Sabres Edge

Greetings from HSBC Arena as the world is back to normal now that the Worlds have left Buffalo. The Sabres' anniversary logo is back at center ice, the normal board ads adorn the rink, the semicircle goal crease is gone, the competing nations' flags are down from the rafters, the obnoxious Canadian fans are back across the Peace Bridge and -- perhaps most important -- the Russians are back in Moscow. Whew. 

It's the Sabres and Eastern Conference-leading Flyers tonight and faceoff is in the 7:40 range thanks to Versus, which obviously doesn't give a hoot about deadlines of your friendly blogger/ink-stained wretch. 

First bit of news (no, not about Terry Pegula): Nathan Gerbe is in the lineup tonight. Looks like the scratches are Luke Adam, Chris Butler and the injured Patrick Kaleta as the Sabres continue to go with seven defensemen. Frankly, I wouldn't play one-goal-in-24-games Gerbe over Adam but they know best, right? Yeesh.

Rick Jeanneret is back tonight with Harry Neale but they will be radio only as Versus tells stories and ignores the play calls the game. Keep it here for the latest.

Sabres starters: Ennis-Hecht-Stafford-Myers-Sekera. Goal: Miller.
Flyers starters: Hartnell-Briere-Leino-Coburn-Timonen. Goal: Bobrovsky

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

Third Period

9:26 p.m.: Game on.

18:40 left: Sabres do nothing on the power play and the time expires.

17:43 left: The Flyers go ahead as Ville Leino pots Briere's rebound after Myers loses the puck at center ice. Might be a kick with the left skate. Under review. Goal stands. Looked like Leino moved his right skate and the puck hit the left. Flyers lead, 3-2. Third point for Briere.

16:37 left: Flyers buzzing. Have a 5-1 edge in shots. Wonder if Ruff is pondering his timeout right now.

9:30 left: Print editions calling but we seem to have that under control now. It's still 3-2. Shots are 11-6 Philly in this period.

8:39 left: Good rush by Ennis but Bobrovsky with the save on Buffalo's 36th shot. Flyers have 27.

8:24 left: Good night. Terrible giveaway at the Flyers' line by Sekera and Mike Richards goes all the way in alone. Burns Miller on the backhand. Flyers lead, 4-2.

Flyers win 5-2 -- empty netter by Hartnell with 1:55 left.

Second Period

8:31 p.m. The puck is dropped.

15:21 left: Good start for the Sabres as they have the only three shots. Sekera did a good job lugging the puck on one rush coast to coast but Connolly blew that opportunity. 

14:32 left: Leopold for hooking and it's a good thing. Van Riemsdyk had a wide-open net on a rebound but Leopold hooked him down.

13:13 left: Miller's best save, a sprawling dive on a Jeff Carter rebound. That had to hurt the groin a little, just for the record.

12:30 left: Miller helps Buffalo survive that one. Flyers' power play has been dominant in its two chances so far.

9:50 left: Shots are 20-13 for Buffalo and here comes the Kisscam. Told ya. Boo. Out of town, the Bruins are crushing the Senators, 5-0, in Boston. When is the end coming in Ottawa for GM Bryan Murray and coach Cory Clouston? It has to be near.

8:46 left: How many shots is McCormick getting in this game? He just cut in front from the left boards and forced Bobrovsky to make another save. That's eight shots on goal for No. 8. 

8:10 left: The Gaustad line is driving the Flyers crazy. And after-the-whistle stuff has the Sabres on the power play as Andrej Meszaros takes a silly roughing penalty going after Gaustad.

6:01 left: Decent possession in the zone, not too many chances as the penalty expires. Shots are 10-3 for the Sabres in this period.

5:37 left: Good slugfest after the whistle between Gaustad and Hartnell, who clearly went looking for him. They'll get five apiece.

3:56 left: Some 4-on-4 hockey as Timonen goes for grabbing Ennis in front of the net but Ennis got unsportsmanlike conduct for diving. Hmmm.

2:10 left: Miller robs Matt Carle in the slot after Carter manhandles Weber behind the net to get the puck out front.

1:49 left: The famous Briere windmill after the ex-Sabres captain gets his 22nd to tie the game at 2-2. A bad break as McCormick's back pass at center ice went by Montador and sent the Flyers away as Timonen jumped the puck coming out of the penalty box and Briere took his rebound. Shots are 14-6 in the period for Buffalo and 28-16 in the game but it's game tied 2-2.

46.4 left: Coburn for holding.

End-2nd: It's 2-2. Shots were 15-6 for Buffalo and are 29-16 through two periods.

First Period

7:40 p.m: The puck is dropped (thanks for nothing, Versus). Both teams in their retros. Flyers have the white with orange that brings back 70s nightmares and has me looking for the ghosts of Orest Kindrachuk, Don Saleski, Bob Kelly and Dave Schultz. This is, by the way, the 35th anniversary of their win over the Red Army -- the game the Russians temporarily walked off the ice to protest the Bullies' rough play.

15:00 left: The Sabres take the lead on a rebound goal by Gaustad. Myers let go a drive from the point, McCormick was stopped on the backhand on a rebound and Gaustad finally pounded it home. Sabres lead, 1-0. A minute earlier, Bobrovsky had robbed Ennis on a 3-on-1 break.

13:30 left: Sabres skating well in this one. Shots are 8-3 in their favor. Miller made a good save early on Mike Richards from in tight and the Flyers have done nothing else.

12:30 left: Forget what I said about Gerbe. He's been a terror down low so far. Gerbe-Gaustad-McCormick all over the Flyers again with three more shots. 

10:01 left: Gerbe has been a monster so far in wildly fast-moving period. Outworked the Flyers for the puck again and fired one wide from the slot but McCormick takes it off the backboards and banks it in off the back of Bobrovsky's right leg. Sabres lead, 2-0. Shots are 12-3.

7:34 left: Weber for interference as the Flyers are starting to get their legs and give the Sabres trouble in their own end since the second goal. The lines have been Ennis-Hecht-Stafford, Vanek-Connolly-Pominville, Gerbe-Gaustad-McCormick.  Niedermayer and Grier floating with a double-shifting forward. Defense pairs are Myers-Sekera, Leopold-Montador, Morrisonn-Weber.

7:19 left: That didn't take long. Richards absolutely wipes out Hecht in the corner and Timonen's shot from the point is tipped home by Hartnell. Sabres lead, 2-1.

6:32 left: Finally a TV timeout. We've played 13 1/2 minutes in 21 minutes of real time. Lightning quick. There are no Terry Pegula sightings. He's not in the owner's box folks, so stop asking. He doesn't own the team. Yet. There are some folks in there but they could be contest winners or whoever. No one of note involved with running this operation.

2:31 left: A classic moment on the HD board? Very nice to see Mogilny's 76th vs. the Flyers in 1993. We've only waited a half season to get stuff like that in the 40th anniversary year instead of those ridiculous blooper reels. Applause from this end. About time. But I know the kisscam is looming.

1:27 left: Bobrovsky gets a piece of McCormick's laser from the slot, Buffalo's first shot in nearly nine minutes (the Flyers had six straight). Leopold then stopped from the point.

End-1st: Sabres lead, 2-1. Shots are 14-10.

The Sabres will not have a representative in the NHL All-Star Game Jan. 30 at Carolina as the rosters were completed today and no Buffalo player was named. Tyler Ennis will be the Buffalo representative, taking part in the skills competition on Jan. 29. The complete list can be found here. Teams will be formed Jan. 28 as part of the league's new fantasy draft. The Sabres, Islanders, Panthers and Coyotes were shut out of the selections.

As for tonight's game against Philadelphia, coach Lindy Ruff said defenseman Mike Weber will be back in the lineup after missing one game with a bruised finger. Ruff would not say for sure, but it's expected that the Sabres will scratch Chris Butler and a forward (either Nathan Gerbe or Luke Adam) and again go with seven defensemen.

"We've got a chance to play against the best team in the East and we're very much looking forward to this," Weber said. "They're a fast team. You can eliminate some of that speed with physical play down low but you can't run out of position and give them opportunities where they can jump by us."

The Flyers have seven forwards with at least 10 goals, led by the 21 of ex-Sabre Daniel Briere, who was snubbed in today's all-star picks. The Sabres have just two 10-goal fowards (Thomas Vanek has 16 and Drew Stafford has 14).

"They might have the best corps of offensive players," Ruff said. "They've been able to win tight games, been able to win shootouts. Their defense has played well too. Even with [Chris] Pronger out, other guys have stepped in and played well for them."

Asked if Philly's corps of centers are the best in the league, Ruff said, "I think it's pretty close. You might argue Detroit has a couple that are pretty good too. Overall on the offensive side, it's a very creative group."

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

The World Juniors logo remains at center ice but the Sabres are reclaiming HSBC Arena for one night for tonight's game against the Boston Bruins. It's also a special night as Alexander Mogilny and late, great Buffalo News hockey columnist and Hall of Famer Jim Kelley get inducted into the Sabres Hall of Fame.

We all wish Kell was still here and were really hoping he'd make it to this date once he learned of his poor cancer prognosis. That didn't happen but we salute him in this space again. We have provided blanket coverage of the World Juniors with Jim in mind because that tournament would have found him in his glory. Some sensational hockey so far.

As for the hockey tonight, the first bit of news is that is appears neither Shoane Morrisonn or Craig Rivet are getting scratched. Both are on the ice for warmups, so Buffalo is dressing seven defensemen with one of them likely to take turns up front. Nathan Gerbe is not on the ice so we'll wait for the official lineup sheet.

Update: That's the fact. Gerbe/Kaleta/Butler are the scratches. Morrisonn and Rivet stay in. 

Sabres starters: Vanek-Connolly-Pominville-Myers-Sekera. Goal: Miller
Bruins starters: Marchand-Bergeron-Recchi-Ference-Chara. Goal: Rask

Because of the Hall of Fame ceremonies, tonight's faceoff will be in the 7:20 range. Stay tuned.

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

First Period

7:29 p.m.: The puck is dropped. Somewhere in that great rink in the sky, the late, great Jim Kelley is alternating squirming -- and laughing at those of us in his chairs on deadline -- that he was partly responsible for a 25-minute delay of an opening faceoff.

19:33 left: Miller with a great pad save on a rocket from the right circle by Johnny Boychuk.

18:31 left: The Bruins jump to a 1-0 lead as Savard beats Gaustad clean on a faceoff and Andrew Ference beats Miller clean from the point.

17:54 left: Great shift by the Connolly line, poor play behind the net by Rask and Pominville backhands it home to tie the game at 1-1. Pominville got cross-checked after the play by Savard and Weber came in to wipe out Savard. Good to see.

17:11 left: The Bruins take a 2-1 lead as Rob Niedermayer scores his first of the year. Oops, wrong net. Dennis Seidenberg's shot hits him in the body and goes past a stunned Miller. Two goals on four shots for Boston. No goals for Buffalo in 28+ games for Niedermayer.

14:24 left: What's up with this? Hecht loses a faceoff clean and Boychuk's shot gets past Miller on a deflection by Brad Marchand. Three goals on eight shots. Bruins lead, 3-1. Memo to the Sabres: We can only imagine what Jim Kelley would have written about these 5 1/2 minutes. Yeeesh. 

11:30 left: Boston's Wheeler gone for delay of game (puck over glass).

9:35 left: Tough hit along the boards on Luke Adam by old friend Daniel Paille.

9:04 left: A few seconds after Gaustad takes out Wheeler, McCormick goes with Adam McQuaid. Has the early edge before falling at the end.

7:00 left: Shots are 9-8 for the Bruins, who have a two-goal lead mostly on the strength of two clean faceoff wins.

6:15 left: The Sabres pull within 3-2 on a sensational give-and-go in the Boston zone from from Connolly to Vanek, who pots the backhand past Rask. Of course, a trip of Ference by Vanek certainly helped the play too. No call. Fortuitous.

5:59 left: Here's a big chance for the Sabres to get even as Savard goes for slashing. What is this? Canada-Sweden?

5:45 left: Big chance? Bruins go up, 4-2, as Chara pots a layup on a 2-on-1 past a sprawling Miller. Seventh short-handed goal of the season against Buffalo, tied with Tampa Bay for most in the league. When your power play struggles, you can't be minus on it. Terrible. Way, way, way, way too easy.

1:24 left: Boychuk to the locker room with a right leg injury.

45.0 left: Rask stops Vanek, who tried to blast one through him as he went through the right circle.

40.1 left: Big goal for the Sabres as Stafford pushes the puck out from under Rask's glove and left leg just inside the post. Bruins lead, 4-3. Stafford's 11th.

End-1st: Crazy period of shinny ends with Boston leading 4-3. Shots are 16-11 for Sabres. Not defensive play and goaltending at its finest, that's for sure.

SECOND PERIOD

8:27 p.m.: Two changes in the arena, with Tim Thomas taking over the Boston net and me (John Vogl) taking over for Harrington so he can do the Mogilny-Kelley notebook.

8:28 p.m.: The Sabres get a power play just 22 seconds in as Mark Recchi hooks Paul Gaustad, who barrels over Thomas. Welcome to the game, Mr. Vezina Trophy favorite.

8:30 p.m.: Bruins easily kill the penalty and return to applying pressure.

8:31 p.m.: Boston gets its chance on the power play with 15:54 to go as Drew Stafford gets whistled for hooking. We'll see if the teams can get the eighth goal of the game. The Sabres and their opponents averaged 5.48 goals per game in HSBC Arena through the first 19 outings, and now in the 20th they strike for seven in 20 minutes.

8:36 p.m.: The Sabres tie the game, 4-4, with 13:43 left as Stafford steps out of the box, gets an outlet pass from Paul Gaustad, fakes a slap shot in the right dot and quickly fires a snap shot before Thomas can reset.

8:43 p.m.: Thomas stones Pominville twice with 10 minutes left to keep the score 4-4. Pominville wound up from the slot, got stopped, and then had his rebound chance tipped away.

8:49 p.m.: Big round of applause as Team USA's world junior team is announced on the Jumbtron. They're sitting way up in Section 315, a couple rows from the top. I'm sure Emerson Etem will complain. It's 4-4 with 6:01 left, while the Bruins hold an 11-7 shot edge this period.

8:56 p.m.: Miller keeps it 4-4 with 3:58 to go, sopping Nathan Horton on the doorstep after a sweet, no-look, backhand pass by Savard from behind the net.

8:58 p.m.: Bruins get a chance for another short-handed goal as Boychuk trips Vanek with 2:48 to go.

9 p.m.: The Sabres take a 5-4 lead with Pominville's power-play goal with 2:17 to go. He fired from the point, and the shot was going wide until it struck the skate of Seidenberg and caromed past Thomas.

9:02 p.m.: Fans get restless with 1:10 left as the Jumbotron goes dark. Now they actually have to watch the game on the ice instead of the TV screen.

9:04 p.m.: The Sabres head to the dressing room with a 5-4 lead. The Sabres have 30 shots, 14 in the second period, while the Bruins have 24, including 13 in the second. Good night from me, as Mike will be back for the third.

Third Period

9:20 p.m.: Harrington back in the saddle as the puck is dropped. Kudos to JVogl for taking over for the middle 20 minutes.

