Gameday Lineup: Sabres vs. Canadiens

Faceoff coming shortly... (40) Gogulla - (41) MacArthur - (21) Stafford (24) Darche - (19) Connolly - (29) Pominville (42) Gerbe - (9) Roy - (61) Afinogenov (17) Gragnani - (58) Kennedy - (25) Mancari DEFENSE (5) Lydman - (10) Tallinder (34) Butler - (33) Card (4) Weber - (38) Paetsch GOALTENDING (40) Lalime (53) Dennis ------------------------------------------------------------------- Interesting that Tyler Myers stays in camp but does not dress...Keep your eyes peeled for a Butler/Weber pairing at some point....Gerbe is set up for a big night riding with Derek Roy and Maxim Afinogenov....Nice to see Gragnani playing left wing instead of D.

Leafs upend Sabres, 7-4

It was a back-and-forth third period, but in the end the Sabres didn't have enough as they opened the 2008 pre-season with a 7-4 loss to Toronto. (see previous posts for 1st and 2nd period scoring notes). Trailing in the third, Mark Mancari one-timed a Marek Zagrapan shovel past Justin Pogge to cut the Leafs lead to 5-3. Jaro Spacek also received an assist on the play. The Leafs would come right back short-handed, as a crashing Dominic Moore slid to the ice, in the process causing the puck to escape Jhonas Enroth and enter the net for a 6-3 Leafs lead. Jochen Hecht later buried a Drew Stafford pass to make it 6-4. A Toronto empty netter would end it. Zagrapan - 1 goal, 2 assists, -2 MacArthur - 2 assists, -3 Sekera - 23:00, 1 assist, -2 Weber - 20:41, EVEN Mancari - 1 goal, -3 Gogulla - 1 goal, -2 Card - 17:08, -3 Hunter -- Jhonas Enroth stopped 10 of 13 shots in relief of Ryan Miller, who stopped 8/11.

Zagrapan nets first pre-season goal

The Sabres and Leafs have kicked off their respective pre-season schedules tonight at the ACC. At the end of one, the Leafs have the 2-1 lead. Marek Zagrapan opened the scoring on the power play, squeezing a sharp angle wrister through the pads of Curtis Joseph. Clarke MacArthur got the assist on the play by quickly taking the puck off the wall and getting it to Zagrapan. Andrej Sekera was credited with the secondary helper. Tonight's lineup: # Pos Name 4 D MIKE WEBER 6 D JAROSLAV SPACEK (A) 8 C MAREK ZAGRAPAN 10 D HENRIK TALLINDER 12 R ALES KOTALIK (A) 20 L DANIEL PAILLE 21 R DREW STAFFORD 25 R MARK MANCARI 32 L DYLAN HUNTER 33 D MIKE CARD 36 R PATRICK KALETA 38 D NATHAN PAETSCH 41 L CLARKE MACARTHUR 44 D ANDREJ SEKERA 47 L PHILIP GOGULLA 54 L TYLER BOUCK 55 C JOCHEN HECHT (C) 76 L ANDREW PETERS 30 G RYAN MILLER 31 G JHONAS ENROTH Other period thoughts: Mancari looks quick and active at all times. His play away from the puck has improved, and his line with Zagrapan and Philip Gogulla has produced a few scoring opportunities around Joseph. Mike Weber again showed how simple play can be most effective. With Andrej Sekera circling about, struggling to advance the puck out of his end, Weber patiently sat back. When the puck came to him, he made a safe backhand to the board that started a breakout. It's nice to see Mike Card at full speed once again. Nine months removed from a season ending concussion, he made a nice play deflecting a Darryl Boyce scoring opportunity. We'll look past that -2 for now, as there are still two periods to play. Tyler Bouck is going to be a good piece for the farmhands to gel with. He made a nice backhand feed from behind the net to Zagrapan that Cuju had to be sharp on. Since they're all prospects this time of year, Ales Kotalik is worth a mention. His takedown of Jeff Finger in the offensive zone was simply lazy. Get them out of your system now, Al. The first Toronto goal scored by Dominic Moore came off a bad giveaway just inside the blueline by Henrik Tallinder. The shot should have been stopped by Ryan Miller, but that's no excuse for making a rookie play with the puck. Miller will start the second, but Jhonas Enroth is expected to see his first Sabres action shortly.