Mike Grier alternated reps at RW with Adam Mair today in the arena. The skated on a line with Tim Kennedy and Jochen Hecht. Grier looked like he's finally feeling better from a groin injury. Grier said, "It was a good day, it felt pretty good so I think I should be ready to go by Wednesday. It's been a frustrating ten days or so. We had some tough games and I'd like to be out there to help the guys so it's been frustrating."

Lindy Ruff said Pat Kaleta was given a maintenance day and should be OK to play against the Caps too.

Drew Stafford was back to work and was on a line with Tim Connolly and Clarke MacArthur. Thomas Vanek was back with Derek Roy. Jason Pominville was the RW on that line.

Andrej Sekera was back on defense after play one game at LW. I thought Sekera struggled mightily when it came to breakouts. To me he looked lost, but Ruff disagreed, "I thought Andrej played a good game at forward, but I liked him in practice so I wanted to take a look. He's got good speed, I thought that line really played well for us. He ended up having two scoring chances. I asked him why he looked so good in practice and he said he used to be a forward and I didn't know that so part if it was Andrej had played pretty well before we took him out."

In his first 13 games Thomas Vanek was a minus player just once. In his last five games he's minus eight. The strange thing about that is against the Bruins, he was easily Buffalo's best player. Ruff said, "You're always concerned, I thought he did some things in the last two games that I thought were real good and then you end up minus three last game. You're always concerned, but that goes hand in hand with even strength. The Boston game, he led our team in even strength chances, he was in on two that he usually puts away. The pluses start coming when you start scoring at even strength. We haven't been doing that a lot and that makes it tough. A lot of our scoring has been power play. I think before Ottawa we had nine even strength goals in ten games, that makes it awfully tough on the plus/minus."

I watch Tim Connolly play and think back to the playoff series against Ottawa when he got hurt. He was out playing Daniel Briere and Chris Drury and was Buffalo's best player. It's rare we see that now. He has 17 points in 20 games which would give him 70 on the season. Ruff said, "He sure was our best player back then. He's gone through a lot of injuries since that point. Not just the concussion he received in that series. He's gone through wrist, he's gone through hip, he's gone through knee so there's been a lot of stuff that's factored into that. There's times where I think he's come close, but he hasn't been able to maintain."

No need for violence, just tell her she's got a game misconduct and show her the door.

As I said in the GDT, the call on Rivet was horseshit. The Bruins player was holding onto Rivet's stick like it was the last fucking raft on the Titanic.

"Against the Bruins, Vanek was easily Buffalo's best player" How does Markus feel about that?

Glad Staff and Grier will be back.

No need for violence, just tell her she's got a game misconduct and show her the door.

As I said in the GDT, the call on Rivet was horseshit. The Bruins player was holding onto Rivet's stick like it was the last fucking raft on the Titanic.

He'll dispute it, but he was our best player.

it wasnt cherrypicked. he was next to the net, a high traffic, high physical beatdown highway. anyone could have made THAT particular goal. but guess what? if it was kennedy, or grier, or kaleta, markus would not have said a damn thing how that goal was scored.

a goals a goals a goals a goal.

just so he puts in the required effort.

I'm glad Grier will be back, he is desperately needed back in our lineup.

Not for scoring chances, just to keep the team in check.

Vanek's goals should only count as half since he doesn't work for them.

Maybe next time he gets a puck on his stick with an open net he should wait for a defenseman to come over and work around him, just so he puts in the required effort.

A+

i was never a fan of kaleta, but hes turning me around. guy plays hard and tirelessly. good lord, if he had half vaneks offensive ability.....

I hated kaleta when he played for Peterborough, in the 06 OHL championship he knoked out Adam Dennis for one game that London lost. But now he is growing on me ever since he has been up with the sabres,