16:52 left: The Bruins tie it up at 5-5 at rookie Tyler Seguin buries one from the right circle over Miller's shoulder. It's been all Boston in this period -- six shots to none. Bruins deserved the tie. Great feed from the boards from Paille for his 100th NHL point.

16:18 left: Stafford gone for slashing. 

13:43 left: Out of the box, Stafford gets Buffalo's first shot on goal after Boston had eight.

12:54 left: You can see the talent of Seguin. What a saucer pass to rookie d-man Steve Kampfer for his second of the year. Bruins lead, 6-5. Shots are 9-1 in this period. This is Buffalo's highest-scoring game of the season. Previous high was nine combined goals twice. It's the first multi-point game of Seguin's career. In a real I'm-going-out-there guess, it won't be his last.

8:26 left: Shots are 10-1 for Boston. Sabres were 9-1-0 when leading after two periods. Bruins were 3-9-3 when trailing after two.

4:30 left: Two shots in the third period is not the way to protect the lead.

2:43 left: Icing against the Bruins. And people, again, start to pile up the staircases to the exits with three minutes left in a one-goal game.

2:20 left: A near miss as the puck squirts through Thomas legs but goes just wide of the left post on a shot by Pominville. 

1:29 left: Icing on Boston again. They're just holding on.

47.3 left: Faceoff in Boston end. According to NESN and the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the first time in the Bruins' long history that four different defenseman have scored in a game (Chara, Ference, Seidenberg, Kampfer).

27.8 left: The Sabres tie it up at 6-6. Incredible work at the point by Leopold to keep the puck in and Stafford eventually puts it home on the backhand. Here come the hats on Mogilny's Hall of Fame night. Somehow appropriate. And it's 6-6. And our man Kelley is laughing from above at his buddies in the press box sweating out deadline now.

We go to OT at 6-6 -- but only after Horton narrowly misses from in front with Miller getting a piece. How did he get that open at this point? Shots were 11-5 for the Bruins in the third and it's 35-35 for the game.

OVERTIME

4:10 left: Stafford denied cutting in from Thomas' left. He has back-to-back hat tricks against Boston in the last two meetings. Wild.

2:39 left: Bruins have the only two shots but neither were dangerous.

1:49 left: Shots 4-0. Miller stops Horton. That one was dangerous.

End-OT: Still tied at 6-6. Bruins had the only five shots. It finishes 40-35 for Boston and 16-5 over the final 25 minutes. Sabres did well to get one point out of this. Still have a chance for two. Will have to check but I'm fairly certain this is the highest scoring Sabres game to ever go to a shootout.

SHOOTOUT

Sabres win, 7-6: Sabres get goals by Stafford, Vanek, Ennis. Bruins respond with Ryder and Seguin goals. Chara wide for the win.

EDMONTON -- High-high-high atop another Canadian arena, get ready for what might be another ugly Sabres live blog as they get set to meet the Edmonton Oilers. The view is a little lower than last  night in Calgary. The way to get into the press box was worse. Two rickety metal staircases, then a catwalk, then a looooong walk around the hanging basket of a box. Hey, Canada: You can build a press box that's part of the arena instead of just hung from the roof. It's OK.

Now that I have that out of my system ..... 

It is cold here. Really cold. Freezing. Temperatures in the single digits. It was bright and sunny all afternoon and then it suddenly got ridiculously foggy as I was driving back for the game. Coming down the hill on Wayne Gretzky Drive, you couldn't even see the rink on your right. Crazy. 

I checked out the West Edmonton Mall, the largest in North America. I am not a mall person but this place was ridiculous. Its wiki page does an amazing job of detailing the history and such. Water parks (left), sea lion shows, themed areas like Bourbon Street and Chinatown and an indoor rink that the Oilers once used for practice. You could spend an entire day there easy. Or a couple.

But here's my warning: You'll never find your car. My rental was in area 32. After a couple hours of walking around the mall, I was hopelessly lost. How big is this place? I got a cab outside to drive me around to area 32 and the fare was in the $10 range. Think the bosses at TBN will let that one slide on the ol' expense account?

I've been trying to get my early edition story on Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle done and it's complete (be sure to check it out in the paper tomorrow). Maybe in the first intermission I'll post a couple pictures of the view or the mall water park. There is a game to talk about here. I hear you out there: Do we have to? Yes people, we do. That's what I'm here for.

The Sabres are 1-5-2 in their last eight on the road. They're decimated by injuries and Tyler Myers' illness. They're closer to a top-five draft pick than the playoffs. How ugly might Saturday night in HSBC Arena be if this one is ugly tonight? Let's wait and see. And yep, Ryan Miller is again going for win No. 200. 

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

Sabres starters: Stafford-Hecht-Pominville-Sekera-Leopold (change in pairings). Goal: Miller
Oilers starters: Hall-Gagner-Eberle-Peckham-Gilbert. Goal: Khabibulin. 

Third Period

10:46 p.m.: (killer for reporter deadlines): The puck is dropped.

17:15 left: Buffalo gets the breathing room tally it needs from Hecht, who breaks down the left wing and beats Khabibulin between the legs after taking a backhand pass from Gerbe. (Bad goal there). An assist from Weber on the play as well. Hecht has been much better tonight than last night's disaster. Sabres lead, 3-1.

15:22 left: Great save from Miller on Eberle, who has been dangerous.

13:42 left: Ryan Jones puts home Tom Gilbert's pass. Or did the pass go in off Rivet? Either way, Sabres lead 3-2. Play is under review. Goal stands. Goes to Gilbert as ruled in off Rivet.

13:00 left: They switched the goal and gave it to Jones.

12:49 left: Miller smothers Smid's shot from the left circle.

8:54 left: McCormick for slashing in the offensive zone. Smacked the stick right out of Penner's hands. No reason.

2;53 left: Great glvoe save by Miller on Hemsky.

2:00 left: Miller close to No. 200. Holding on.

It's Over: A 4-2 win as Weber hits the empty net with a 180-footer at 19:08. No. 200 for Miller and he shares a bearhug with Lalime as they're the last two off the ice.

Second Period

9:56 p.m.: The puck is dropped. Scroll up and check out the picture I posted of the waterpark inside the mall. Filled with people on the slides and the rapids on a 0-degree day. How cool is that?

16:27 left: Sabres take the 2-1 lead as Weber snaps one from the point and it goes all the way in over Khabibulin's glove. Weber's first NHL goal.

15:44 left: Stafford for hooking. This note just in on my cell phone: A voicemail from United that my flights home tomorrow are canceled and they "hope" to be able to rebook me on Thursday. Wonderful. I'll be working that issue after the game.

11:00 left: The Oilers had plenty of jump at the start of this game and they are dead-dead-dead now. They had some early chances to convert and take a 2-0 lead and didn't. Now the Sabres are controlling play. Of course, controlling play against the 15th place team in the West is hardly cause for celebration. Small victories at this point.

9:58 left: McCormick for slashing a few seconds after a brutal giveaway by Montador, who sent the puck in the slot in front of his net.

6:39 left: Sabres doing a great job on the PK tonight. Now they have a power play as Hemsky goes for hooking. 

2:53 left: Rivet goes for cross checking Jean-Francois Jacque. An obvious call but it was the retaliation, which is what officials always see. Do they really think a guy just blatantly drills somebody at center ice for no reason without provocation? 

43.4 left: Rivet breakaway out of the box, pulled down by Smid and they knock the net off. No call. Sabres looking for the penalty shot and got nothing. That said, Rivet got too close and needed to shoot.

End-2nd: Sabres lead 2-1. Edmonton had a 7-5 edge in shots and it's 18-16 for the Oilers through two.

First Period

9:08 p.m.: Puck is dropped.

18:33 left: An early disaster. Tyler Ennis stripped right in front by Ales Hemsky. Dustin Penner walks in alone on Miller and beats him between the legs. 1-0 Oilers on the game's first shot.  Forwards were terrible last night, giving the puck away ad nauseum. It continues. And it would be nice if Miller would make a stop too.

14:30 left: Lindy Ruff is pretty much out of ideas with this team. What to do? Trash everything, lines and defense pairings. The only line that's status quo is Stafford-Hecht-Pominville. After that, it's Vanek-McCormick-Gerbe, Niedermayer-Adam-Kaleta and Ennis-Gaustad-Grier. On defense, Leopold and Montador, who have been slumping for a few weeks, are no longer together. Leopold is with Sekera in Myers' spot while Montador is with Weber and Rivet is with Morrisonn.

13:07 left: Glad to see the Sabres conserved energy by having an optional morning skate. Shots are 4-0 for the Oilers so far. Puck has hardly been in the Edmonton zone. Memo to Terry Pegula: If this keeps up, the expectation is that you will back up the truck and start shipping out everything.

10:32 left: Buffalo's first shot, a routine flip shot from the left point by Leopold.

8:55 left: Holy moly, a real scoring chance. A great save by Khabibulin denies Grier on the wraparound attempt. Looked like Grier had the post but the Oilers' goalie got back quickly. Shots are 6-3 for Edmonton.

6:56 left: Sabres finally woke up. Great shift by Adam keyed his line and Buffalo actually leads in shots at 7-6.

4:29 left: Mr. Vogl would be happy. They have cheerleaders here, which should be considered blasphemous in Canada. They're called the Octane. Get it? Oil, octane. These jokesters. You want a link? Not on my blog, people. Go find it yourself!

3:24 left: It is very, very quiet here. HSBC-level quiet. Nothing like Calgary, where there was quite a buzz all night. Maybe everyone is fronzen in their seats. It's FREEZING in here. I can feel a breeze on my neck. What's up with that? 

2:12 left: Sabres tie it at 1-1. Kaleta does the dirty work behind the net and gets it out front to Adam, whose 5-footer is tipped by and Edmonton defenseman but still has the mustard to make the net. Game tied, 1-1. Adam's second of the year. Sabres have been the better team last 10 minutes.

1:25 left: Gerbe foiled on clear break on 2-on-0 with Vanek. Hmmm. Vanek 13 goals, Gerbe one goal. Pass? Maybe?

End-1st: We're tied at 1-1 and shots are 11-11. Sabres, remember, had no shots for first 9:28 of the period.

EDMONTON -- A quiet morning skate for the Sabres at Rexall Place as it's an optional, as most of them are on the second day of back-to-back games. The Sabres are just 3-6-1 in the back end this year, which doesn't bode well for tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers.

On the ice are Tim Connolly, Drew Stafford, Mike Grier, Paul Gaustad, Nathan Gerbe, Tyler Ennis, Luke Adam, Mike Weber, Chris Butler, Craig Rivet and Patrick Lalime. Lindy Ruff is not here as the assistant coaches are running the skaters through drills.

Ruff is scheduled to meet the media at 5 p.m. local time (7 p.m. in Buffalo) and that's when we should get definitive word on Tyler Myers' status for tonight.

The Oilers, meanwhile, are 0-2-1 in their last three games and 1-4-1 in their last six but this is the opener of a five-game homestand for them. Rookies Jordan Eberle (9-13-22) and Taylor Hall (11-10-21) are third and fourth, respectively, on the team in scoring. WJC alums from last year's Team Canada squad, I chatted with both of them and you can read it in Wednesday's Buffalo News (cheap plug alert).

Stay tuned later today for the word from Ruff.

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

CALGARY -- Lindy Ruff says Tim Connolly will not play tonight or tomorrow in Edmonton but will be back Saturday against Boston. Here's what some of the players said after today's skate about Derek Roy's injury:

Ryan Miller: "It's easy to start playing the victim. Derek got hurt and we feel bad because he's a great friend of ours and was having a great season.. We just hopes he gets back to health and we have to take care of business on our end. Even if he missed a few weeks, we'd have to play the same kind of game we will now. It's just another element, another part of the test."

Thomas Vanek: "It's hard for all of us but especially for me as a friend and a linemate. I've played with him a long time now it seems like. It's tough. We feel bad for him. It seemed like a nothing play and now he's done. You feel for him. He was having a great year, a great competitor for us. We all know we have to be a little better here."

Rob Niedermayer, who will take Roy's place between Thomas Vanek and Tyler Ennis: "I have to be able to get these guys the puck. They're both creative players offensively. You lose a guy like Derek who has been so consistent, it's up to you be big and take the responsibility for everyone."

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

The Sabres had an optional morning skate in HSBC Arena in preparation for tonight's game against the Florida Panthers. Based on Tuesday's win over Anaheim, you would not anticipate any lineup changes. That would mean the scratches would continue to be Tim Connolly, Shaone Morrisonn, Chris Butler and Luke Adam.

Morrisonn has been cleared for contact after his concussion but is now going to have to wait his turn to get back in the lineup.

"We're desperate for defensemen to play well," coach Lindy Ruff said. Realistically, however, Morrisonn could only go in for some point for Mike Weber or Craig Rivet. Ryan Miller goes for his 200th career victory tonight.

George Richards of the Miami Herald, author of the whimsical On Frozen Pond blog that is one of the league's best, is reporting that Tomas Vokoun will start in goal for the Panthers tonight. Vokoun was pulled after just 11 minutes last night in Pittsburgh, giving up the first three goals in a 5-2 defeat. Vokoun is 13-13 with a 2.49 goals-against average and .922 save percentage. Backup Scott Clemmensen (2-4, 2.61, 9.13) finished last night and played well.

It makes a big difference to the Sabres who plays. Buffalo is 11-3-2 this year against backup goalies and just 3-13-2 against starters in one of the more bizarre stats of the season you'll ever find. 

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

It's easy to see that opposing teams don't respect the Sabres' pop-gun offense: They keep playing their backup goalies against Buffalo. It appears Tuukka Rask will start tonight for the Boston Bruins, who are holding out ace Tim Thomas for tomorrow night's showdown in Montreal. Rask, of course, stymied the Sabres and outplayed Ryan Miller last year in the playoffs but has hardly been a world-beater this year (2-6-1, 2.51, .928).

By my count, the Sabres are a stellar 9-3-2 against backups this season. Of course, that means they're 3-11-2 when the opponents play their No. 1 guy and that's pathetic. The Sabres' only wins over starters came Nov. 6 at Toronto (beating J.S. Giguere), Dec. 4 at Ottawa (Brian Elliott) and Dec. 9 over San Jose (Antti Niemi)

Add Rask to a long line of backups that have played against Buffalo this season. This will be the 15th time in 31 games the Sabres have seen the No. 2 guy (or in the case of Washington, the No. 3). Some were injury related and some are schedule-related but most are also let's-start-the-backup-against-the-weaker-team thinking.

In addition to Rask for Thomas tonight, the Sabres have also seen Los Angeles' Jonathan Bernier (instead of Jonathan Quick), Vancouver's Corey Schneider (Roberto Luongo), old friend Marty Biron of the Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist), Dallas' Andrew Raycroft (Kari Lehtinen), Columbus' Mathieu Garon (Steve Mason), Washington's Braden Holtby (Michal Neuvirth), Toronto's Jonas Gustavsson (Giguere), Atlanta's Chris Mason twice (Ondrej Pavelec), Chicago's Corey Crawford (Marty Turco), Ottawa's Pascal Leclaire (Elliott), New Jersey's Johan Hedberg twice (Martin Brodeur), and Tampa's Mike Smith (Dan Ellis).

