- The Buffalo Sabres are off to a good start this season (4-0-1), beating the Red Wings 6-2 last night, but in the process, have lost sniper Tomas Vanek for an extended period of time. Coach Lindy Ruff said it could be ‘weeks’ before Vanek returns from an ‘upper body injury’. The Sabres will definitely miss his scoring touch, but they do have some good scoring depth.
- In other injury news that shouldn’t be much of a surprise, injury prone Sami Salo should be on his yearly trip to the IR soon. Salo sprained his medial collateral ligament and will be out 4-6 weeks. Salo hasn’t been close to playing a full season since 2003-04. It’s the last thing the Canucks need, as they are already without Daniel Sedin, Pavol Demitra and Mathieu Schneider.
- There is still no word on Vesa Toskala’s injury. He had an MRI done on Tuesday but the results haven’t been made public yet. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s a ‘lower body injury’ and he’ll be out indefinitely. He’ll have plenty of time to heal since the Leafs only play once in the next 11 days. Jonas Gustavsson is out for another week or so.