The year 2012 seems to be filled with only good news for the Buffalo Sabres. After starting the new year 1-0 by beating Edmonton on Tuesday, the blue and gold are slated to get some walking wounded back in action in the form of Tyler Myers, Tyler Ennis, and Ville Leino.
According to Lindy Ruff’s post-practice interview, Tyler Myers will most likely return for the Sabres’ next game on Friday, as long as he feels good to go, while Ennis and Leino could be ready to go as early as Saturday. Here’s what Ruff had to say about Myers, courtesy of WGR:
“He got the green light yesterday. I think he, mentally put him in a good place,” the head coach said. “The day before, he wasn’t shooting the puck like that. I think tentative in the sense that he didn’t know if it was completely healed or not. I think he gave it a real good test today. There’s obviously a possibility he could go.”
Tyler Ennis and Ville Leino, meanwhile, both skated fully with the team on Wednesday and are aiming for a return on either Saturday or Tuesday. Once all three are back, then the Sabres will only be waiting on Andrej Sekera and Christian Ehrhoff to return before they will finally have all of their “starters” on the ice again.
In other, non-horrible injury news, Jason Pominville, Brad Boyes, and Jochen Hecht were absent from practice, all three for a maintenance day. Presumably, they all went to go see “We Bought A Zoo” together or something.
Finally, the Sabres finished practice in a cool way – by playing some mini-hockey: 2-on-2 with the goals shifted in to the blue lines. There’s a cool photo of it over at WGR, check it out.
With the return of Ennis, Leino, and Myers especially, the injury excuse will soon no longer be valid for the Sabres. Things are about to get less depressing more interesting.