On paper, it should be a break to not have to try to beat Thomas, who is 14-2-3 and leads the league in GAA (1.51) and save percentage (.954). We'll see.

No changes from yesterday's practice lineup for Buffalo. Nathan Gerbe and Craig Rivet will be scratches with Rob Niedermayer, Drew Stafford and Tim Connolly all in the lineup.

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

No lineup changes for the Sabres tonight and no Evgeni Malkin for the Penguins. He took the morning skate but still needs practice time on his injured knee. The Penguins have called up Dustin Jeffrey from Wilkes-Barre of the AHL, where he was his team's leading scorer, and he'll get into the lineup tonight.

Plenty of media in the Penguins locker room to get the state of the team from Sidney Crosby as the visitors go for their 12th straight win tonight. I also chatted up East Amherst native and standout defenseman Brooks Orpik.

Click below for audio from those two interviews as Crosby and Orpik talk about the Penguins' streak, the upcoming Winter Classic, HBO's reality show filming and their memories of their time at the World Junior Championships.

Disclaimer: A little tech trouble at the start of the chat with Crosby led me to miss about the first 20 seconds of my opening question on the winning streak but Crosby's answer was a simple, "Each game is tough. you try to prepare accordingly. We've been competing hard with a lot of effort and getting a lot of big plays from everybody. We just want to keep that going."

It happens sometimes. Here's the audio.

Sidney Crosby

Brooks Orpik

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

MONTREAL -- Greetings from high atop the Bell Centre -- and I mean, high-high-high by the catwalks and retired banners in one of my favorite buildings in the NHL. It's the Sabres and Habs in what could be a war of attrition as both teams played last night. Things went appreciably better for the Sabres in their 3-1 win over the Leafs while the Habs were no-shows in a 3-0 loss at Atlanta. Backup Alex Auld took the loss in that game despite 44 saves.

No backups tonight as it's a marquee matchup between reborn Carey Price and Ryan Miller, who was solid last night after missing two games with groin tenderness.

We have a 7:15 start (thanks for nothing, Hockey Night in Canada). Can't even give you a good restaurant recap today. Flew into Newark, got here this morning, neither team skated and it was snowing like you wouldn't believe. Probably harder than it was walking out of HSBC Arena last night. No Schwartz's Deli trip. This time.

The roar is deafening as the Habs take the ice here. Every night. Quite a scene. Back with updates after the anthems.

Sabres starters: Stuart-Hecht-Pominville-Montador-Leopold. Goal: Miller.
Habs starters: Moen-Cammalleri-Gomez-Georges-Gill. Goal: Price.

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

Third Period

9:06 left: We're under way.

18:27 left: Miller robs Kostitsyn, who was alone in front. Dispirited Sabres very soft on the puck along the wall since Montreal's second goal.

16:15 left: Sekera breaks his stick on a slapshot and charges back for the puck stickless behind the Buffalo net, taking out Miller after the goalie went to play the puck. Nearly created an empty net and an easy goal. This has to be Sekera's worst game of the year, easily his worst since he was paired with Myers.

14:34 left: Miller robs Giontat from in front in his bid for a hat trick. Habs have only three shots of the period.

7:56 left: The "Car-ey, Car-ey" chants really going now as Price preserves the shutout by robbing Gerbe from in front.

1:30 left: Now it's the "Ol-e, Ol-e." Shots are 34-32 for Buffalo. Only suspense is Price's shutout.

1: 13 left: Leopold breaks the shutout with 1:13 to go. His seventh, which is more than any Buffalo forward not named Vanek or Roy. Habs 3-1.

It's over: A 3-1 loss. Final shots were 35-33 for the Sabres.

Second Period

Of note: First periods have told the tale for the Canadiens this season. They entered the game 14-2-1 when leading or tied after 20 minutes -- and 0-6-0 when trailing after 20. The Sabres, meanwhile, were 5-2-1 when leading after the first period but 4-10-2 when behind or tied. ... Subban had five shots for the Habs and no one else had two. Montreal won 15 of 20 faceoffs, a clear reason why the Habs' puck control was nearly complete over the second half of the period. Montreal had 12 shots in the final eight minutes. Weber, of all people, had three shots for Buffalo. Memo to forwards: Show up, please. Memo to Sabres in general: Five penalties in one period on the road is way too much.

8:08 p.m.: We're under way.

16:20 left: Pouliot goes for roughing after crunching Montador into the boards. Two close calls for Sabres so far -- Price stopped Roy on a give-and-go with Vanek and Vanek off the post after he had Price beat over the glove.

14:46 left: Good work by Price. Hecht put an Ennis rebound behind the goalie but out the other side and Price has stood tall otherwise. Five shots so far on this PP.

13:13 left: Amazing what you can do when you stay out of the penalty box. Shots are 8-1 for Buffalo in this period.

12:00 left: Two saves in 10 seconds by Miller, a beauty from in front on Gionta and a glove stop on Plekanac. Few seconds earlier, Pominville just missed on a great feed from Ennis. Excellent back-checking by the Habs on Ennis.

11:31 left: Another Sabres power play as Alexandre Picard goes for hooking.

9:07 left: Hard to complain about the PP tonight other than no goals. Hemmed the Habs in but Price was up to the test, especially on a one-timer from the slot on Gerbe. Shots are 24-21 for Montreal but 13-4 for Buffalo in this period. Habs, remember, were outshot by 23-4 in the second last night in Atlanta. Good response by the Sabres to that brutal final eight minutes of the first.

7:56 left: Oof. There's a killer. Terrible crossice pass by Vanek in the Montreal zone is picked off by Kostitsyn and Habs break on 2-on-1 on Weber. Perfect pass to Gionta, who beats Miller. No chance for Weber or Miller. Habs lead, 2-0.

7:24 left: Another Habs penalty. Ellers for holding.

4:22 left: The crowd is chanting "Car-ey, Car-ey" after another failed Buffalo power play. Imagine that. They wanted to run Price out of town this summer after the stunning trade of Jaroslav Halak to St. Louis. The bounceback years of Price and Boston's Tim Thomas are two of the biggest stories of the season in the NHL.

3:14 left: Gionta whistles one over Miller's shoulder to make it 3-0 Habs. Looked like Miller was screened by Sekera. Myers loses the puck to Plekanac, who makes a great feed to the slot. With this offense, I think it's safe to call this one over, isn't it?

5.9 left: A slugfest at center ice between McCormick and Travis Moen, again started by Cammalleri, who then moved out of the way and put Gerbe's shirt over his head. Cammalleri has a lot of Ken Linseman in him. Starts a lot. Finishes nothing.

End-2nd: Habs lead, 3-0. Shots are 27-24 for Montreal. It was 16-7 for Buffalo in that period. No rewards.

First Period

18:28 left: The Habs are certainly ornery after last night's game. Hal Gill was in a Sabre's face afte rthe first eight seconds and Lapierrer us off for interference on McCormick, who had hit P.K. Subban. Kind of a bad penalty we saw from the Leafs last night.

16:20 left: Not the same power play start as last night. The best save was by Miller on a breakaway by Tom Pyatt. Terrible pass from Sekera to Ennis got it going. Habs running all over the rink. Subban just crushed Kaleta and the crowd is roaring. A no-show in Atlanta will change your team's mood, eh?

13:17 left: Miller with the great glove grab on a tip from Jeff Halpern gets us to out first TV timeout. I've had some questions about Miller's glove this season. No issue there. Sharp-sharp-sharp. Shots are 5-5 and we have our first appearance from Youppi, the former Expos mascot who now works for the Habs, with the strains of "Minnie the Moocher" thrown in.

11:46 left: Habs doing a good job keeping the Sabres to the outside. Don't think any of Price's six saves thus far can be called difficult. Miller has already made two boffo ones.

10:37 left: Habs to the power play as Morrisonn goes for interference. Clean hit on the boards of Halpern -- but Halpern didn't have the puck as it was already by him.

8:44 left: Miller with the glove again to snag one from Plekanac. That's 43 of 44 saves for Miller in the last 72 minutes.

7:28 left: Sabres getting hemmed in and back in the box again, this time a cross-checking call on Montador. Nice work at the point for the Habs by old friend Jaroslav Spacek, one of the most imitated Sabres ever. Great voice. The media misses his wisecracks.

7:06 left: There's a disaster. With no one on him in the zone, Sekera fires the puck over the glass. Delay of game. Two-man edge for 1:38.  Sabres lead the league with four goals against in the 5-on-3.

6:19 left: Miller can't stop 'em all. Andrei Kostitsyn with a tap-in after Gionta's shot was stopped by Miller after a sick feed from Plekanac.. Habs lead 1-0.

4:42 left: Sabres survive. Fifth goal of the year down two men. That's a killer. Shots are 13-7 for the Habs. There was no excuse for Sekera's shot over the glass. Puck didn't look like it was rolling and he had plenty of time. Gotta bear down in that situation, especially when you're already short-handed.

2:33 left: Sabres get a break with an icing call. Shots are 16-7. Miller's 15th save was a doozy, on former Sabres prospect Mathieu Darche, who walked in alone after going right around Sekera. No. 44 will want to forget this period.

1:13 left: Judging by the Habs' reaction, you can't check Mike Cammalleri? Weber just did and everyone in red basically went beserk trying to get him. Hecht and Cammalleri end up in the box. But Habs get a power play as Weber goes for charging in addition to Hecht-Cammalleri's coincidental roughing calls. No referee had an arm up on Weber. And what about Georges' bull rush on Weber? Nothing. Terrible. 

End-1st: The Sabres somehow hold on for dear life and get out of the period down, 1-0. Shots were 20-8 for Montreal. Two great saves by Miller in the final 20 seconds. Kostitsyn nearly had his second but couldn't corral a loose puck on the doorstep.

Happy Black Friday from a non-shopper high atop HSBC Arena as we get set for the battle for 11th place in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the Northeast Division, aka the second meeting of the year between the Sabres and Leafs.

Ryan Miller will be back in goal and that's all fine and well but this team has to score. One goal the last two games doesn't cut it. Miller said this morning "that's not the norm for this team" but we'll have to see. 

Lots of action this afternoon, including the Isles snapping their 14-game losing streak with a 2-0 win over the woeful Devils, Carolina's 3-0 win in Boston and Pittsburgh's wildly entertaining 2-1 win over Ottawa (shots were 44-40 for the Senators and Marc-Andre Fluery followed up his shutout here Wednesday with 43 more saves!). The Sabres are in Montreal tomorrow night but there will be no disadvantage with the back-to-back becase the Canadiens are in Atlanta tonight. The Thrashers are currently eighth in the East with 23 points (the Sabres and Leafs are tied with 19).

There are a TON of Leafs fans here as you would imagine. And the large Sabres' flag that gets passed around over the heads of the fans in the 100 level just got held up and scrunched up in Section 102 by some of those blue-clad scoundrels before some Sabres fans came to the rescue. And there were HUGE renditions of "O, Canada" in the crowd. 

No sellout by the way. Thank platinum pricing. Lots of empties up top.

Sabres starters: Stuart-Hecht-Pominville-Myers-Sekera. Goal: Miller
Leafs starters: MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin-Schenn-Kaberle. Goal: Gustavsson

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

Third Period

9:22 p.m: Puck dropped with Leafs on PP.

18:40 left: Sabres with another kill.

17:42 left: Miller with a good pad save on Kessel. Miller moving well tonight, out to the top of the crease, sharp with the legs. Doesn't look hesitant at all in the wake of the injuries.

16:46 left: Miller stones old friend MacArthur from the edge of the crease to his right.

14:30 left: Miller stops Kessel streaking down the right wing -- and Kessel appeared to get Miller in the neck area on the way by. Show me a replay. Thank you, MSG and apologies to Kessel. It was an inadvertant stick to the mask by Leopold, who was skating with Kessel behind the net. Super camera work there.

10:33 left: Sekera for hooking. Maybe it was, maybe it was a dive. But there's no way that should be called by the ref standing on the center red line. He's 100 feet away. 

9:02 left: Special teams the story of this night. Kaleta pots a short-handed goal, back-handing home a rebound of a Gaustad slapshot. Sabres lead 3-0 on their first shorty of the season. Toronto power play has been Laff-worthy tonight. Entered the game 3 for 36 on the road. Easy to see why.

4:53 left: Scrum in front and Francois Beauchemin chirps at Miller, who chirps back while Montador holds the Leaf off. Hip crowd chants "USA, USA." Orr goes for roughing. 

3:27 left: Kessel breaks the shutout by potting his own rebound. Sort of. Miller made the save and puck was sent right back to Kessel by Leopold. That's a shorty for the Lears. Sabres lead 3-1. It was the Leafs' 33rd shot of the night.

2:08 left: Attendance is 18,004. Leafs have outshot Sabres, 29-12, in final two periods. Miller is the No. 1 star of this one.

1:20 left: Leafs' net is empty. Icing call on Buffalo puts faceoff in Sabres' end.

58.4 left: Leafs ice the puck. Monster has to go back in net. Sweet Caroline time. Guess there's some good times in being 9-12-3.

It's over: A solid 3-1 win. Final shots are 36-28 for Toronto.

Second Period

8:34 p.m: We're under way.

19:02 left: The Hecht line pins the Leafs for the first 45 seconds. The Laff fans showed up en masse for the national anthem and the banner theft was crafty. Their team has been a complete no-show.

17:55 left: Big stop by Miller off slick rookie Nazem Kadri, who broke free in front. Kadri still looking for his first goal in his sixth game. Hey, has Clarke MacArthur been on the ice?

17:08 left: Vanek robbed again by Gustavsson off a great Ennis feed. Vanek's fourth shot of the game. Just noticed Pominville had five shots -- five! -- in the first period. He's got to start putting the puck in the net. Shots are 21-8 for Buffalo in this one.

15:11 left: Grier goes for hooking.

9:26 left: Leafs playing much better. Grabovski has been particularly good but he just shot wide from alone in front after Kaberle got through three Sabre inside the zone.

7:25 left: Big save by Miller on Kulemin, who stole the puck from leopold at the Buffalo line. We haven't had a whistle in a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time.

6:56 left: I had to open my mouth. Weber back to the box for the third time for holding, when he dragged down MacArthur. We've played 13 minutes of the period in just 17 minutes of real time. Shots are 9-5 for the Leafs.

In the crowd and on the HD board: Henry Winkler of Happy Days and Cindy Morgan from Caddyshack. They started the "Celebrity Lookalike" feature and put a picture of the Fonz on the board. Then cut to the real Winkler. Tricksters. The pair is here for the World's Largest Disco (kudos to Vogl for that note. I woulda had no clue).

4:50 left: Leafs 0 for 4 on the PP tonight and 0 for their last 32 against Buffalo.

3:23 left: Gaustad, he of one goal in 36 games, nearly tips one by Gustavsson reaching with one hand for an Ennis feed.

1:56 left: Ron Wilson certainly got on his team during the first intermission. They've been way more committed in this period. Shots are 12-5 for Toronto but Miller holding firm. Stupid blooper video time.

58.9 left: Grier to the box again for tripping. At some point, the Leafs' PP has to break through, right?

End-2nd: Sabres still lead 2-0 but almost a complete turnaround in shots. It was 15-5 for Toronto -- including the last 12. Sabres didn't have one for final 16 minutes.

