BUFFALO – The NHL’s worst team is down its top defenseman, starting goalie and No. 3 scorer after Wednesday’s trades. How rough will the Sabres’ final 27 games be without Tyler Myers, Jhonas Enroth and Drew Stafford?
Coach Ted Nolan told his Sabres they’re “not going to be like sacrificial lambs, just go out there and get slaughtered.”
“We have to make sure we play together, we protect one another and we work together – and that’s the one ingredient we have some kind of success,” Nolan said this afternoon following practice inside HarborCenter. “I told them, the only difference between winning and losing most often is not quitting. We just got to continue to work hard and you never know.”
Nolan recently said Myers, who went to Winnipeg in the deal that landed winger Evander Kane, is talented enough to be built around.
“My job is to coach, Nolan said. “Obviously, some of the players you get attached to. I’m just like the players. We’re in this thing on a daily basis. We work together. We practice together. We play together. We spend a lot of time.
“Myers is certainly one of those players that will be beneficial to any player, and I’m quite sure got ourselves back a pretty good player.”
Kane, however, is out for the season following shoulder surgery. Nolan doesn’t know the 23-year-old, who comes with some baggage.
“When you hear rumors and you hear things, to me, that’s what they are, they’re just rumors,” Nolan said.
Meanwhile, goalie Anders Lindback, acquired from Dallas in the Enroth trade, practiced today.
“I was mentally prepared something could happen,” an upbeat Lindback said. “Right now, I’m happy it did. I feel like I’m coming to a great opportunity here to prove myself. I’m happy.”
Defenseman Zach Bogosian, the other piece of the Myers deal, hasn’t joined the Sabres yet.
Nolan said defenseman Josh Gorges had a maintenance day from practice today.