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Sabres Activate Leino, Place Weber on IR

October 26, 2013, 4:47 PM ET [10 Comments]
GARTH'S CORNER
NHL news by Garth • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Updated 4:50pm EDT:



Look for winger Ville Leino to rejoin the Sabres lineup tonight in Tampa.

The Sabres have activated Leino, who had missed the past 11 games with a broken rib. Leino was injured midway through the season opener against his former team in Detroit. he played only 8 games last season, scoring six points before shitting down his season due to lung and lower body injuries. Talk about a guy who needs to make a favorable impression. Leino's been pulling a fat pay check for the past 2+ seasons in Buffalo, with little to no offensive production due to injuries. Its hero time, Ville! Its time to put up or shut up.

His roster spot was created when the Sabres placed D-man Mike Weber on injured reserve. Weber blocked a shot in Friday night's win over the Panthers, and did not finish the game to to an upper body (thumb) injury. This morning, Ron Rolston proclaimed Weber out "long term", hence his move to the IR.

Buffalo sure could use more scoring. Hopefully having Leino back in the top six group will get flip the switch in the offense. I suspect that we will see the struggling Drew Stafford again on the fourth line tonight.









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Good news for concussed Boston Bruins winger Loui Eriksson. Bruins head coach Claude Julien told Bruins TV on Saturday morning that Eriksson is making progress in his recovery from his injury that he suffered at the elbow of Buffalo Sabres winger John Scott.


"Loui's doing okay, I guess, for a guy who suffered a concussion," said Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien. "It’s the same thing – you have a good day, you have less of a good day – and it’s early on but we’re just, like always, you keep your fingers crossed that it’s going to get better sooner than later for his sake."


Eriksson missed Thursday night's game vs. San Jose, this ending his 148 consecutive games- played streak; The last time he missed a game was March 19, 2011 as a Dallas Star. Eriksson had missed just three of a possible 436 games over the past 5-plus seasons.

"I don’t think we know the severity of [the concussion] yet and you never know about those things until some days go by and you see if he’s improving or not," Julien had said on October 24 when Eriksson was diagnosed.


Julien said that before he was injured that Eriksson was making solid progress in his play. He's a 200 foot player who was starting to come into his own.

"He’s a good playmaker and not only that, he’s smart with the puck. When he has it, he doesn’t just throw it away. And what we missed was probably the chemistry that he started to build with his linemates, and I thought that line was really good – had a lot of chances in Buffalo."


John Scott has been summoned to NYC to meet in person with the NHL Department of Player Safety on Halloween Day (October 31). Scott sat out Buffalo's win in Sunrise on Friday night, and will also sit until his hearing date.




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