First Period

18:05 left: Gaustad goes for boarding. Pretty dangerous hit from behind on Kessel. 

16:50 left: Say what you want about their fan base but the Leafs contingent give this place a buzz it just doesn't have any other night. The rink is alive tonight. 

16:00 left: That's the 29th straight penalty the Sabres have killed against Toronto, dating to March 27, 2009.

15:46 left: Kaleta drills Kulemin and Luke Schenn challenges him. Kaleta obliges and they go. Schenn ends up on top but Kaleta gives it the "raise the roof" gesture going to the box and the crowd responds. That might be the best rock-em-sock-em bout of Kaleta's career. A flurry of lefts from both. They both get five.

15:10 left: This is one onery game so far. Colton Orr just challenged Gaustad for the earlier hit and got a couple good shots from behind. Weber jumped in to stop it. Hmmm. Wonder if that's a third-man in. Or is it a fight if Gaustad is covering up? Update: Wow -- six-minute tripe minor to Orr and just two for Weber. Huge break for the Sabres. 

13:55 left: Just a few seconds after Luke Adam whiffs on a wide-open net for his first NHL goal, Adam sets the screen as Jordan Leopold rifles one home to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead. That ends the Sabres' shutout streak at 121 minutes, 13 seconds. Leopold's sixth. He's third on the team. I don't know whether to say good for him or shame on the forwards. (The AP's Bob Matuszak points out the Sabres have scored on their first shot twice in the last three games. The other was Vanek's goal Saturday against Tampa).

13:39 left: The Gaustad hit on Kessel seems to have the Leafs running around and forgetting hockey. Now Kris Versteeg is gone for elbowling a punch to the face of Gerbe. 

12:30 left: Roy has had three shots blocked on this 5-on-3 from the point. Gotta get them through.

12:10 left: Like I said, get them through. Vanek with a rifle from the left point for his ninth to tie Roy for the team lead. Adam gets an assist for his first NHL point. 2-0 Sabres

9:10 left: Not too many "Go Leafs Go" chants right now, eh? Shots are 7-3 for Buffalo. This is just the third game all season the Sabres have scored twice on the power play. And it took just under eight minutes for them to get there.

8:45 left: Weber goes for charging. Definite hit in the back. Undisciplined. He's way more aggressive than Rivet but he has to be under control too.

8:06 left: Grier wide on a short-handed breakaway after a great stand-up play and feed from Myers. Gotta hit the net there. Put it in and the Leafs are pondering timeouts, goaltending changes and close to total collapse.

6:39 left: That's 30 straight penalty kills against Toronto by the Sabres.

4:49 left: You have to wonder if Pominville is ever scoring again. Three chances from the doorstep in 16 seconds (thanx to JVogl for that count!). 

4:10 left: Miller stops Kessel on a breakaway after Sekera lets the puck get right through him at the Buffalo line.

1:25 left: Vanek robbed all alone on the edge of the crease. Even had time for a deke too. Super shift by Adam, who kept the puck in at the line and found Vanek. Shots are 15-5 for the Sabres. Easily one of their best periods of the year.

End-1st: Big cheers for the Sabres, who lead 2-0 and have a 16-5 edge in shots.

After getting sidetracked by injury for the second time this season, this time by groin tenderness, Ryan Miller is back in goal tonight for the Sabres against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Miller passed his final workout this morning and reported no troubles.

Miller has owned the Leafs in his career, going 22-8 in 30 career starts against them with a 2.23 goals-against average and .930 save percentage. The wins are the most against one team and the goals-against and save percentage are Miller's best among clubs that he's met at least five times.

"It's been an interesting month as far as little nagging things," Miller said today when asked about his injury troubles. "It's something I really haven't had in my career usually. I'm pretty resilient like that unless it's something major. But back to back in the last few weeks, things have popped up that I've had to address."

It remains to be seen how close to 100 percent Miller can get or if he will be in maintenance mode most of the season.

"I'd like to think I can get right in," he said. "My heart rate is right where it's supposed to be. My conditioning is pretty good. The frustrating part is how you feel on the ice trying to do everything that's normal without thinking about it. Honestly, that's been getting better even though I had a little groin thing coming up. Other parts have been feeling better, feeling more loose."

Coach Lindy Ruff said Miller playing tonight means he could be available to go back-to-back tomorrow in Montreal. Miller said he's hopeful that will be the case.

"You don't know until you try," he said. "We'll get through tonight, see where we're at, talk to Lindy and go from there."

Miller has been dogged by knee, hip and groin problems this year and is just 6-6-2 with a 2.62 GAA and .909 save percentage. But it's really not going to matter what he does if this club doesn't start to score. The Sabres have just one goal the last two games despite the fact Jhonas Enroth and Patrick Lalime combined to give up only three.

Derek Roy (elbow) will play tonight. There are no changes to the lineup, meaning the scratches will remain Craig Rivet, Chris Butler and Drew Stafford.

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

Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving (Eve) from high atop HSBC Arena as we get set for tonight's Sabres-Penguins game. If you missed it from earlier today, here's the recap of the Sabres' roster moves:

Out: Connolly (groin), Miller (groin), Stafford (shoulder), Niedermayer (knee), Rivet (healthy), Butler (healthy).

In: Enroth, Stuart, Adam (Portland callups), Weber (from healthy to lineup).

The Sabres will have to be on their toes right away. Check out the starting lineups:

Penguins starters: Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis-Letang-Orpik. Goal: Fleury
Sabres starters: Gerbe-Gaustad-Grier-Sekera-Myers. Goal: Enroth 

Sidney Crosby is on an NHL-high nine-game point streak (9-11-20). Second to him? None other than Thomas Vanek at seven games (4-6-10). With Crosby red-hot, the Penguins are 5-0-1 in their last six games overall and their 15 road points (7-3-1) are tied for tops in the league.

It's going to be very interesting to see the line combinations Lindy Ruff uses tonight. What he had in the morning skate today was dramatically different than yesterday. See above. Nathan Gerbe was on a scoring line yesterday. Not so now. Stay tuned.

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

Third Period

8:52 p.m.: We're under way.

18:40 left: Talbot for interference. There's the makeup call. Didn't those end in about 1989? 

18:30 left: Gerbe high from the slot on a great setup from Pominville. Gotta hit the net there.

18:02 left: Great stop on Vanek from the doorstep.

16:36 left: Great stop on Ennis. Linesmen blow a close offside call on Leopold at the point to end things. Got one right during the PP on Sekera, who didn't keep it in.

16:25 left: Kunitz to the box for slashing. Sabres back to the PP.  And Roy not on the bench -- or the ice -- again. 

15:32 left: Fleury stops Myers sneaking in from the point.. Nice feed by Vanek. 

14;23 left: Ennis kills another good PP with a high stick on Orpik. Good zone time again for the Sabres. No conversions. Lindy won't be able to have another tirade about it though. They're working hard.

12:17 left: Good job by Sabres, topped by a nice Enroth save on Letang. Shots are 7-4 for Buffalo in the period and 26-26 overall.

9:34 left: Hecht and Pominville just fail to connect. Good work by Hecht to get the puck out of the zone and bring it up ice. Pass to Pominville at the edge of the crease just failed to connect.

9:00 left: Roy back on the ice again.

7:10 left: Tampa Bay sat on its one-goal lead for 29 minutes Saturday night. The Penguins are trying to do it for 44 minutes here. That's on the Buffalo offense. 

6:35 left: Roy-Vanek-Ennis back together.

5:41 left: We've seen four combined goals in the last 115 minutes in this building. Just not enough. Can the Sabres really lose back-to-back home games with two goalies not named Ryan Miller allowed a combined three goals?  Attendance announced as 18,250 (440 shy of a sellout).

3:19 left: Ennis just wide from the slot after great work by Vanek to get him the puck. Few seconds later, Ennis deflected into the net. 

1:30 left: Penguins holding on.

1:01 left: Icing on the Penguins. Enroth to the bench.

That's it: A 1-0 loss. Final shots 30-29 for Buffalo.

Second Period

Of note: Uh-oh. Roy not on the bench to start the period.

 18:52 left: Roy returns to the bench. Sabres get their first PP thanks to a hooking penalty on Malkin. Roy takes his spot on the left point.

16:52 left: Pens kill it off. They're 18 for 18 the last six games.

16:28 left: Fleury's best sequence of the night, stopping Kaleta on a 3-on-2 as well as Ennis on the rebound. Shots are 6-0 for the Sabres.

15:42 left: Stuart pickpockets Deryk Engelland in the Pens' zone and goes in on Fleury but fires high.

13:12 left: Another good chance for Stuart from the slot and another good Fleury save. 

13:05 left: Fleury robs Roy from in front. Shots are 8-1 for Buffalo and 16-16 overall.

12:43 left: Enroth with a good save on Malkin. 

12:25 left: Fleury on McCormick, who's now with Roy and Vanek (Stuart is with Hecht and Pominville).

10:16 left: Fleury with another good save on Montador and Gerbe just wide on the rebound. Shots are 9-2 in this period. Fleury is easily the No. 1 star halfway through this one.

9:36 left: The Penguins burn their timeout after an icing call. Shots are 9-2 for Buffalo. Dan Bylsma needs to give his guys a break. Sabres with a huge edge in this period.

9:02 left: There's your momentum killer. Leopold gone for tripping Crosby.

6:30 left: Good kill fro Sabres. One shot for Pens.

4:53 left: Solid save by Enroth as Letang streaked down the right win. Enroth out to the top of the crease nicely. 

2:58 left: Stuart goes for goalie interference after a good shot. What a weak ticky-tack call that is. 

End-2nd: Pens still lead 1-0. Sabres had an 11-7 edge in shots. It's 22-19 for Pittsburgh through two. Like how the Sabres stood four abreast at the line on the Pens' power play. Don't like the Buffalo offense. One goal in five periods the last two games for the two backup goalies. They've only allowed three. Have to be better.

First Period

18:57 left: A few seconds after opening his Sabres career, Colin Stuart nearly bangs home a Vanek rebound. Stuart is on left wing with Vanek and Roy rather than Ennis. Plumb assignment right off the plane from Portland.

18:10 left: More Portland impact: Diving play by Mike Weber to break up a 2-on-1 and deny Matt Cooke's pass across the slot. No way Rivet makes that play.

17:33 left: So the lines look like this -- Gerbe-Gaustad-Grier, Stuart-Roy-Vanek, Hecht-McCormick-Pominville, Ennis-Adam-Kaleta. Defense pairs are Sekera-Myers, Montador-Leopold and Weber-Morrisonn.

14:29 left: If we're talking in basketball terms, the tempo is in the Penguins' favor. Shots are 6-4 for the Sabres but they need to take the air out of this game a little to stay with Crosby & Co. Great for fans so far, not sure it's great for the bottom line in the standings.

11:47 left: Enroth holds steady after a rough shift that saw Weber get wiped out on a borderline hit from behind from Mark Letestu and Adam make a weak, weak clearing attempt up the wall that the Penguins easily held in. The puck stayed in the for another 30 seconds before a diving Adam tipped the puck to center ice to partially redeem himself. Shots are 9-7 for Pittsburgh (it was 5-1, Buffalo).

8:09 left: It's been an eventful first period at home this season for Weber. He took the toughest Pens' hit earlier and now issued the Sabres' best hit, straightening up Tyler Kennedy. He's been aggressive, exactly what the Sabres need. Why exactly has he been in the press box basically all year? So many questions. Why take Ennis off the Vanek-Roy line for a guy (Stuart) who's never played a game for the team and has eight NHL goals in his career? Don't get it. Shouldn't you give Gerbe a chance on that line and put Stuart with Grier and Gaustad?

7:49 left: Roy off holding left hand and shaking right hand in disgust after getting drilled by a Myers shoot in at the Pittsburgh line. That's not a good thing. (Insert joke about hand already being hurt here).

6:08 left: Roy to the locker room, likely with an X-ray machine in his future. Gaustad and Talbot to the box after a scrap between the benches following a Gaustad push of Malkin. Gaustad and Talbot get double minors for roughing.

4:56 left: The Pens take a 1-0 lead thanks to Adam's second brutal giveaway of the period. Crosby gets it away from Sekera in the right corner and makes a perfect feed -- what else? -- to a wide-open Pascal Dupuis in the slot for a quick one-timer. So Crosby's point streak continues. Ten games.

2:43 left: Good news -- Roy back on the bench and now on the ice. Bad news -- Vanek off for hooking Malkin in the Buffalo zone. 

0:43 left: The Sabres kill it off. 

End-1st: It's 1-0 for Pittsburgh and shots are 15-8 for the Pens. No shots for the final 6:27 for the Sabres.

Pretty quiet morning skate, as you would expect since the Sabres just played last night. Only a few players on the ice. One who wasn't, Matt Ellis, has been sent back to Portland.

Lindy Ruff wouldn't comment when I asked him about his defense pairings tonight. Tyler Myers, Andrej Sekera, Steve Montador and Jordan Leopold all played huge minutes last night (Myers was at 27:36!), while Craig Rivet (10:52) and Shaone Morrisonn (10:49) hardly saw the ice.

"I think our league for the most part has gone to a pair of defense that plays a lot and I think with the timeouts that's not an issue," Ruff said. "The way Andrej is playing and how Tyler's game has picked up, for us to be even more effective, those guys need to play even more."

It took a long time for Ruff to emerge from his office to meet the media this morning. Just as he walked out, Rivet and Tyler Ennis were seen leaving the building in front of him. It's possible they were in a meeting with the coach about last night's play, which was wasn't good for either. Rivet was particularly stern-looking and burst through the hall at a good clip.

Tonight would be his 900th NHL game. No. 899 last night was poor in most respects. You wonder if Ruff is going down the road of scratching his captain again. That would make for probably the end of Rivet's time with the C on his chest.

Defense, of course, has to be a big issue tonight with the Tampa Bay Lightning in town and the pair of Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis sitting as the NHL's top scoring duo by 10 points! Stamkos has 19 goals and 34 points (he had an assist taken away after Thursday's game in Philadelphia).

"Our awareness of key players has been better and that's made a differnce," Ruff said. "He may get his opportunities but we have to limit the type he gets. We'd like him to come 200 feet to get them. We don't want him to play a half-ice game."

The Sabres won all four games against the Lightning last year. Vincent Lecavalier (hand) and Simon Gagne (neck) are both out for Tampa Bay. The Sabres also announced that the first goal of last night's game has been changed back to giving credit to Patrick Kaleta on a deflection of a Sekera shot. So it's Kaleta from Sekera and Gerbe. 

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

Greetings from HSBC Arena as the Sabres get set to meet the Los Angeles Kings. It's become a sad day for hockey fans as word broke tonight at 6:30 that former NHL coach Pat Burns has died after his long bout with cancer. Memo to the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee: Shame on you. You really blew this one. What purpose did it serve to not induct Burns this year? The top name this year was Dino Ciccarelli for God's sake. Yeeesh. Here's a terrific obit on Burns from Rich Chere of the Newark Star-Ledger, the longtime Devils beat writer who was in Burns' office in 2003 after the coach got his long-awaited Stanley Cup victory.

As for news from the warmup, Patrick Kaleta and Nathan Gerbe are both on the ice, meaning the Sabres still haven't decided if Kaleta is playing tonight. Jonathan Bernier led the Kings out, as expected, and will get the start in goal. Update: Looks like Kaleta and Gerbe will both be in the lineup. Don't see Matt Ellis on the ice.

