sellout of 18,690 is announced. I boo that.

39.3 left: Price robs Pominville on a one-timer after a great MacArthur feed. That's 11-1 in shots for Buffalo in this period and 34-15 for the game. And that's 80-42 against the Habs in two games and they're about to get three out of four points and maybe four.

On to OT: Still 34-15 through regulation. Reminder on standard blog OT/shootout rules: We have to make the quick run to the elevator for the locker room as soon as this one ends. But be sure to come back to vote in our three-star poll that will appear a few minutes it's over and leave your comments.

Second Period

16:10 left:  Big scrum in front of Miller shows Sabres are definitely trying to be much more aggressive this year. Kennedy and Cammalleri going at it. Rivet and Butler working over Gomez (last year's memory certainly in mind). Hal Gill comes in to get at Butler. Gomez, Kennedy and Butler all get two minutes but Gill gets four.

11:50 left: Sabres have a 5-4 edge in shots in the period and still lead, 1-0, nearing the halfway mark. Myers was on the ice for the last 55 seconds of a roughing penalty to Roy. Incredible poise for a 19-year-old.

11:46 left: Silly tripping penalty in the offensive zone by Gregory Stewart puts Buffalo on the power play.

9:34 left: Great saves by Price on Kennedy and Roy to thwart the PP. Just as it ended, Lapierre bumped Miller on the way by the net -- and Myers jumped him by the glass. Nice. Lapierre gets two minutes for roughing and Paul Gaustad gets four for roughing. Ridiculous. Explain that one other than it's a makeup for Gill's four minutes.

9:07 left: That's it for that PP as Gionta takes a silly interference penalty on Roy in the Buffalo zone.

7:27 left: The Habs tie it at 1-1 as Travis Moen is credited with a goal from the seat of his pants. He slides into Miller (maybe thanks to a Sekera push) and pushes Miller and the puck into the net just before it comes off. Bizarre, ugly looking. And goes as a short-handed goal too.

2:25 left: Sabres' power play is struggling and the team and crowd have clearly lost some starch since the Montreal goal. Sekera really having trouble getting the puck out of his end. Not good. And now Tallinder goes for interference.

41.8 left: Rivet doesn't get the puck out and Spacek lets one fly from the point that gets deflected and drills Sekera in the face. Knocked his mouthguard right out. He leaves bent over and you have memories of the two broken jaws in two weeks last year (Vanek and Numminen). You hope you haven't just seen another because there's not much if any blood.

End of 2nd: It's 1-1 through two. Sabres had an 11-9 edge in shots (23-14) through two. Kaleta just hammered Hamrlik to the boards at the end of the period and Paul Mara took a step on to the ice to bark at him. They have history of course with Kaleta crushing Mara's orbital bone two years ago when Mara was with the Rangers and then allegedly asking him, "How's your face" on the ice at MSG last season.

First Period

17:26 left: Habs' Metropolit off for hooking Kaleta after a great shift by Buffalo's fourth line. Nice physical play by Kaleta and Ellis with Stafford creating chances.

17:20 left: It takes six seconds for the PP to pot the season's first goal as Connolly pounds home a Rivet rebound from the slot. 1-0 Buffalo.

13:05 left: Sabres have a 4-1 edge in shots and a big edge in play. Perfect start. No surprises on the lines. Kennedy started between MacArthur and Pominville (and won the opening faceoff over Scott Gomez). Then came Vanek-Roy-Connolly, Hecht-Gaustad-Grier and Kaleta-Ellis-Stafford. On defense, it's been Butler-Rivet, Sekera-Montador and Tallinder-Myers. John Vogl notes it's the first time in a while the Sabres have had all six defense playing L-R with no one playing on their off side.

10:27 left: Sabres nearly got another as Roy popped one off the post to Carey Price's left. Kaleta is running around all over causing havoc and the Habs at the last whistle circled him with five guys. Just what the Sabres want if Montreal forgets about hockey to get at Kaleta. Especially when Kaleta is creating scoring chances like he has in the first nine minutes.

6:37 left: Lots of uneven officiating so far. Hecht got worked over in the corner and no call. Vanek pulled down a Hab in the slot. No call. Rivet goes finally for cross checking right after he got drilled to the ice by Georges Laraque.

2:41 left: Great shift by Kennedy, who gave the Habs fits along the boards, created a turnover, had a good chance from the slot and then drove to the net to draw a roughing penalty from Ryan O'Byrne. Kennedy and Kaleta, the two local boys, have had terrific moments in this period. No fear using the kids by Lindy; Myers was killing the second half of the Rivet penalty and Kennedy is in the middle of the action.

