a welcome return?

drew stafford looks as if he'll
dress for tomorrow's game
vs. the bruins

oft-injured, much-maligned
sabres center tim connolly
should be available this
weekend, maybe sooner

two

sabres

could

return

as

early

as

wednesday

vs.

the bruins

the sabres sit in 11th place in the eastern conference, behind carolina and ottawa for 9th place in the standings, a full eight points out of a playoff spot...

on november 24th, both #2 center, tim connolly, and #3 center, rob neidermayer joined winger drew stafford (nov. 5th) on the injured list, and it looks as if at least one, maybe two of the three should be back for the game tomorrow night vs. the bruins...

head coach lindy ruff has given every indication that drew stafford, who has played one game (dec. 3rd, clb) in the last 16 since going down with a shoulder injury, is ready to come back and, although connolly said he's ready, ruff is leaving his options open by remaining non-commital...



"just the stats, man"



since connolly joined stafford on the injured list, the sabres have gone 3-3-1 with stafford returning for a win (not included) on dec. 3rd vs. clb...the team scored 14 goals in those seven games with six of them coming against san jose...they were shut out twice in regulation--a loss (vs. pitt) and a shoot out win (at ottawa)...

in their absence, the sabres called up colin stuart (3 games) and mark mancari (3 games) to replace stafford...they combined for 0 goals, 1 assist and a cumulative minus-1...some juggling occurred to replace connolly, with rookie luke adam being moved into the #2 slot and jochen hecht being moved to the #3 slot (replacing the injured neidermayer)...in seven games they combined for 1 goal and 2 assists with a cumulative minus-4

as much as fans like to bag on connolly, he's fifth on the team in scoring (13) and tied for fifth on the team (stafford) in goals (5)...and he's missed eight games...stafford has played only 15 games...

pretty sure the numbers speak for themselves...as much as sabres fans yearn for the day that connolly's no longer in the blue and gold, right now he's needed...

and as much as sabres fans loathe stafford's inconsistency and throw him into trade scenarios (myself included,) there's really no one in the pipeline to replace him...

and that's the precarious state of the buffalo sabres up-front right now..