And it's official: The Sabres' scratches are Ellis, Chris Butler and Mike Weber. 

Keep it here all night for your updates from the arena.

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

Third Period

9:24 p.m.: Lo and behold, the second goal has now been changed to Vanek. His seventh.

9:25 p.m: New addition to the inventory at the Sabres Store just brought for a look by information guru Kevin Snow: The Sabres' slick 40th anniversary yearbook. Super collection of full-page color photos of every player. It's $10. I still gotta get my 40th anniversary coffee table book. That's I think $39.95.

9:28 p.m.: We're under way.

18:48 left: Ryan Smyth for holding in the offensive zone. Sabres back to the power play.

17:50 left: Another PP goal. Pominville's shot leaks through Bernier and Connolly breaks his 0-for-November by tapping it home. Sabres lead, 3-2. That's 2 for 4 on the PP against the NHL's No. 1 PK. Just the second game this year with two power-play goals (the other was the Oct. 26 loss at Philadelphia).

12:47 left: Bernier stops Sekera and Myers just misses the rebound. Sabres doing a great job of puck possession in this period. Shots are 4-0 for Buffalo. And Johnson is going for cross checking Gaustad. Can they really come up with three power play goals in one game?

11:42 left: Great save by Bernier on a Roy tip.

10:44 left: Great save on Vanek in front just as the penalty ends. Shots are 7-0 for Buffalo.

10:30 left: Leopold and McCormick (rebound) are stopped. That's 9-0.

9:50 left: Miller makes a solid save on Williams on the Kings' first shot.

8:54 left: Gaustad goes hard to the net, doesn't get the puck but draws a hooking penalty on Dwight King. Sabres 2 for 5 on the PP and here's another chance.

4:43 left: Hecht nearly pickpockets Bernier behind the net. The goalie holds for a faceoff. Shots are 10-3 for Buffalo. A terrific period so far with a game up for grabs. Outplaying a solid team for the final 40 minutes just like Wednesday in Washington. Gotta start better. Attendance is 18,418, less than 300 from a sellout.

4:39 left: Hecht with a one-time rifle from the slot. His second of the year. Great feed off the boards from Pominville. Like i said, super period. Sabres lead, 4-2.

1:30 left: This would be the Sabres' first regulation win since Oct. 23 at New Jersey. That's 12 games ago.

It's over: A 4-2 win after a solid final 20 minutes. Final shots were 36-26 for LA, but 12-9 for Buffalo in the third.

Second Period

8:32 p.m.: We're under way. 

19:23 left: That's how you start a period. The Gaustad-Kaleta-Gerbe line gets some pressure as Sekera brings it in from the left point and Kaleta tips his shot from the circle past Bernier. Game tied at 1-1 on Kaleta's second,

18:38 left: Connolly goes for hooking. Actually, it's Hecht but Connolly's No. 19 is on the board. In Marv Levy-speak, this game has been pretty overofficious.

16:07 left: Another penalty killed. Good shot block by Sekera, among others. Shots are 5-2 for the Kings and 17-8 overall.

15:14 left: More great work by Gerbe and Kaleta and Bernier has to make a sensational right pad stretch save on Gaustad alone in front to keep the game tied.

15:00 left: McCormick and Matt Greene go for roughing. McCormick was set to go and had shed the stick and gloves but the linesmen stepped in. Crowd boos.

14:08 left: Doughty hobbles off after taking a bomb from Connolly on the ankle. That would be a huge loss for the Kings.

13:40 left: Great save by Miller on a one-timer from Justin Williams.

12:53 left: McCormick gets his man right out of the box this time, pounding down Greene. They're both going to get five and the crowd loved it.

11:35 left: Wayne Simmonds beats Miller from the slot to make it 2-1 as the Sabres overskate the puck leaving the zone, notably Ennis, and Rivet might have screened his goalie on the shot from the slot. That's a big, fat minus-2 for Rivet.

11:17 left: More trouble. A tripping call on Connolly behind the Kings' net.

9:49 left: Sabres holding on with the PK. Close call as Jack Johnson's shot dribbled out of Miller's glove and went just wide. As JVogl wrote the other night in Washington, Miller's glove hand has been noticeably off this year compared to last.

9:25 left: Nothing wrong with Miller's reflexes however. Great save on a neat tip from the slot by Simmonds. Shots are 10-4 in this period and 22-10 for the Kings.

5:55 left: Myers and Sekera play with the puck in front of Miller and the goalie eventually has to make a good save from the point. Connolly, meanwhile, keeps firing pucks into the first man to come at him, in the best spirit of Ales Kotalik. Wonder how long Ruff can keep defending the $4.5 million man who doesn't have a goal this month (and is in the middle of his 10th straight scoreless game). But to paraphrasea what the coach said recently, "he's got more points than a lot of guys." Uh-huh.

5:06 left: Johnson goes for elbowing. Kaleta lucky he didn't get a slashing call in retaliation.

4:38 left: The PP connects against the NHL's No. 1 PK. Vanek tips home Roy's shot from the point after Pominville, who is completely snakebit and stuck on one goal, misses two tips from in front. Vanek's seventh makes it 2-2.

4:22 left: Lineup shift update -- Kaleta with a goal and a penalty drawn that leads to a power-play goal. Rivet? Minus-2. 

4:10 left: What might be the NHL's goofiest stat crew has awarded the goal to Roy. How about watching the players' reactions? Everyone saw Vanek tip it home. (By the way, we all doubt Kaleta touched the first one too but I digress).

1:10 left: Miller with the great save on Kopitar after Brown bowls over Sekera to get the puck in front.

End-2nd: It's 2-2 through 40 minutes. Shots were 15-8 for LA and it's 27-14 through two.

First Period

Sabres starters: McCormick-Niedermayer-Grier-Sekera-Myers. Goal: Miller
Kings starters: Brown-Kopitar-King-Scuderi-Doughty. Goal: Bernier.

Nice touch by the Sabres to hold a moment of silence in memory of Burns and Army Specialist Blake Whipple, the Amherst native who was killed recently in Afghanistan and was buried on Monday.

18:05 left: Maybe the food poisoning is still bothering Rivet. On his first shift, he hooks Brad Richardson at center ice as Richardson was blowing by him and is gone for hooking. Rivet simply has not speed or mobility left. A play like that sends a distinct message he's done.

16:00 left: Sabres kill the penalty with two shots on goal, including a good save by Miller on Jack Johnson.

15:35 left: Shots are 7-1 for LA.

15:03 left: The Kings take a 1-0 lead as Dustin Brown goes wide around Morrisonn and beats Miller with a blistering snap shot to the stick side. That makes shots 8-1. Solid start just like Wednesday in Washington, eh?

14:15 left: Big scrum develops between the benches and Gaustad goes with Kevin Westgarth. Pretty even until the end, when Westgarth got the upper hand. They both get five.

11:41 left: Doughty goes for hooking Vanek in the LA zone. Let's see if the Sabres wake up. We've seen this act before: After the Washington-Vancouver wins, the Sabres clearly felt like they were back. Now it's two straight games they haven't shown up at the start. 

9:23 left: Blistering one-timers wide of the PP by Pominville and Sekera. Gotta hit the net. A few seconds after it ends, Ennis breaks through and is hooked down. Scuderi goes for hooking. Sabres back on the PP. Kings came into the game leading the league in PK at 90.1 percent -- including a perfect 35-for-35 at home.

7:21 left: Penalty over. Sabres 3 for 37 at home this year on the PP. Terrible passing. Not enough battles. And the final 30 seconds of the PP featured Ennis-Gerbe-McCormick with Rivet and Leopold at the point. On a power play? Seriously, Lindy? 

3:53 left: Leopold goes for holding as this is one dead-as-a-doornail period. Shots are 10-6 for LA.

2:38 left: Myers goes on a ticky-tack interference call along the boards on Doughty. It was but that was a 2006 call. They gonna call that every time tonight.

1:08 left: Sabres survive the two-man (they had given up a league-high four goals on two-man disadvantages). Nice block by Morrisonn helped.

:40 left: The penalties are over. Solid job on the PK.

:00 left: The period is over. Not such a solid job. Shots are 12-6 for LA and the Kings hold their 1-0 lead as Vanek just missed a goalmouth pass from Ennis in the final two seconds. It came after Ennis made a great play to backcheck on Anze Kopitar as he was trying to break into the Buffalo zone. Let's see if the Sabres get some momentum in the second period from killing off the two-man penalty.

Craig Rivet will be back in the lineup tonight as the Sabres face the Los Angeles Kings in HSBC Arena. Patrick Kaleta might be too but we'll just have to wait and see on him. Lindy Ruff would not commit to Kaleta replacing Nathan Gerbe although Kaleta has seemed fine in practice and skated again this morning.

"He's better," Ruff said of Kaleta. "We just don't know if we want to risk playing him right now and we lose him for more time."

Rivet will replace Chris Butler in the lineup. What does Ruff want to see from his embattled captain?

"He's got to bring a consistent physical game," the coach said. "That's the part that's been missing. Some of the play in his own end defensively, the tougher reads that have cost us goals, he has to clean up."

Butler, meanwhile, continues to be a disappointment. He's never showed the promise he did during the 2008-09 season and drew the short straw tonight for a lazy penalty in the first period Wednesday that led to a Washington power play goal.

"He hasn't quite gotten to where he was when he first got here, " Ruff said. "I think there is some disappointment. We've played him out of position the last couple games trying to get him familiar with playing the right side but you can throw as many excuses as you want and you're accountable for your own play. Right now we're going to play the six guys that we think are going to get the job done. In his case, he had a little bit of a rough night and we've got to go from there."

The Kings enter the game 12-5-0 and have given up 11 goals in losing their last two. But they had given up just six in winning the six previous games as goaltender Jonathan Quick (10-2, 1.73, .936) is off to a fabulous start. LA plays tomorrow at Boston so we'll see if the Sabres get another backup in Jonathan Bernier (2-3, 3.01, .899).

(UPDATE: Bernier WILL be in goal tonight according to LAKings Insider, the must-read blog run by former Kings beat writer Rich Hammond. That's 11 backups against the Sabres this season.)

The Kings are just 1-9-1 in Buffalo since 1993. The only win was a 4-1 victory on Feb. 21, 2003. The Sabres have won the last three games here by a total score of 23-4.

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

The Sedins are in town but if you're thinking you're going to see Roberto Luongo in goal tonight, think again. The Vancouver Canucks have completed their pregame skate in HSBC Arena and Cory Schneider -- who is 3-0 with an 0.90 GAA and .969 save percentage -- will continue the bizarre run of backup goaltenders the Sabres will see. 

(Just went over the game-by-games with WGR's Paul Hamilton and we've come up with 10 backup goalies against the Sabres in 19 games if Luongo doesn't go tonight. Ten!! The Sabres are 4-3-2 in the first nine)

Not much news from the Sabres camp other than Lindy Ruff saying captain Craig Rivet is "getting very close to playing" on the road back from food poisoning. Interesting dilemma there for sure once Rivet is ready.

The Canucks have not been here since Oct. 17, 2008 (a 5-2 Buffalo win). This will be the 109th meeting between the 1970 expansion cousins and the Sabres can even the all-time series with a win tonight as they are 44-45-19 against the Canucks.

Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin are tied (what else?) for fifth in the NHL with 20 points. Daniel has 11 goals while Henrik has just two. The Canucks are second in the NHL on the power play at 28.3 percent (Buffalo is 28th at 11.4). On the road, Vancouver is No. 1 at a whopping 32.4 percent (11 for 34).

'I thought we did a great job on [Washington's Alexander] Ovechkin last game," said Sabres center Derek Roy, who is one point back of the Sedins with 19. " Now we got the Sedin twins coming in. They have some firepower. We have to really check those guys close and keep an eye when they're on the ice."

"They know exactly where each other is going," said coach Lindy Ruff. "They're great passers, either forehand or backhand. They read off each other very well. Tremendous players. That continuity playing that period of time is something you can't teach in this league."

Ryan Kesler is second on the Canucks with nine goals and who's third? None other than ex-Sabre Raffi Torres, who flamed out here last year and was a scratch for the final two playoff games but has rebounded with seven goals in Vancouver.

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

Welcome to HSBC Arena and the continuing saga of Which Buffalo Team Will Win a Home Game First (minus Canisius edition). Tonight, the Sabres get yet another chance against the Washington Capitals. If they don't beat the East's top team, I fear they will lose the coveted title. Seriously now, the Bills HAVE to beat the Stafford-less Detroit Lions tomorrow, don't they? 

The Sabres are certainly a little better looking tonight than they have been. They're 2-0-1 in their last three and Ryan Miller will be back in goal. The Caps are going with rookie backup Braden Holtby -- who is 2-0 with a 1.70 GAA and .931 save percentage in his two games.

Crazy run of backups against the Sabres whether it's injury (Brodeur), illness (Lundqvist) or opposing coaches simply not respecting this offense. At some point, the Sabres need to fire up seven goals against one of these guys (like they did in that 6-1 win over Jersey's Johan Hedberg last month).  Of course, that would require Thomas Vanek to actually shoot the puck too. I still hate the thought that it was a good pass to Derek Roy in overtime. I don't want my $6.4 million man passing from the slot in overtime EVER. And I don't care who's open. Sorry. 

But like Lindy Ruff says, we're looking ahead. Enough about the last game. Same lineup for the Sabres, meaning Craig Rivet and Mike Weber are the scratches. Be sure to read today's earlier post for an update on Rivet. Helps Ruff out of a pickle for now: He's sick and the team's winning so he sits. What happens if they keep winning and he's ready? Uh-huh. 

Strange but true: Derek Roy has 18 points -- tied for eighth in the NHL and fourth among centers. Gotta give it up to him. Alexander Ovechkin leads the Caps with 23 points (9-14) while Alexander Semin has 21 (12-9). They're third and fourth in the league, respectively. 

And yes, the "Fans Show Up, Why Don't You?" sign is again up above Section 304. The Sabres, in case you've been under a rock for a month, are 0-6-1. They're now moving the large Sabres banner through the 300 level instead of the 100 level. Anything to change things up I guess. (Conspiracy theory: Maybe management wants it to cover that banner. Oops, just saw the sign on the HD board as the banner went underneath. The Sabre-censors missed that one!).

And an AWESOME new 40th anniversary video for pregame featuring alumni interviews and LOADS of hockey. Got rid of all the cultural references. HUGE improvement.

More pregame: Super job by the Sabres to honor Mike Grier for his 1,000 game. NHL Senior Vice President of Operations Jim Gregory was on hand to present Grier with a silver Tiffany plaque. Sabres GM Darcy Regier presented Grier with a silver stick and the framed jersey he wore game No. 1,000, Nov. 3 in Boston. Grier's wife and two children, in blue Sabres jerseys, joined him on the ice. Super touch. Solid video salutes from Gaustad, Miller, Pominville and Rivet as well as some opponents like Williamsville native Todd Marchant of Anaheim, who played with Grier in Edmonton. 

Keep it here for the latest from the Sabres and Ovechkins. 

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

OVERTIME

Sabres open with Pominville, VAnek, Roy and Connolly. Four forwards. 