By the way, this one is NOT sold out even if the Sabres announce it is. There are three or four rows of empty seats visible from the press box at the top of Sections 315 and 325.

End of the first: It's 1-0 for the Sabres, who had a 12-5 edge in shots on goal. A solid 20 minutes all around. The Sabres won 12 of 19 faceoffs (Ellis was 5 for 5 and Kennedy, still learning the position, split his six draws). Hecht and Sekera were the only Buffalo players with two shots. Kaleta was credited with three hits. Rivet (8:12) and Montador (8:08) were the ice-time leaders. Myers played 5:11 and Kennedy 4:51.

The ceremonies: We're looking at a 7:15 faceoff after all the pregame ceremonies are complete. You're going to love the open video when you come to the arena. Trust me. Raucous, pounding AC/DC. You will get pumped. The team skated on to the ice from the zamboni entrance, gathered around the center circle and saluted the crowd. Cool. Then it was off to the blue line for individual intros.

The loudest cheers went this way: Ryan Miller, Mike Grier, Tyler Myers and local boys Tim Kennedy and Patrick Kaleta. It looked like Kennedy gazed up at himself on the HD board as his name was called and the place was erupted. Bet he's never forgetting that moment. And coming close to the roar for Miller was the greeting for Lindy Ruff. Doug Allen does his usual stellar job on the anthems. Excellent job of presentation for an opening night shindig. Team staff gets an A.

Of Note: The Sabres are 21-14-3 in season openers, including 15-6-3 at home. The Sabres will be opening at home against Montreal for the fifth time and are 3-0-1 in the previous four, including last year's shootout win. The Sabres are 5-1-1 against the Habs in season openers -- and the only loss was way back on Oct. 15, 1970, a 3-0 defeat in Buffalo's first home game at the Aud.

Pregame

6:08 p.m.: The HD board just revved up a Sabres classic against the Habs from the late 80s. Puppa in net against Patrick Roy. GM Gerry Meehan watching in the stands. Kinda spooky to watch these now for the first time with the old Aud finally torn down.

6:11 p.m.: The Sabres went 4-1-1 against the Habs last year. Doesn't mean anything anymore with all the changes in the Montreal lineup. My prediction of the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup has taken an early dent with their back-to-back losses to the Blues in Stockholm, including today's 5-3 defeat.

6:13 p.m.: The teams hit the ice in about 15 minutes. That's when we'll find out who the Sabres have named as alternate captains at home. There will be two at home and two on the road.

6:20 p.m.: Ryan Miller emerges from the runway to the Sabres bench to cheers for his pregame solo meditation. Always fascination to watch how Miller wants a few minutes to himself out of the locker room. Steely-eyed, leaning on his stick, gazes to the ice.

6:24 p.m.: As usual, there are dozens of red and white Canadiens jerseys crowded around the runway leading to the visitors dressing room. Lots of blue and gold around the Sabres runway as well. Buffalo will be wearing its alternate third jerseys tonight (no flying shrimps) while the Habs will be in their classic whites.

6:25 p.m.: The visiting fans start a big "Go Habs Go" chant and start singing the infernal "Ole, Ole" song. They're met with boos both times.

6:30 p.m.: The teams take the ice and here's the first bit of news for the evening: Paul Gaustad and Jason Pominville are the home alternate captains. Good choices there. I think it's long overdue that Gaustad gets a letter.

6:40 p.m.: Couple interesting links for you as the warmup concludes: No. 1 pick Zack Kassian apparently has a shoulder injury at Peterborough and will miss tonight's game against Sudbury and fellow draftee Marcus Foligno. Meanwhile, ex-Sabre Andrew Peters tells the Newark Star-Ledger he's glad the Devils saw fit to keep him as an enforcer.

Live from the Arena: Sabres-Leafs updates

A few notes to follow as the Sabres and Leafs meet in HSBC Arena:

---This one was not part of the season-ticket package and there's no way there's even 10,000 in the house. You can have a section to yourself in several spots of the 300 level. ... Ryan Miller and Jason Pominville are wearing HD cameras on their helmets to gather in-house video footage. ... The Leafs come into the game with 15 majors in five preseason games. Brian Burke's new approach there.

