News and Link of the Day (12/4)

In Sabres News

The major Sabres news of the day is that Teppo Numminen has passed his latest set of physicals after his heart surgery to repair a faulty heart valve and is still on track to return to the team this season. An article from the Globe and Mail explained how Teppo is doing and possibly how close he is to being ready, which really is unknown at this point.

When Teppo comes back, it creates a logjam on the blue line with 8 healthy defenders and only 6 able to play. The odd men out in this situation are Nathan Paetsch and Nolan Pratt. While Pratt has been sitting when Kalinin came back, it would be nice to see him and Numminen rotate to keep Numminen fresh and allow him to gradually come back into the game and not have him wore out for the playoff run. While Paestch is a good player on the blueline, he hasnt really done much to make you say wow and I think that Pratt would be a better asset back there.

Other News Around the League

Drew Miller was sent back to the Portland Pirates. Drew is Ryan's brother. Link
The Carolina Hurricanes waive John Grahme and recall Michael Leighton from the Albany River Rats. Link
Ryan Smyth will be out 6-8 weeks with a broken ankle. This definately is not good news for the Avalanche because now both Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth are hurt and this tests their depth. Link
Good article from CBS Sports on the hard time that teams are going to have signing some stars under the cap. Link

Link of the Day

I found this Youtube video of the CBC intro from the Winter Classic and like anything that CBC does is pretty damn good. It includes the old Buffalo Bills theme song and just shows Buffalo in all its glory.