A pressing question: Is Ryan Miller going to be part of the Sabres’ future? (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Jason Pominville got while the gettin’ was good.

At least, that seems to be the way Thomas Vanek and Ryan Miller are looking at the deal that sent their captain to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday, leaving them to bail water for the final 11 games of the season in Buffalo.

John Vogl of the Buffalo News wrote this afternoon that the two stars plan to speak with Sabres GM Darcy Regier about his plans for the franchise moving forward.

That doesn’t sound like code for, “We’re so thrilled to be part of this that we can’t wait to sign long-term extensions.”

Both players were diplomatic, but blunt about their futures.

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Best buddies again: Ryan Miller feels that Patrick Kaleta’s remarks were misrepresented by a member of the media. (Don Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

It sounds as though the fences have been mended in the Buffalo Sabres’ room.

Ryan Miller, speaking today to Sabres TV, said he’d cleared the air with teammate Patrick Kaleta after telling him through the media to “grow up.”

“I’ve actually apologized to Patty,” Miller said. “I felt like what I was told he said and what he actually said were two different things. I’m not gonna get too far into it, but the meaning was different enough for me to react the way I did. And what he actually said sounded more like a player who just wants to come back and play as soon as possible, and he’s frustrated…which is completely what you’d expect. So we’re going to try to move on from that.

“Either way, I probably shouldn’t have handled it like that, but again, I was frustrated and I think everyone in Buffalo knows I’m prone to say stupid things…over the course of the season. I handled it with Patty, I wanted to handle it publicly. It wasn’t the right thing to say, no matter what.”

Miller’s initial comments came after Sunday’s 5-3 loss to the Capitals. “You can get me to say anything after a loss like that,” he said.

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By Allan Muir

The crew over at Sportsnet generated a lot of online buzz between periods on Tuesday night when Nick Kypreos suggested that the Buffalo Sabres had planted the For Sale sign and would “dearly love to move” Ville Leino and Ryan Miller.

OK.

First, Leino is going nowhere. The Sabres could package him with their 2013 first rounder — a likely top-five pick — and ask for nothing more than Gary Bettman’s phone number in exchange, and they still wouldn’t find a taker. No team is going to assume the four years and $18 million remaining on a deal for a player who scored eight goals last season and has yet to play in 2013 due to a hip injury. That albatross will remain around GM Darcy Regier’s neck for as long as he’s allowed to steer this ship.

As for Miller? The moody netminder has been rumored to be on the block before. So what’s different now?

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Losing has given a decidedly blue cast to goaltender Ryan Miller’s postgame language. (Mark Goldman/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

There aren’t any easy answers anymore in Buffalo.

No team loses more draws than the Sabres. No team allows more shots per game, on average. The Sabres rank 27th in goals-against. They might have the least effective breakout in the league. Their stagnant power play is a disgrace, although a sweet Thomas Vanek deflection on a five-on-three chance Sunday against Pittsburgh snapped an 0-for-14 skid with the extra man.

Even Ryan Miller has battled inconsistency, vacillating between a 38-save win over the Bruins and a 17-save loss to the Habs. But he’d been on a bit of a roll, putting together a .944 save percentage over his previous four games coming into Sunday’s tilt with the Pens.

Sunday was one of those days that reminded you just how good Miller once was, and how good he could be again. His game was colored by patience, not desperation. His movement was calm, precise and he kept his rebounds under control. He made big stops at big moments to keep the game within reach, none bigger than this save on James Neal that left the Pens shaking their heads or laughing on the bench:

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Playoff push: After being tagged as a soft team for failing to respond to an earlier hit in Boston, the Sabres and goalie Ryan Miller have fought back and are overcoming long odds. (Mark Goldman/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

With their victory over the Capitals on Tuesday night, the Buffalo Sabres leapfrogged Washington into eighth place in the Eastern Conference. This event should not be minimized because it is amazingly rare for NHL clubs that have been out of a playoff spot by double digits in February to actually make the playoffs by season’s end. Obviously, this isn’t a fait accompli yet, but the fact that the Sabres were able to make up this much ground has them heading into historic territory.

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Devils winger Zach Parise and Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller are two of the biggest Eastern Conference names in the trade rumor mill, but dealing them carries major implications for their respective teams. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL trade deadline arrives on Feb. 27 and unlike last year when February turned into trade season, there has been little movement thus far. As Kevin Allen noted last week in USA Today, the trade market appears to be stalled with many teams still evaluating their situations.  Asking prices for potential trade targets are said to be prohibitively high.

The first deal, however, could break things open. That may not happen until we get closer to deadline day and the undecided teams determine for sure if they want to build for next season or take a shot at the playoffs. Then the “buyers” — the teams hoping for a playoff spot or a deep postseason run — will have more trading partners among the “sellers,” who will be looking more long term while trying to clear out cap space for future moves or acquiring useful players now.

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Ville Leino (23), who was given a fat six-year contract and has produced only three goals and eight assists, is one of the posterboys for a Sabres season filled with deep slumps, injuries and big disappointment. (Michael Dwyer/AP)

By Stu Hackel

One of the NHL’s biggest mysteries this season, the collapse of the Buffalo Sabres, could result in some big changes. It doesn’t appear as if the jobs of GM Darcy Regier and coach Lindy Ruff are in jeopardy, but some players may soon be on the move.

That was the strong hit delivered by Sabres President Ted Black during  All-Star Weekend when he told John Vogl of The Buffalo News that while he supported the work of the team’s hockey department, “Our commitment is to winning, not to any particular group of players that are labeled as a core. Take that for what it’s worth.”

We’ll take that to mean that the Sabres will be sellers at, or prior to, the trade deadline.

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Goalies can be like Mama Gump’s box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get — and that’s been very true for the St. Louis Blues with Brian Elliott (left) this season. (Minas Panagiotakis/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

The news from St. Louis that the Blues have rewarded Brian Elliott with a two-year contract extension sparked a few thoughts about goaltending in general and the Blues in particular.

There is no official NHL award for comeback player of the year, and even if there was, Elliott might not actually be a good choice because his earlier incarnation as a goalie for the Ottawa Senators produced only one good season (29-18-4, 2.57 goals-againt average and .909 save percentage with five shutouts in 2009-10) and a few not so good ones. But his work so far this season (15-5-1, 1.68 and .937) has him swimming with the big fish of NHL netminders, namely The Bruins’ Tim Thomas, the Predators’ Pekka Rinne and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist. (SI.com’s Michael Farber looked at Elliott’s emergence in a recent column.)

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The Rangers and the Bruins have clearly been the class of the NHL so far. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL’s  regular season is at the halfway point. A number of teams have hit the 41-game mark and the 615th contest of the 1230-game schedule was played on Monday. So here are some things that have struck us so far, in no particular order.

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In the season’s most high-profile incident of running the goaltender, Boston’s Milan Lucic faced a disciplinary hearing for hitting Buffalo’s Ryan Miller in open ice on November 12. (Fred Kfoury/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

It’s hard being a goalie at any level of hockey, especially in the NHL. In fact, during the Original Six era when goalies were barefaced and their equipment rudimentary, people routinely called it the toughest job in sports. The gear is immeasurably better today — obviously, because some of it is too big — but goaltenders still have it tough and are increasingly subject to injury. Their plight is being made all the more difficult by the incessant crease crashing that is now a common practice in the NHL.

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