Paul Hamilton Reporting
Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) --
Watching Jochen Hecht practice for the past two days you can tell his finger is uncomfortable. Talking to him today he doesn't sound overly optimistic about playing tomorrow, "I practiced OK, but it's not where I want it to be and I'm not going to rush into the first game, it's a long post season and I'm just going to take it day to day. I've got to be able to put pressure on and battle in the tight corners so it's something I'll have to do 100-percent and if I'm shying away from it, that's not good for the team or for me." Hecht had surgery on April 6th and did try to play with it for a bit, "Played with it before until it got to a point where I couldn't do it any more."

Drew Stafford was out with the team, but didn't take any line shifts. Stafford told me he's taking it slow, but the good news is the symptoms are gone. He obviously won't play in Game One.

Tim Connolly again said he felt great out there and he will play unless he has a setback overnight.

Today was a power play practice and Connolly was on a until as were Tyler Ennis and Andrej Sekera. That is the best indicator that all three will in the the line up tomorrow. Nathan Gerbe is still up with the team too.

Most games the Sabres play in Boston the Bruins try to physically intimidate them. They did in late March, but the Sabres won the game anyway. Buffalo's own Tim Kennedy gets his first ever playoff action right in front of his friends and relatives. Kennedy knows they must play "big", "They're a big team that will come out and hit and we can't be scared of them. I think the first half of the year they tried to push us around and I think we answered the bell there a few times and I think that's how the series in going to start. They're going to try to come out and try to hit us and try to scare us, we just have to come out and answer that bell. That's a certain aspect that I bring to the team and I've been doing it all year so there's no reason to stop now when it's the most important time of the year." It's interesting the Sabres best two agitators are both from the area. When I asked Kennedy who's better at it between him and Pat Kaleta he said, "It must be something about the city that we know how to get underneath people's skin. It's a way we both like to play, we make it hard on the other team and their best players because usually they don't like to be touched, they don't like getting a stick in the back of the legs or be hit so that's one aspect of the game I enjoy because it gets them off their game a little bit. Pat can hit better than I can , but I can throw a better stick." Kaleta did not dispute that saying he was at the wrong end of Kennedy's stick many times while playing against each other growing up.