4:30 left: Faceoff. Holtby has stopped Pominville twice.

3:42 left: Icing on Caps. Penalty over. Puck off post on Connolly shot. Looked like Vanek got a piece of it.

1:44 left: Shot partially blocked by Green on a 3-on-1. Close call.

1:00 left: VANEK COAST TO COAST. HIGHLIGHT REEL. ALL-STAR STUFF. Stuffs home the backhand. Praise be. A win at home. Place goes nuts.

Third Period

9:01 p.m: We're under way again. Twenty minutes to go for the Hallelujah chorus of a home win in Buffalo for SOMEBODY. 

16:44 left: Caps have the first three shots of the period and lots of zone time. Mr. Boudreau clearly had a few things to say. 

14:00 left: Shots are 5-1. Sabres really don't think they can just rely on Miller to hold on for 20 minutes, do they? Against this team? 

12:51 left: Hate to say I told you so. But I told you so. Backstrom with a perfect shot just under the crossbar using Morrisonn as a screen. Game tied at 2-2 and shots are 7-1 in this period.

10;02 left: Ten minutes away from a fourth straight overtime. Sabres have to generate more offense here. This would be one devastating loss if they don't pull it out. 

6:36 left: Pominville doesn't convert Hecht's goalmouth pass on a 2-on-1 which was Buffalo's best chance of the period. Fair is fair: Great steal by Connolly set the whole thing up. 

4:18 left: Shots are 7-3 for the Caps. Attendance announced at 18,690, the third sellout of the season. And the place is definitely packed. 

2:54 left: Backstrom goes four minutes for high sticking Morrisonn. A few seconds after Vanek just fails to go backhand-forehand at the doorstep. Gotta score the go-ahead goal here. Just have to.

1:14 left: Timeout, Sabres. Holtby has stopped Pominville on one shot and Leopold just missed on a rebound. Sabres have three shots so far. They would have 1:06 of 4-on-3 to open overtime if they need it.

13.9 left: Crowd boos as Myers ices the puck with a long pass. Ridiculous play.

On to OT -- again. Shots were 7-6 for the Caps in that period and 24-23 for Washington for the game. Caps have gone nearly 13 minutes without a shot.

Second Period

8:06 p.m.: We're back at it.

16:14 left: Jason Chimera goes for cross checking, a retaliation on Kaleta. AND he gets two more for unsportsmannlike conduct. Will the power play do anything any time soon? It's 1 for 24 in the last seven games before tonight and 0 for 1 tonight. That's 1 for 25 if you're scoring at home (I'm still in baseball mode a little coming off post-World Series vacation).

12:10 left: Three shots and not much possession as the PP falls to 1 for 27. Here's how it went: Giveaway by Pominville, save on Connolly, giveaway by Ennis, save on Hecht, bad pass by Hecht, bad pass by Ennis, Montador shot blocked, Connolly giveaway (boos), offside (boos), Leopold shot stopped. Terrible.

11:09 left: It's not like the Caps are doing anything in this game. They have one shot in the period so far. Sabres have four. Another brutally boring game in Buffalo. Do the Sabres ever player interesting hockey in this building? The games in New York and New Jersey, win or lose, were good to watch. This is plain terrible. 

9:50 left: Sabres finally get it in gear as Montador rifles one all the way through from the right point. Nice backhand feed off the boards to him from Grier. We're heard the ping off the post all the way up here. Montador's second of the year puts him at plus-11 -- or 22 goals better than minus-11 Myers. Game tied, 1-1.

6:18 left: Shots are 7-2 for the Sabres in the period. The Caps seem sucked into the Sabres' lifeless approach. They're doing nothing. Is Ovechkin even on the ice this period?

3:55 left: Tomas Fleischmann goes for high-sticking Ennis in the mush. Fleischmann gets four minutes and Roy gets two for hooking. Repeating: Will this power play do anything? People in front of the press box: Stop trying to do the wave. This isn't 1986.

3:31 left: STOP THE PRESSES, STOP THE PRESSES. A power play goal. By Vanek no less. Leopold's shot is blocked by Green but it rolls to Holtby's left and Vanek, mercifully, has a tap-in. Poor guy looked so relieved he just skated away and didn't even put his arms up. Sabres lead, 2-1. 

1:53 left: Sabres really dominating as Caps continue to sleep. Shots are 11-2. Wonder if Washington will come out breathing fire in the third after Bruce Boudreau peels some paint off the walls in this intermission.

End-2nd: We hear cheering in HSBC Arena. Praise be. It's 2-1 for the Sabres, shots were 11-4 in that period and 17-17 for the game. The last 10 minutes were about the best we've seen Buffalo at home this year. Winning all kinds of physical battles for the puck. 

First period

7:14 p.m: We're under way a few minutes late. Buffalo starters: McCormick-NIedermayer-Grier-Sekera-Myers.

18:16 left: Memo to Lindy -- You will not win a home game as long as Tim Connolly is still on the ice. First shift, first brutal giveaway. Right to Nicklas Backstrom, whose slapshot handcuffs Miller badly. Goalie dropped it right between his legs out of the glove but it rolls just wide of the open net.

17:22 left: David Steckel goes for delay of game (puck over glass). Let's see if the power play can do anything. 

17:01 left: Not so far. Brutal giveaway by Vanek creates a 2-on-1 but at least he backchecked hard to break it up.

15:20 left: One shot on goal. Biggest highlight: Strong hit by Connolly, of all people, on Mike Green.

13:07 left: Shots are 4-3 for Caps. At first TV timeout, a video salute for Lindy Ruff and Darcy Regier's 1,000th games. A few boos for Regier when his name is mentioned. Too bad Lindy's moment gets ruined by including the GM, whose name is not on high on most fans' lists right now.

11:57 left: WHO KIDNAPPED TYLER MYERS THIS YEAR? He wipes out going around his net with no one around him, gives the puck away and it goes to the left point where Karl Alzner blasts it past Miller to make it 1-0, Caps. 

10:08 left: Video birthday wish to Gilbert Perreault, who turns 60 -- 60! -- today. He waves to the crowd. Still haven't heard the tape of his Elvis impression after a game this year. Why? They only play it here when the Sabres win. Oy. 

8:56 left: Another great contribution from Connolly. Slashing penalty. 

7:06 left: Niedermayer feeds Kaleta on a short-handed 2-on-0. Holtby with the great glove save.

6:15 left: Kaleta strips Holtby behind the net and feeds an open Roy in front of the yawning cage but the Caps get back just in time to stop Roy's chance.

5;13 left: SHOOT VANEK, SHOOT. 

4:42 left: Miller stones Ovechkin on a breakaway and the crowd is on its feet. Finally, some life here. Huge play. Maybe that can change some things. Great stop with the left pad.

End-1st: It's 1-0 for the Caps and shots are 13-6. Miller keeping the Sabres afloat so far. Not much going on offensively. Again.

Greetings from the latest installment of Which Buffalo Team Will Win a Home Game First, also known as tonight's Sabres-Canadiens game from HSBC Arena. The Sabres, of course, are 0-5-1 here and won't be back until Nov. 13 against the Capitals. The Bills, of course, haven't won anywhere (and I won't count Sunday's game in Toronto as a home win either). So we're still looking at April 6 -- the Sabres' 5-2 win over the Rangers -- as the last time the Sabres or Bills won a game in front of the home fans.

Yeeesh. And then these teams wonder why the fans are in a bad mood and the media is crabbing at them in press conferences. Scoreboards, people!!

The Sabres take the ice for warmups and Patrick Lalime, as expected, leads them out. Chris Butler and Mike Weber are again the healthy scratches. You should see all the empty seats here. It's a gold game and these single-game seats in the 300 level didn't sell for this one. Sections 301, 302 and 325 are virtually empty 10 minutes before faceoff. 

Tomas Plekanec (flu) is a scratch for the Canadiens. They showed video of Lindy Ruff's speech last night at the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame on the HD board just before the teams came back on the ice -- including the parts of Ruff's non-guarantee guarantee. If you didn't read our discussion about that earlier today (where the heck were you?), be sure to go here to check it out.

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

Third Period

Of note: Stafford has an upper body injury and will not return. Pouliot (two goals), Darche (two assists) and Halpern (1g, 2a) are all plus-3 for the Habs. Niedermayer/Grier plus-2 for Buffalo. Rivet/Sekera/Vanek/Roy all minus-2. Vanek has a game-high six shots.

18:32 left: Cammalleri goes for holding. Sabres are 0 for 3 on the PP with just two shots. 

17:55 left: Great save by Price on an Ennis break, sparked by a great pass from Sekera.

16:30 left: PP over again. Sabres fall to 0 for 4. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Habs lead the league on the road at 96.4 percent (27 of 28).

14:04 left: Giveaway by Sekera at the Montreal line. Hooking penalty to Sekera. Habs with a chance to go for the kill right now.

12:00 left: The penalty is over. Sabres still alive.

11:28 left: Rivet off for interference. Sabres begging for trouble.

9:23 left: Lalime takes the shot to the midsection from Roman Hamrlik from the right point to help kill another penalty. Lalime has been pretty active tonight, out to the top of the crease of many shots. Too bad about Pouliot's second goal. A real downer on an otherwise decent night for the backup. Much tighter period: Shots are 4-3 for Buffalo and 31-28 for the Sabres in the game.

7:55 left: Kostitsyn stopped by Lalime on a semi-breakaway. Good play by Montador to close fast and bother the shooter. 

6:30 left: Lalime stops Cammalleri on a 2-on-1 after the shifty winger goes right around Myers and breaks down the ice. The sophomore has just been The Big Easy for opponents far too often this season.

4:42 left: Attendance is announced as 18,026. Some of those empties did, in fact, fill in. 

3:19 left: Niedermayer skates right by the puck -- twice! -- on the way to the bench and Gionta goes around Vanek in on Lalime but shoots wide. The Niedermayer play was simply terrible.

1:50 left: Great stop by Lalime on Pouliot on a 2-on-1 that would have been his hat trick.

1:27 left: Big boos as Sabres called for icing. 

It's over: A 3-2 loss and an 0-6-1 home record. Another week before a chance at a home win (Nov. 13 vs. Washington). Crazy. Shots were 32-31 Montreal.

Second Period

Of note: Stafford and Hecht, who both had perhaps their best periods of the season, had three shots on goal apiece in the first for the Sabres. So did Sekera and Vanek. Good to see a plus-1 for Myers for once. Cammalleri had four shots for the Habs. Gaustad was 3-0 on faceoffs. He was 11-0 Wednesday night, the first NHL player perfect on 10-plus chances in a game this season.

18:27 left: Price robs Ennis on the doorstop. Great feed from Grier. Hey, an astute reader points out we never reviewed the lines. No changes from the other night. Vanek-Roy-Stafford, Hecht-Connolly-Pominville, Ennis-Niedermayer-Grier, McCormick-Gaustad-Kaleta. By the way, there doesn't appear to be any booing of Connolly. Frankly, nobody's even noticed him near the puck so far.

16:33 left: Sabres power play. Kaleta mixes it up with Markov and Gorges comes in to help. They all get roughing so it's a 4-on-3 for the Sabres. 

14:30 left: Gotta start declining these penalties. Sabres have the puck more when it's 5-on-5.

11:32 left: Good set of eyes from the AP's Bob Matuszak. Drew Stafford not currently on Sabres bench.

10:58 left: The Sabres jump into a 2-1 lead as Jordan Leopold jumps up on the play and bangs home a rebound as Grier was pounding away in the crease. That's Leopold's fourth of the year, as in the same number of goals as Vanek, Connolly and Stafford. 

10:12 left: So much for that lead. Myers and Morrisonn get outmuscled behind the net and the Connolly line, especially No. 19 himself, sits in front watching as Benoit Pouliot jams it past Lalime. Habs tie it 2-2.

9:02 left: Stupid blooper video time. Shots are 24-15 for Sabres.

6:05 left: Great save by Lalime on Lapierre on the doorstep. No real complaints how he's played tonight. Two goals on 20 shots for the Habs.

3:57 left: Lalime with the glove snare of P.K. Subban's laser from the right point. Maybe it was going wide but still a solid snag. 

2:48 left: What was I saying about Lalime? Pouliot burns him with a rocket from the left boards on the short side for his second of the night and a 3-2 Habs lead. You just have to make that save. Bad karma: Sabres have not won a game this year in which they've trailed at any point. 

End-2nd: Habs lead, 3-2. Shots were 15-11 for Montreal and are 27-25 for Buffalo. Also: Gaustad limped off the ice at the buzzer with a right foot/ankle problem. 

First Period

Starters: For Sabres, it's Vanek-Roy-Stafford with Sekera-Rivet on defense. It's Kostitsyn-Gomez-Gionta for Montreal with Markov-Gorges on the backline. Lalime vs. Price in goal. The smallest crowd of the year was 17,896 for the Oct. 11 Chicago game. This one will be smaller.

19:18 left: The first "Go Habs, Go" chant is met with a good boo.

15:52 left: Sabres skating pretty good so far. Pominville had two great chances in a 12-second span foiled by old friend Jaro Spacek, one with a diving pokecheck on a breakaway and the other on a block of a slapshot in the slot. Great shift from the McCormick-Gaustad-Kaleta line for Buffalo. A near-miss for the Habs as Kostitsyn blazed a slapshot just wide of the post when it appeared he had some room on the stick side on Lalime.

14:14 left: Dustin Boyd goes for holding. Let's see if the Sabres can avoid giving up a short-handed goal. They've given up three the last two games and an NHL-high four for the season.

12:10 left: No shorties against but no power play either. No shots and five turnovers. Brutal.

11:01 left: Shots are 5-1 for Buffalo after Price stops Hecht -- who still has no goals this season -- on the backhand. Habs blew a great chance a few seconds earlier when Kostitsyn fans on a 2-on-1. No real problem with the Sabres' effort so far. The power play was easily the worst two minutes of the period. That's bad news, because here it comes again after a too many men on the ice penalty to the Habs.

9:00 left: More disorganiation from the PP. Two shots (Sekera and Vanek) but still too many turnovers.

8:50 left: Price with his best stop of the period, from the doorstep on Vanek. the Habs' fans below us are chanting "Car-ey, Car-ey" As well they should. Shots are 9-1 in the Sabres best period probably since Oct. 23 at New Jersey.

6:10 left: Big cheers after Hecht and Pominville are stopped. Shots are 13-2.

6:02 left: Vanek dumped in the Habs' end with a low hit by PK Subban and Stafford challenges Subban but the linesmen get in the way. And Stafford gets the only penalty, for unsportsmanlike conduct.

3:30 left: The Habs had some chances but some active work on the PK from Morrisonn and Hecht, among others keep them scoreless. Shots are 14-7. Good note from an eagle-eye on Twitter pointing out a sign above Section 304 (was a little obstructed from my view until I moved a few feet) It says, "FANS SHOW UP. WHY DON'T YOU?" Ouch!

2:42 left: The Sabres finally get rewarded as Grier takes a super feed from Ennis, goes in alone and beats Price on the backhand to make it 1-0 on a 3-on-1 break. Just a few seconds earlier, we were stunned to watch Scott Gomez basically have a breakaway and look to pass it to Gionta. Pass went wide. That's why Gomez has one goal this year. Grier's first of the season in his 1,001st NHL game. Sabres, 1-0.

