Amherst, NY (WGR 550) -- Sabres forward Paul Gaustad took the ice and skated on his own on Saturday morning, four days after sustaining an upper-body injury against the Penguins. Gaustad suffered a shoulder injury during a third period fight with Mike Rupp during the loss. The big center said, "It's good, I went out yesterday and skated before practice so I'm just trying to keep my legs while this injury heals up. It's up to me right now as far as getting the strength back. Once I get to a certain point and the doctor says he'll clear me, then I'll play."
As far as regretting dropping the gloves with Rupp Gaustad said, "It's part of my game, you can't regret playing your game, it happens, injuries happen, it's unfortunate timing and I'm disappointed it happened, but you just have to deal with it as best you can."
As far as Drew Stafford goes Lindy Ruff said, "He's not doing so good, he won't even make the trip with us so it looks like this groin injury is going to be a good period of time. Mark Mancari gets the call from Portland. He's played one game for the Sabres and it was the other game in Madison Square Garden. Ruff said, "He's the guy that's been going the best down there. We'll maybe play him with Derek Roy." As far as how he played last time Ruff said, "Actually I thought he was pretty good so hopefully he can come up and give us a little offensive burst." In 61 games with the Pirates he has 22 goals and 40 assists. Tyler Ennis can't come up as he's out with a concussion. Nathan Gerbe only has 9 goals in 33 games.
Chris Butler sat for the first time against the Flyers. Ruff said, "I don't think he's played well enough. I sat down with him for a good period of time and his numbers are what they are (-12). I went through the history of Brian Campbell and how I didn't want Brian Campbell to be a minus player. I told him you can look at the numbers any way you want to look at it, but they're still your numbers. I told him I think he's a real good player, but I think there's been some complacency in his game, I think there's been lack of desperation in his game and for a young man in the start of his career, if you get a little bit complacent and a little bit comfortable, I think your numbers end up where they're at. I told him his role now is to be a plus player the rest of the year (Butler is +1 in his last 19 games). Scratching players is a tough thing to do, but sometimes it's an effective thing to do. I don't want him to sit out for a long period of time so we'll see." The question is why did Ruff wait so long to scratch Butler. He said, "Because I was patient earlier in the year when I didn't think he was going that well. I tried to let him play through some stuff that and he understands that. I told him I was patient through a good stretch of games where I didn't likes his desperation and I didn't like the way he was playing and some of the stuff in the previous game just lacked the urgency of a team that needed to win a game."
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