Connolly and Afinigenov Practice with Team

For the first time all season the Sabres saw Tim Connolly and Maxim Afinigenov on the ice. It appears that Connolly will make his return Thursday night against the Boston Bruins and Max could play in the Easter weekend tilts against the Capitals and Flyers.

Recap:

The opportunistic Sabres defeated a sloppy New York Islander team 6-4 on Friday night. Chris Drury had 2 goals and Thomas Vanek scored his team leading 39th. On Saturday the Sabres fell to a desperate Canadiens team. The Sabres played fairly well and held the Habs to only two shots in the first period. Unfortunately the Sabres were plagued by a few untimely giveaways in the 2nd and 3rd periods which the opportunistic Canadiens promptly turned into goals.

Danius Zubrus continued his strong play with 2 goals and an assit in the last 3 games. He has been a tremendous presence cycling the puck down low and has blended well with Chris Drury and Ales Kotlaik.

For the first time in 2007 the Sabres were able to play all 6 of the teams top defenseman with the return of Toni Lydman. The pairings heading into the playoffs appear to be Henrik Tallinder and Toni Lydman, Teppo Numminen and Dimitri Kalinin and Brian Campbell and Jaro Spacek. Nathan Paetsch who has been a positive part of the powerplay has moved to right wing supplanting enforcer Andrew Peters.