1:20 left: The Habs tie it up as Jeff Halpern takes a great pass from behind the net from Mathieu Darche, beats Roy to the spot in the slot and beats Lalime. Seventeen minutes of work for the Sabres to get a lead gone in 82 seconds. 1-1.

End-1st: Shots are 16-10 for the Sabres.

You can argue semantics but Lindy Ruff clearly put the target on his chest even more with his big statement at the podium during Thursday night's Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Speaking in front of a packed ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, Ruff said, "We are a playoff team. We will make the playoffs. ... You got to dig in, you got to belly up and there’s no quit in us and I’ll guarantee you that part. This team will be back and will be back hard."

When I asked Ruff after today's morning skate about the comments, he was quick to say, "I didn't use the word 'guarantee' [in association with making the playoffs]. I did not use the word guarantee." (My comment: Whatever, dude). 

"I still believe and I firmly believe that we're a playoff team," Ruff said. "We are. Because I do. We've had some struggles. We had struggles last year. We started 8-1-1 and had some tough stretches. We're making it difficult because our struggle came right off the bat."

That's for sure. The Sabres are 30th in the NHL and 0-5-1 at home heading into tonight's game with Montreal. Their only worse home start in their history was went they went 0-7 in 1993-94. Asked about Ruff's words, here's some opinions from around the locker room today:

Paul Gaustad: "He has confidence in this room and he has confidence as a coach. It's got to be tough on him dealing with the media every day and he's done a really good job with us in the locker room and not pressing a panic button but we know we haven't played well enough in here. It's on us as players to perform better."

Derek Roy: "He believes in this team and that we're a good team. The players here believe in him and our own ability. We need something to turn the table here."

Jason Pominville: "Out of character [for Ruff] sure...But as players we all have to be out of character right now. He came out at the start of the year and said we can be a Cup contender and we feel we have the group to do that. Right now we're not close to where we want to be. We can only get better. Once you get in the playoffs, who knows what can happen. We want to build off one game, get a win and get in there. We always feel we can be a part of those eight teams."

Patrick Lalime will start in goal tonight. Ryan Miller did not take the skate as Ruff said he wanted to give him a day off. Ruff said Miller felt the same as yesterday but will not play this weekend and his return is no earlier than next week's trip to New York and New Jersey. Tomas Plekanec, Montreal's leading scorer, missed the morning skate with the flu and is questionable.

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

Are you feeling desperate? Hate to think the Sabres have to feel that way on Nov. 3 but that's the fact as they meet the Boston Bruins tonight in HSBC Arena. The Sabres are 3-7-2 overall, they're 0-4-1 at home, they're 29th in the NHL. Yes, 29th. 

The Bruins, meanwhile, are 6-2-0 and have allowed an astounding 11 goals in eight games. Tim Thomas has an 0.50 goals-against and a .984 save percentage -- allowing just three goals on 185 shots and leading the league in both categories. Tuukka Who? 

It's going to be Jhonas Enroth's second NHL game in goal with Ryan Miller out. Enroth's first was against the Bruins last year in TD Garden, a 4-2 loss. Craig Rivet and Jason Pominville are back while Chris Butler, Mike Weber and Nathan Gerbe are scratched. Memo to the Sabres: With the kid in goal, you better stay out of the penalty box.

The special teams battle looks like a mismatch: The Sabres are 20th on the power play (13 percent) while Boston is ninth (21.9). It's much worse on the penalty kill with Boston leading the league at 93.1 percent (27 of 29) while the Sabres are 27th at 74.5 percent (38 of 51). The Bruins are the only team in the league to not give up a power-play goal on the road (12 for 12). The Sabres are 25th at home at 75 percent (12 of 16).

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

Third Period

8:53 p.m.: We're under way. The folks here are thrilled.

15:03 left: Another power play chance for Buffalo as Shawn Thornton goes for tripping.

13:40 left: Sabres get a two-man edge for 37 seconds as Bergeron goes for tripping. Sabres call their timeout.

13:02 left: Roy can't stuff it in an empty net off a Vanek feed .. and Connolly then loses the puck -- again -- and gets booed off the ice.

11:00 left: Quite the primal scream from down below us, followed by a "Timmy, you  (stink)" The fans have seen enough of Connolly too. Why hasn't Ruff?

7:30 left: Connolly getting booed every time he touches the puck -- more than Chara. Folks here know the deal.

6:54 left: Rivet for tripping on the back end of a Sabres' 4-on-1. Didn't see it. Rivet was bemused too. 

4:34 left: Sekera on a backhander through Thomas' legs. Pretty soft goal. 4-2, Bruins. B's have clearly just been trying to run the clock and get out of here.

2:25 left: Shots are 33-25 for Sabres (12-5 in 3rd). They better not try to sell this as a good battle over the last 30 minutes.

2:07 left: Lucic into an empty net to make it 5-2. Way too easy. 

1:48 left: Vanek for hooking. You should see how empty this place is, especially the 100 level.

Mercifully, it's over: A passionless 5-2 loss extends the losing streak to four and deepens the crisis. Final shots were 35-26, as if that tells any part of the story. 

Second Period

Notes: Sabres had a 16-3 edge in faceoffs in the first eriod and Gaustad won all nine of his draws. Like that matters. And like stats matter. Connolly is credited with one giveaway. What a joke. Stafford is minus-3 and Leopold, Connolly and Gaustad are minus-2. The Sabres came on to the ice with less than 55 seconds left in the break. Some paint chipped off the wall perhaps? Lalime is now in goal.

17:49 left: Ryder makes it 4-0, outmuscling Niedermayer down the right wing and beating Lalime on a shot near the glove that had to be stopped.

14:40 left: Myers goes for roughing. Hey, at least it's not Craig Rivet's fault.

12:04 left: Those stupid scoreboard blooper reels are back. Guess the desperation set in and they need to show the fans something to laugh at other than the pathetic play of the home team. "Bloopers and Blunders"? That's the title for this game.

8:03 left: Finally some life from this club as Mark Stuart gets nailed for roughing Kaleta and was working him over with a cross-check -- and McCormick sprints across the ice and pounds Stuart with a big right. Looks like McCormick is gone on the instigator. Still waiting for the call. At least McCormick has a pulse. Stuart gets two and five. McCormick gets two, five and 10. Guess there is no instigator rule anymore. If that's not it, what is?

5:02 left: Wheeler goes for slashing the stick out of Ennis' hand.

3:21 left: Stafford breaks the shutout on the power play stuffing it past Thomas on the edge of the crease. Bruins, 4-1. Puck came in from Connolly at the left point. Sure sounded like the crowd was booing No. 19 every time he touched the puck.

2:53 left: Lucic bumps Grier from behind near the Buffalo bench and Kaleta emerges bloody in the face from the scrum with Lucic and Nathan Horton. Kaleta gets roughing and a 10-minute misconduct.

1:18 left: Tyler Seguin for hookins so Sabres have a 4-on-3.

42.3 left: Thomas with a great save on Pominville from in tight after a pair of bullet point shots, one by Connolly, go wide. Gotta hit the net in this situation.

End-2nd: Boston holds its 4-1 lead. Shots were 12-8 for Buffalo and 21-20 for the Sabres in the game. Mighty deceiving.

First Period

Pregame notes: The Sabres' starters are Sekera-Rivet on defense with McCormick-Gaustad-Grier up front. Let's just say there was underwhelming applause when the team was announced to take the ice. Plenty of empty seats in the corners as you would expect. 

17:11 left: Ryder goes for hooking, a silly play against the boards in front of the Buffalo bench. The lines have gone like this: McCormick-Gaustad-Grier, Hecht-Roy-Pominville, Vanek-Connolly-Kaleta and Ennis-Niedermayer-Stafford

16:28 left: Just a brutal, brutal play by Connolly, whose back pass to the point goes right by Pominville and sends Brad Marchand off on a breakaway from the Boston line down. Marchand beats Enroth off the post  to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead. Just a couple seconds before, Connolly didn't pass to a wide-open Stafford in front of the Boston net. It's Marchand's first NHL goal.

15:00 left: Great play by Leopold to break up a 2-on-1.

11:35 left: Shots are 4-2 for Boston as the Sabres continue to be jittery with the puck and in disarray in their own end. Kaleta has tried to go for a couple big hits, clearly to get some momentum going, and missed both times. The building is dead and you can hear the grumbling starting already. This could be one ugly night. At this TV timeout, a nice scoreboard salute for Mike Grier, who is playing in his 1,000th career game. He's one of just 250 players in the NHL to reach that mark. Grier salutes the crowd when he's shown on the bench on the HD board.

9:41 left: Enroth looks pretty ridiculous in goal with his black and red Portland Pirates pads and dark blue pants that don't match the Sabres' new third jersey. Guess they're thinking he's here for one game or what? This isn't the preseason. Give the kid the look at least.

8:29 left: Like every other home game this year. Booooooooooooooooring. (Shots are 6-4 for Boston).

5:45 left: Stafford strips Chara, who has been guilty of a couple giveaways tonight and it's one of the few aggressive plays the Sabres have made. Lo and behold, it leads to a penalty as Dennis Seidenberg goes for holding.

5:06 left: Connolly should be done for the rest of the night. Another giveaway in the Boston zone on the PP and the puck is in the net a few seconds later on a Patrick Bergeron wrister that snapped past Enroth. At least three Sabres were by the puck when Bergeron got it. No excuse. Two shorthanded goals. Disgrace. 2-0.

3:06 left: Is Lindy going to be here tomorrow? Blake Wheeler with a tap-in from in front as Stafford as Morrisonn do nothing about it. 3-0, Boston.

2:25 left: Nathan Horton barely misses making it 4-0. 

1:49 left: Connolly for slashing. WHY IS HE ON THE ICE? Maxim Afinogenov used to get benched for far less. We forget up here. Darcy said he was a top-20 center in the league.

1:24 left: Some Bronx cheers for poor Enroth, who makes a solid glove save on a Chara laser.

End-1st: It's 3-0 Boston and shots are 12-9 for the Bruins. This could be one of the ugliest nights in recent Sabres history, folks.

We'll have our live blog from tonight's Sabres-Bruins game when faceoff time comes at 7:05 but just wanted to send the word that Jhonas Enroth took the ice first for the pregame warmups. That almost always means he'll be the starting goaltender in place of the injured Ryan Miller.

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

Greetings from high atop HSBC Arena as the Sabres meet the Chicago Blackhawks in their third game of the season and the midpoint of their arduous six-games-in-nine-nights run to open the schedule. The Sabres (1-1) talked a pretty good talk this morning in the wake of their home-opening stinker Saturday night against the Rangers while the Blackhawks (0-1-1) are simply trying to get in the win column.

Plenty of South Buffalo folk, all likely related to Patrick Kane, in the house this morning for the Hawks' pregame skate. It's been open all three times Kane has come to Buffalo and that's a nice touch by the Hawks (visitors' skates are almost always closed). Be sure to check out the audio of Kane's in-depth interview with reporters today at our earlier post. 

Let's see how the Sabres fare in the effort department tonight. They simply didn't answer the bell Saturday and a stern captain Craig Rivet was pretty adamant about his feelings when I approached him this morning.

"The effort was not there which is probably the most diappointing thing," Rivet said. "That starts upstairs [pointing to his head]. You have to make sure your brain is working and it will tell your body what to do. ... We need to play a lot better hockey."

Lindy Ruff surprised all of us when he admitted his team might have gotten a little full of itself in the wake of a solid preseason that was capped by a 9-3 win over Philadelphia's 'B' team and its opening 40 minutes of domination at Ottawa. Ruff had plenty of words on the ice this morning for Thomas minus-5 Vanek and Drew Stafford, who has been invisible since the first period of the opener.

"The message was it wasn't good enough," Ruff said. "I talked [to Vanek] about the game and about the five or six great opportunities in the Ottawa game and sometimes frustration gets to him. We're by that point. We're an older team now. Frustration can't effect your play. keep your nose to the grindstone."

We'll see if the Sabres get their work ethic in tow tonight. Keep it here for all of your updates and observations. And there better be no "Chelsea Dagger" played in this building tonight.

Kane will be in the starting lineup tonight at right wing, with Brian Bickell on the left side and Patrick Sharp, who would have looked nice in a Sabres jersey as part of the Hawks' salary purge, in the middle. The Sabres are shuffling things from this morning with Derek Roy starting between Drew Stafford and Jochen Hecht.

This one doesn't appear close to a sellout. Lots of empties on the corners five minutes before faceoff.

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

Third Period

Here's the MSG feed on the Pominville hit

An announcement was just made here that Pominville is "resting comfortably" in the Sabres locker room.

16:24 left: Too much room for Hossa. Montador keeps backing in and the winger drills one past Miller to make it 4-2. His second of the night. 

14:36 left: We have a Tim Connolly sighting. His first of the year is a tap-in as a pinching Montador shoved the puck across the crease. Sabres trail, 4-3. Let's see if that gets the life back in this club. 

13:37 left: Kopecky for delay of game gives the Sabres a huge PP chance.

8:50 left: Power play has been a disaster in this game. Where have we heard that before? It's 0 for 4. Morrisonn goes for hooking -- Hawks are 1 for 2. 

7:31 left: Roy, who has easily been the best Sabre in three games, outworks Norris Trophy winner Keith in a race and battle for the puck and gets a quick one-handed shot toward Crawford. No. 9 came to play this season. For the most part, No. 19 has not. 

5:02 left: The building is oddly dead. Shots are 32-29 for Buffalo, 9-8 in this period. It's a one-goal game but it seems like it's 7-3. Attendance announced at 17,896. That's about 800 shy of a sellout. Seems right.

3:10 left: Super saves by Crawford on Gaustad and Grier keep the Hawks in front.  Crawford has 30 saves in his first game of the season and has allowed only one goal since the first three minutes.

2:28 left: Too many men on the ice for the Hawks. The power play MUST come through here.

26.1 left: One shot on the PP -- with Miller out for the final half of it. Terrible job all night.

It's over: A 4-3 loss. Shots were 35-30.
 

----------------

HERE'S THE POMINVILLE HIT, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO MISSED IT. Repeating our bulletin: He has a concussion and will not return to the game but remains in the building and has not been taken to a hospital. 

Of note: Kane, of course, remains at minus-2 in the game because his goal was on the power play. Three more shots on goal from Vanek in the first 20 minutes, all from in close, but no goals. 

18:30 left: We're under way and Miller stops Kane from in front and then pops Brian Bickell with his glove for getting too close. Miller is obviously agitated by the Pominville situation; while his teammates (led by Connolly) correctly went after Hjalmarsson, the goalie was the first one waving to the bench for help. 

15:52 left: It's tied at 2-2. Grier can't clear the zone and Nick Leddy's shot banks in off Morrisonn. Toews grabs the puck for first NHL goal.

UPDATE: POMINVILLE HAS A CONCUSSION AND IS STILL IN THE BUILDING. HE HAS NOT BEEN TRANSPORTED TO THE HOSPITAL

14:39 left: McCormick pounds Jake Dowell. The Sabres are obviously agitated. Kaleta, however, also got an interference penalty so Buffalo is short-handed.

