Sabres Injury Update

Lindy Ruff was on the radio this morning and was talking about the status of the Sabres wounded. The Sabres resume play on March 1st against Atlanta, and they may not have as many players back for that first game as they would like.

Co-captain Daniel Briere is ready to go and has been practicing regularly with the team. He is the only player whose status is clear-cut.

Winger Jochen Hecht, injured in the last game before the Olympic break, skated individually on Wednesday and may be back for the Atlanta game. If not, he would return in a couple days.

Center Tim Connolly also skated on his own, but Ruff felt he would not return until a couple weeks after the break ends. Llook for him to return around March 10-14.

Defenseman Dmitri Kalinin is practicing with the team as well, but has not been cleared for contact as he “still has some tenderness,” according to Ruff. He appears to fall into the same category as Hecht; he may be able to play against Atlanta, but may need a day or two more.

The news on Adam Mair and his concussion is far less encouraging. He has not been cleared to practice nor can he really take place in any hockey related activity. His return is unknown, but my personal opinion, just from the way Ruff sounded, is that he isn’t counting on him returning this year.

Jiri Novotny has been sent back to Rochester, leaving the Sabres at the league mandated minimum of 20 players, which will grow to 21 when Briere is officially activated from injured reserve. If Kalinin and Hecht are activated quickly then the Sabres will hit the maximum of 23 active players. With the rosters expanding to 25 on March 9th, I would anticipate that would be the earliest that Tim Connolly would be activated.

So you really have to feel for Mika Noronen, who was kind of pinning his trade hopes on the fact the Sabres would get healthy eventually and would be forced to make a deal. He recently spoke to the AP, and had this to say:

“I’ve been hoping every day when I wake up that something’s going to happen,” Noronen said this week as the Sabres resumed practice following a 10-day Olympic break. “But nothing has happened and now it’s two weeks left and I’m still hoping that something will happen. Hopefully, they move me somewhere or somebody else.”

You have to respect the classy way that Noronen and his agent have both handled the situation, and I hope for his sake that somebody goes by the trade deadline.