Ellis not on ice. Hecht and Vanek aren't around. Butler is filling in on the 4th line.

Looks like this:

Ennis-Connolly-Stafford
Kennedy-Roy-Pominville
Torres-Gaustad-Grier
Butler-Mair-Kaleta

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/201 ... lines.html

Depressing...

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Wheelhouse

That does not look like a stanley cup contending lineup.

Yeah...I don't want to be a Negative Nancy, but having a healthy scratch defenseman playing on your 4th line is not the way to climb back into a series.

Boston's not far from Portland, so I'm going to assume one or both of two things are going to happen tomorrow:

Vanek will play.

Ellis will play.

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Wheelhouse

I. Uh. Wow. This doesn't bode well.

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Practice Update 2:06PM: Lindy is currently whipping the players while they don't give a shit..

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Miller, Myers and Greir are sick, but not Jesus Christ..

KILL OTTAWA

Vanek no where to be seen? Cool.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

I hope vanek rips off his leg and beats Boychuk with it.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

WILMINGTON, Mass — Thomas Vanek, standing with his left foot in an air cast, is still holding out hope of returning to the Sabres line. Vanek has yet to put any regular footwear on his injured ankle but he did not rule himself out for Game Four on Wednesday.

"I thought I had a chance yesterday but it wasn't good enough," Vanek said outside of Ristuccia Arena. "Each day there's improvements. We're doing a lot of treatments. It's tough to judge but I'm hopeful."

Although Vanek remains hopeful it would be a long shot for him to play.

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sabres/201 ... -boot.html

Sounds like a whole lot of wishful thinking to me.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

goddamnitsomuch

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Hold my beer and watch this...

It won't matter even if he gets back, he'll be what...50-70% maybe, if that?

Maybe it's just because it's the playoffs, or maybe it's because he went out on the verge of a hot streak, but it seems like he's going nuts not being able to play. I have a feeling when he does come back (if he comes back in time), he'll give 110% even if his foot or leg or whatever still hurts.

I don't think you'd see Connolly bugging the trainers every day to see if he's good enough to play while still wearing the air cast.

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Sometimes I wish I didn't love the Sabres so much...

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

How quickly we forget that Connolly played until he literally couldn't play anymore with his bone spurs.

Don't we all forgot so easily. Connolly is a trooper, he was playing through a broken foot in the regular season also, an probably still is playing with some pain.

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Only top 6 forward with no Visor.

Goose, Mair, Grier, Connolly, and Ellis are the only forwards with no visor.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

Good point. But ever since he got decked in the 2006 series against Ottawa, he hasn't found that explosiveness he used to play with.

I really miss that TC.

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Wheelhouse

some pain, i bet the foot is no where near 100%....

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Also a huge reason why he isn't playing with as much explosiveness it seems.

When he was on his point streak in the season he was great and fully healthy. Now he is suffering through a good bit of pain in that foot and I know that hampers his ability to control the puck.

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A broken bone takes around six weeks to heal, and that's with a cast or immobilizer. Connolly's been trying to play on it, so I'm fairly confident that it's still broken, but that the swelling was down enough to play on it with pain killing shots.

To me it does look like Connolly is a bit slower but the thing that pops out the most is his decision making, hasnt been exactly amazing.