9:30 left: We're still tied at 2-2. Shots are 13-2 for Chicago in this period. The Hawks have been all over the Sabres, who seem dispirited by the Pominville situation. 

2:04 left: Miller stops Kane streaking through the right circle. He's kept the Sabres in this period.

1:13 left: The Hawks lead 3-2 as Hossa beats Miller on a clear breakaway. Myers and Morrisonn didn't notice Hossa as he snuck off the bench. That can't happen. Just can't.

38.8 left: Sabres go to the power play as Hossa goes for interference.

End-2nd: Hawks lead, 3-2. Shots were 17-10 for Chicago. It's 23-22 for Buffalo.

First Period

19:46 left: THAT'S how you start. Roy feeds Stafford for a quick slot in the slot and it's 1-0 after 14 seconds. Remember that power-play layup Stafford missed early Saturday? No mistake this time. Roy and Leopold with the assists.

17:28 left: A little Angola-South Buffalo rivalry perhaps? Kane is stopped by Miller on a routine wrist shot and Kaleta chirps in his ear at the whistle.

17:17 left: Wow. Roy puts home a Stafford rebound to make it 2-0 and the Seabrook-Keith defense pair for the Hawks looks stuck in the mud. Already Roy's fourth of the year. From Hecht and Stafford. Two goals on four shots.  Some pretty big talent all minus-2 already for the Hawks: Keith-Seabrook-Sharp-Kane.

15:11 left: Are the Hawks even in the building? They're getting outshot 6-1 and now Dave Bolland is going to the box for hooking.

13:48 left: That PP could have created a stranglehold. Instead, it ends disastrously as Connolly commits a lazy turnover along the wall and then is sent off for tripping Marian Hossa. Hawks go down the ice and Seabrook barely missed potting a rebound. 

Here are the lines that have skated: Hecht-Roy-Stafford, Vanek-Connolly-Pominville, Ennis-Niedermayer-Grier, Gaustad-McCormick-Kaleta. On defense, it's Leopold-Montador, Morrisonn-Myers and Sekera-Rivet.

12:16 left: Kane makes that a minus-1, dancing through the Buffalo zone while celebrating the second hometown tally of his career. It was a quick wrist shot that Miller appeared to get a piece of. What a difference that blown PP makes now. Kane's first of the season. Also the first PP goal against Buffalo. Sabres, 2-1.

9:00 left: Some wild action in about a 20-second span. Kaleta nearly pushes the puck across the line (getting smoke from the scoreboard but there's no goal ruled). Keith fires just wide for the Hawks (or it may have grazed the post) and Vanek is stopped on a partial breakaway. Still 2-1 with shots at 9-5 for Buffalo.

5:42 left: Pominville down on the ice. Crushed along the boards by a brutally dirty hit by Niklas Hjalmarsson. He's gone but much more important, Pominville hasn't moved and the stretcher is on the ice. Pominville is strapped to the stretcher and taken off the ice. He moved his right arm and was talking to doctors as he was wheeled off. The game continues after a delay of seven minutes. It's a five-minute boarding major, a game misconduct and it better be about a 10-game suspension too.

4:21 left: The Sabres had two good chances but were stopped by Crawford and Myers crushes Fernando Pisani along the boards to get the crowd going. The building is still stunned by the Pominville situation.

POMINVILLE UPDATE: The Sabres' right winger was taken through the Zamboni entrance and to the arena medical station rather than a local hospital upon exiting the ice. The right winger had his hands crossed on his chest and was followed down the hall by his wife. There is no immediate word on his condition or the next step in the medical process ---John Vogl

End of the 1st: The Sabres lead, 2-1, and have a 13-5 edge in shots. We'll obviously have more on Pominville when it becomes available. Pominville is the team's active leader in consecutive games played -- tonight was his 336th straight since being a healthy scratch against Philadelphia on April 7, 2006.

Friday night's gutty win in Ottawa was a great way to start a season but it's really going to feel like hockey time when we see the opening faceoff tonight in HSBC Arena. It's the Sabres and Rangers kicking off the home portion of 40th anniversary season and we'll be here all night with various game updates and observations.

Looking forward to what kind of pregame ceremonies we'll see, especially the videos. We can crab all we want about the music they play -- someone should get fired if "Chelsea Dagger" is piped through here again like it was last week -- but the video montages the Sabres put out are usually riveting. (Music plusses: I'm typing this to "American Pie" and I know they've got "Piano Man" coming later, as in "It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday"). 

Lots of Rangers fans crowding the visiting tunnel for warmups, many wearing the time-tested classic Blueshirts. It's the franchise's 85th anniversary season opener. Lots of the terrific new Sabres apparel around the stands too; the team will be wearing the new thirds tonight. The "NHL FACE-OFF 2010" logo is painted on the ice inside each blueline. Dear NHL: The word is not hyphenated. Come on. 

Speaking of logos and such, I've been getting this question constantly the last three weeks but the slug is still up on the bottom of the HD board. I would imagine it would be down by now if it was coming down. I know they like the red eye in it in and such. Wish it was outta here but those beautiful crossed swords are at center ice and the new duds look terrific on the players so I guess you can't have everything.

Just looked through the binoculars and the 2010 Northeast Division banner is rolled up next to the 2007 Presidents Trophy banner. It's going to be a blue and gold banner, just like the '07 division winner.

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

THIRD PERIOD

This just in from Sabres information guru Kevin Snow: Stepan is just the fourth player in NHL history with a hat trick in his debut. The others Alex Smart of Montreal in 1943, Real Cloutier of Quebec in 1979 and Fabiann Brunstrom of Dallas in 2008. Wow.

I got my Billy Joel at 9 o'clock on a Saturday. Kudos to the tune turners there. And they can let it roll -- and let the crowd sing -- since we're in an intermission.

18:52 left: You're kidding, right? Erik Christensen along in front for another tap-in to make it 5-1. Lots of blue-shirted Sabres just standing around. 

17:55 left: Stepan stopped by Miller on a clear breakaway. You're kidding.

14:20 left: The Sabres get a quick power play tally from Leopold, his second of the night. It was an unscreened slapshot that leaked through Lundqvist, who has to make that save. 5-2, Rangers. 

7:57 left: We're still in early-season mode on the Edge, mixing ongoing print edition work with the blog. Sabres trying to generate more offense but not much happening. Shots are 6-5 for Rangers in this period.

5:57 left: Sabres announce a sellout of 18,690. No way. Not a chance. Definitely a few hundred shy, unless scalpers were outside stuck with tickets.

5:37 left: Too little, too late? Roy gets his third of the season to make it 5-3. Third point of the night for Leopold and third assist in two games for Ennis. Too bad the Sabres fell asleep so much on defensive coverages earlier in this one.

2:43 left: Wow. Grier high and wide on a partial breakaway. Could have made things verrrry interesting. Elsewhere, what's up in this league? Pavel Datsyuk gets into a fight for the Wings last night and I'm told Ilya Kovalchuk and Mike Green just went at it in the Caps-Devils game. There's an odd combo.

1:32 left: The Sabres pull Miller and a few seconds later Marc Staal goes for tripping. So it will be a 6-on-4. Sabres call timeout.

1:25 left: Connolly loses the faceoff, the Sabres can't keep the puck in and Brandon Dubinsky goes ahead of the field for an easy empty netter to make it 6-3. Just way too easy. That's gonna be all she wrote for this one, folks.

It's over: A 6-3 win for the Rangers. Final shots are 36-28 for Buffalo. Stepan hit the post on the empty net with five seconds left. What a bum. 

SECOND PERIOD

Of note: Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec doesn't remember playing last night and couldn't feel his legs when he woke up. Wow. Here's the story from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Back on the homestead, the Rangers will have a 4-on-3 for the first 44 seconds of the period -- and a two-man edge for the next 31 seconds after that. Uh-oh.

18:20 left: Sabres kill it off. Gaborik shot wide on the best chance. 

17:25 left: Fourth line continues to make things happen. Big hit by Kaleta, steal at the Rangers' line and a good shot that Henrik Lundqvist stops. We went whole first period and never mentioned King Henrik's name. He had no work to do in the first.

16:29 left: Tyler Ennis is here to score. He has to stop being deferential. He had a clear lane to the net and kept looking for the pass to Pominville and Buffalo lost a good chance. 

13:30 left: Sabres have a lot more legs in this period. Shots are 7-1 for Buffalo after they had just four the entire first.

12:32 left: Sabres skating better and have an 8-2 edge in shots. Next item of business: Traffic in front of Lundqvist. Hasn't really been any yet. 

8:56 left: Sabres have rolled some new lines last couple of shifts. Ruff has gone back to Vanek-Roy-Stafford while Ennis is with Niedermayer and Grier. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, ex-Sabre Henrik Tallinder has scored a shorthanded goal while fellow free agent signee Anton Volchenkov is out for the night with a broken nose after taking a puck to the face. Devils and Caps tied at 2-2.

8:53 left: The Sabres get on the board as Leopold rifles one home from the right point in off the post. Gaustad wins the faceoff to Kaleta, who whips the pass cross ice. The fourth line deserved to be in on one. Shots 12-2 in the period and Sabres cut it to 2-1.

8:16 left: Montador goes for cross checking in front of Miller. 

6:15 left: No shots on the New York power play.

5:13 left: A Vanek sighting as Lundqvist stops his slapper and Stafford's try on a wraparound rebound. That's 15-3 in shots in this period -- and, remember, it was 16-3 in the second period last night in Ottawa. 

On an unrelated note, I absolutely hate these stupid blooper reels they show during the long breaks in play on the HD board. How about Sabres highlights from the last 40 years? I don't need to see some old lady or little kid whacked in the head or running into a wall. What's the point of that?

4:52 left: Sekera with a blind back pass up the boards that Stafford couldn't reach. Rivet doesn't take the man out in front and Stepan taps home his second of the night. So shots are 15-5 and goals are 1-1. Also like last night in Ottawa. 3-1, Rangers. 

4:35 left: Eminger for interference. Sabres to PP.

2:44 left: Myers has been pathetic tonight. Indecision at the point and just handed the Rangers a 2-on-1 that Miller had to soak up.

1:40 left: Are you serious? Stepan with the hat trick from directly in front -- and some hats make the ice from Rangers fans. 4-1. Terrible.

End-2nd: Sabres booed off the ice Buffalo had a 19-9 edge in shots and it's 23-19 overall. So that's one goal on 35 shots in two second periods in two nights. Yeesh.

FIRST PERIOD

7:19 p.m.: It's Game on.

15:40 left: First whistle and both teams have one shot. Gerbe simply replaces McCormick. No other line shuffling. Like a nice strip of Marion Gaborik at the Buffalo line by Sekera. Also liked Gerbe's play on the fourth line. Set up Gaustad right in front but Gaustad fanned.

The lines are Hecht-Niedermayer-Grier, Ennis-Roy-Stafford, Vanek-Connolly-Pominville and Gerbe-Gaustad-Kaleta. Defense pairs remain Myers-Morrisonn, Leopold-Montador and Sekera-Rivet.

13:29 left: First TV timeout. Bad giveaway by Montador nearly gave the Rangers a good chance. That pair has struggled so for. Big hit by Gerbe on Michael Rozsival, who is eight inches bigger at 6-2. Not many chances so far. The Sabres don't have nearly the skating room they got last night in Ottawa. And we'll have to see if they have the legs in their first of 22 sets of back-to-backs this year.

12:00 left: Sabres get first power play as Steve Eminger goes for boarding, a dangerous shot from behind on Pominville.

11:25 left: Miller robs Ruslan Fedotenko from in front. No penalty time on the scoreboard. Opening night clock jitters? And now the penalty time comes up.

10:25 left: Great pass by Leopold for a layup at the edge of the crease by Stafford....who fans...Yeesh. That's gotta end up in the back of the net.

10:00 left: Penalty expired with Rangers getting two shots on the PP and Buffalo none.

9:07 left: The Rangers take a 1-0 lead as a long shot from the right point goes in off Myers' skate. Sabres pay for Stafford's miss. The goal was by rookie Derek Stepan, making his NHL debut. He deflected Dan Girardi's point shot and then it ricocheted off Myers.

7:00 left: A look in the binoculars shows owner Tom Golisano is in his box -- with former tennis star and close friend Monica Seles seated at his right.

4:18 left: This has been one rough period for Tyler Myers, following a rough opening night. The big guy just blew a tire behind the net and handed the puck to Artem Anisimov. From there, a quick pass in front to Brandon Dubinsky for a tap-in and a 2-0 lead. Shots are 9-4 and the Sabres are D-E-A-D out there except for the fourth line.

1:16 left: Sabres get a break as Frolov takes a silly tripping penalty on Connolly just inside the Buffalo line. 

45.6 left: So much for that penalty as Stafford makes a brutal pass to send Anisimov away. Sekera has to haul him down and goes to the box. 

20.7 left: Lazy hooking penalty on Roy at center ice. First time I've even noticed Roy on the ice in this period.

End-1st: Rangers have a richly deserved 2-0 lead and a 10-4 edge in shots. Are Vanek and Roy even on the ice in this game? Why do the Sabres bother with Stafford anymore? How can the fourth line be the only one doing anything to this point? Did the real Sabres come home from Ottawa? Lots of gnawing questions.

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PREGAME NOTES/CEREMONIES

6:24 p.m.: Ryan Miller draws cheers as he comes on the bench for his nightly pregame meditation. Gotta love that new third jersey he's wearing (save for the goofy piping in the numbers).

6:30 p.m.: The teams are on the ice and we have our first piece of news: It's Nathan Gerbe in the lineup and Cody McCormick as a scratch. A mild surprise. Lindy Ruff doesn't  normally like to change winning lineups and the Rangers have some tough guys in their lineup like Brandon Prust and Derek Boogaard. Hmmm.

6:56 p.m.: Sabres scratches official: Weber, McCormick, Butler. Rangers scratches: White, Kennedy, Gilroy. Rangers starting Frolov-Christensen-Gaborik with Rozsival and Staal on D. Sabres starters are Hecht-Niedermayer-Grier-Myers-Morrisonn. 

7 p.m.: The top five rows in Sections 301 and 325 are completely empty. What's up with that? Looks like there's tickets to be had if you're in the neighborhood.

7:03 p.m: Large white Sabres banner unfurled in lower 100 level to be passed over folks heads. Neat. Banner moving through the 100 level. And here comes a delayed "Welcome to the Jungle' with Sabretooth coming down from the rafters. 

Don't mean to be a party pooper but they did the banner and Jungle thing in Boston during the playoffs. No points on the originality scale.

7:08 p.m.: The Sabres take the ice through the zamboni entrance and line up on the blueline to huge roars. And I called it: The video taking you through history, with lots of pop culture pieces from the years was awesome. Biggest cheer might have been for '07 Goo Goo Dolls theme. Huge cheers for Patrick Kaleta, bigger cheers for Tyler Myers. And, as you would imagine, the house comes down for Ryan Miller. Rick Jeanneret with a huge "MILLLLLER" on the PA call. Solid. Lindy Ruff gets a huge shout-out from the crowd too.

7:13 p.m.: Last year's video plays. Like the old movie-reel style flipping. And like the players taking a step back at the blueline to look up at the board as the banner drops from the rafters.

7:18 p.m. Doug Allen sings and it's time to play.