---The lines: Paul Gaustad started between Mike Grier and Jochen Hecht. The other lines were Derek Roy between Clarke MacArthur and Drew Stafford, Philip Gogulla-Tim Kennedy-Jason Pominville and Cody McCormick-Matt Ellis-Jeff Cowan. On defense, it's Chris Butler-Tyler Myers, Henrik Tallinder-Toni Lydman and Steve Montador-Nathan Paetsch.

First period notes: No score through 20 minutes even though Sabres had 18-5 advantage in shots and completely dominated over the last 10 minutes. ... Spirited fight between Andrew Peters replacement Cody McCormick and Jay Rosehill just 3:11 in. McCormick threw a few more punches than the average Peters fight.That's No. 16 for the Leafs. ... Ryan Miller made a terrific save early on Leafs' top pick Nazem Kadri then Buffalo took over. ... Kennedy had a great period, with a couple of quality chances and a super feed to Montador, who fanned leaking in from the point. Leafs goalie Joey MacDonald stopped Roy on a neat backhand redirect off a MacArthur feed. Montador had a team-high four shots on goal.

Second period notes (3-1, Buffalo): At the halfway mark, the Sabres have jumped to a 2-0 lead on goals by Paetsch at 2:09 and Gaustad at 6:09. Pominville fed Paetsch for a one-timer from the slot and Gaustad was given credit for a tip-in of a Hecht shot. Stafford is playing with a full cage (no one up here saw any injury). The Leafs have a 5-4 edge in shots (22-10 overall for Buffalo) and got the last three in a row on a power play but Miller has been up to the task. ... The Leafs get within 2-1 at 12:05 on Jiri Tlusty's penalty shot goal that just dribbled under Miller after the Toronto shooter partially fanned. It came shortly after Pominville missed on a breakaway and was a dubious call -- Myers clearly got the puck first while diving at it. ... The muckers made it 3-1 at 15:42 as Cody McCormick poked one past MacDonald to cap a great 30 seconds in the Leafs zone along with Cowan and Ellis. Shots were 11-10 for Buffalo and 29-15 through two.

Third period: They've changed the second goal from Gaustad to Hecht. The Leafs cut it to 3-2 on John Mitchell's tip-in at 1:34. The Sabres have not done much skating in this period (no shots on goal in the first nine minutes, compared to five by Toronto). Roy had a brutal giveaway at the start of a power play but Ponikarovsky fanned on the ensuing breakaway. ...Sabres have two shots with 4:31 left. Attendance is announced as 11,008. Um, no. ... And the Sabres win it, 3-2, holding off a late Toronto charge. Final shots were 31-25 and Buffalo survived with just two shots in the final 20 minutes.

Postgame notes: Ryan Miller stopped 23 of 25 shots to improve to 2-0 in the preseason. "I’ve had two games that have worked out pretty well, so I’ve been happy with that. Detroit had a lot of shots. This one had a period where there was a little bit of a lull in the first part, but it got a lot more intense later on when they were pushing to tie it up. It was good."

Miller on Tlusty's penalty shot: "If he intended to do that, that’s a world-class move. I was trying to push him off to the side as far as I could, and he was just a little bit ahead of me so I tried stretching out a bit. … Fortunately for him, he found one of the holes that open up when you have to catch up to a player a little bit. But I thought I played it right. I’m not going to bash my head off the wall too much."

Coach Lindy Ruff on the Sabres taking 29 shots through two periods but just two in the third: "We’re going to work on that part. We don’t really want to take the foot off the gas that much. I’d rather have the team play in a tight game, though. Those are good games to play in. Shifts mean things. You have to protect the lead. You have to learn to win the tight games."

Ruff on Stafford playing with a cage: "Stafford had his lip stitched up in Washington, got a high-stick in Washington. Then his first shift out he got hit in the face again and blew it wide-open, so he had to get stitched up again. At least it was after the red carpet walk."

---Mike Harrington

Tonight's Sabres roster

The Sabres' game group hit the HSBC Arena ice at 9:30 this morning and here's the list of players scheduled to meet the Leafs tonight:

Goalies: Ryan Miller, Jhonas Enroth

Defense: Steve Montador, Toni Lydman, Henrik Tallinder, Chris Butler, Nathan Paetsch, Andrej Sekera, Tyler Myers.

Forwards: Cody McCormick, Derek Roy, Daniel Paille, Drew Stafford, Jeff Cowan, Mike Grier, Paul Gaustad, Jason Pominville, Matt Ellis, Clarke MacArthur, Philip Gogulla, Jochen Hecht, Tim Kennedy.

