Tim Connolly sprained his vagina this morning in practice, questionable for Wednesday. (That was code for a groin inury.)

Strokin' Jochen has an upper body injury, skating on his own.

Rob Niedermayer had knee surgery, he's out a couple weeks.

Ryan Miller practiced, unsure about Wednesday.

Nancy Drew Stafford is close, but will not play Wednesday.

Damn.

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Wheelhouse

Well at least with Connolly out we don't have to worry about him coughing the puck at the blueline trying to skate thru a few guys.

I would like to see Adam and Mancari up for an extended period of time.

Am I that out of the loop, or is this a surprise to everyone else, too?

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I was just as confused. I pinged Bill Hoppe to try and get some details.

EDIT: It's apparently been bugging him since the preseason, just got to be too much. Minor scope, minimum 2 weeks.

So maybe that's why Niedermeyer has been so, well, bad.

WTF, what happened yesterday?

That leaves us with following lineup:

Ennis - Roy - Vanek
Gerbe - Gaustad - Pomminville
McCormick - Grier - Kaleta
?? - Ellis - ??

Maybe they'll try Sekera as forward again but he really played well on D lately

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Call up Mancari and Adam

Yeah, Rej needs to stay on D, IMO. Bring up Adam and Mancari (is an emergency Kassian call-up possible?)

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Kassian won't be called up!

i don't think so. i'm pretty sure the only way we can actually do that is if portland was down to a minimum roster, or if there was no way to get any of them in time for the game.

I can't wait until Mancari is out of the Sabres' organization so people will stop assuming he's the next big thing.

The guy gets passed over on callups year after year for younger kids because he's not good enough.

A Kassian callup can happen since they have less than 12 healthy forwards, assuming all those listed players are out/ However, I don't expect them to do that since they have options in Portland, plus if he was here for 10 games that would eat a year of free agency off his contract.

Nobody is assuming he the next big thing. But he does put up numbers in Portland and how can you actually say he has had a fair shot when how many games has he played with Buffalo. That's hardly any time to adjust to the speed. Kennedy had more time than Mancari. I could see if he had a full season with Buffalo and didn't get better but the guy has only played a handfull of games each year.

mancari is going to a career AHL-er. i actually don't mind him being down in Portland. he has played very well with vanek in the past though..

I didn't say Mancari by name because of any faith in him; there just aren't better options.

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I'd like to see Adam again. He showed some promise the last time. Isn't there anybody else but Mancari we could call up from Portland? That's dissapointing.

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Negative.



When a player is called up on an emergency basis, they also must specify what player he's coming up for, and must be returned once that player is healthy.

HYPOTHETICAL:

Luke Adam called up on emergency recall for Tim Connolly. As soon as Connolly's vag heals, Adam must be returned OR his recall may be converted to a standard recall.

(There are reasons you wouldn't want a standard recall, but not something that needs to be gone into now. )

This team has no depth at offense in the minors or in junior and this organization lacks any promising prospects at offense beside Adam!

I'd say if there is any chance we can call up Kassian for less than 10 games, do it.

EDIT: ...and I wouldn't mind to see Connolly be traded at the deadline for some prospects. Apparently we need them.

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Marc Mancari has had the opportunity to make the Sabres every year since the lockout. He hasn't been able to beat out anyone in camp. When he's been called up, he hasn't shown anything to earn himself another callup.

If the Sabres thought Kennedy wasn't good enough to keep around, and Mancari couldn't beat him out, what makes you think he's good enough now?

You win your roster spot in one of two ways.

1. Beat out the guy in front of you in camp.
2. Play so well on a callup they can't send you down.

Mancari has had chances at both, and done neither.