Getting the night off are Mike Weber, Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek, Patrick Kaleta, Nathan Gerbe and Craig Rivet.

Notes on the roster: It's Montador's first game (he's had a neck stinger), while Myers, Kennedy and Butler will all make it 4-for-4. Miller will play the full 60 minutes.

The Leafs' roster: Vesa Toskala and Joey MacDonald are scheduled to be in goal. The defense corps will include Luke Schenn, Garnet Exelby and Ian White and the forwards will include Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Jason Blake, John Mitchell, Mikhail Grabovski and top draft pick Nazem Kadri, the seventh overall choice in Junei. Not scheduled to dress are veterans Jeff Finger, Mike Komisarek, Lee Stempniak, Tomas Kaberle, Wayne Primeau, Francois Beauchemin, Colton Orr

Also, the game will be televised on the NHL Network -- but it's blacked out in Buffalo even though there's no MSG telecast. Regional network exclusitivity rules. Boo. One of the referees is St. Francis product and Buffalo native Chris Ciamaga.

---Mike Harrington

Sabres' lineup and more on Max

Here's the Sabres' lineup for tonight's preseason game in Washington:

Forwards: Thomas Vanek, Tim Connolly, Drew Stafford, Jochen Hecht, Mike Grier, Daniel Paille, Paul Gaustad, Patrick Kaleta, Tim Kennedy, Nathan Gerbe, Tyler Ennis, Felix Schutz, Jeff Cowan.

Defense: Chris Butler, Toni Lydman, Steve Montador, Henrik Tallinder, Andrej Sekera, Mike Weber and Tyler Myers.

Goal: Jhonas Enrorth, Patrick Lalime.

The Capitals, meanwhile, will be playing far more of their name players in their home opener than they did in Buffalo on Wednesday. All expected to play are Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Mike Green and Jose Theodore. None of them made the trip here.

Elsewhere in the NHL:

---Maxim Afinogenov makes his debut tonight for the Thrashers. He's skating with ex-Sabre Slava Kozlov and Todd White -- and coach John Anderson has been so impressed he pondered putting Afinogenov with Ilya Kovalchuk and Nik Antropov.

---Andrew Peters is looking for a spot in New Jersey and not thinking about the AHL.

---So far, so good for Theo Fleury in Calgary. The 41-year-old had a shootout winner last week and a goal and and assist in Sunday's win over the Panthers.

---Holdout RFA Brandon Dubinsky signed with the Rangers at a big raise. He got a two-year, $3.7 million deal, quite a jump from the $522,000 qualifying offer the team first gave him.

---The Coyotes sent East Amherst native and former Boston College player and Sabres prospect Andrew Orpik to San Antonio of the AHL.

---Mike Harrington

Impressions from preseason opener

The Sabres suffered a 4-3 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals Thursday night in a game that was a snoozer for about 35 minutes and then opened up quite a bit the rest of the way. Some impressions:

Jhonas Enroth: Made 12 saves in final 6 1/2 minutes of second period. Did good job standing up and squaring to shooters. Seemed more confident in the net in this game than he had in some scrimmages during the week.

Tyler Myers: Played 21:01, including 4 1/2 minutes on the power play. His 24 shifts were second on the team to Andrej Sekera's 25. Makes up ground with his size and reach but has to watch his decisions. Bad decision to pinch cost Sabres 2-on-1 but Patrick Lalime made a save. "I thought he was OK," Lindy Ruff said. "Washington is a big club. Some of his decisions were a little bit slow but it's a little different speed than playing in juniors. Our defense as a whole tonight was young and they played young."

Tyler Ennis: Was more active than either Nathan Gerbe or Tim Kennedy and Ruff noticed. "He battled hard for a small man. He did what he has to do to be effective to play in this league. That type of effort was noticed."

Mike Kostka: The former UMass defenseman was the surprise of the night according to Ruff. "He was one guy who didn't get himself in a lot of trouble," the coach said. "We had three or four defenseman, including Weber and Myers and Gragnani that all put themselves in a little bit of trouble where a couple situations could have really hurt him. He kept the game within reach all the time and didn't make a lot of big mistakes. It was a pretty strong showing."

Ruff still wants Gerbe and Kennedy to shoot more. Same for all his players. Derek Roy, in particular, seemed guilty of overhandling the puck at times. ... The Sabres were only 21-34 on faceoffs. Kennedy was 4-10 and Ennis was 4-9.

---Mike Harington