Knee Surgery

Sabres captain Craig Rivet had knee surgery on Wednesday morning and as a result will be out for a few weeks. Obviously not good news for Buffalo, as Rivet had been playing well and even set up one of the goals in the game against Boston.

Gaustad, Hecht and Connolly are also out for the Sabres, but this is the first injury they will have to deal with on the defensive side of things. Nathan Paetsch who has been a healthy scratch so far this season should take his spot. Paetsch's play was questionable at times last season, but he has also proven that he can be good as well.

Buffalo has been very good defensively this year, not giving up more than two goals to anyone. They will have to do even better against their Thursday night opponent, the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild are undefeated at 4-0-0 and have a very solid backend. Last week's NHL first star Thomas Vanek was followed closely by second star Niklas Backstrom. He has a 1.72 goals against average, so besides putting up points, Buffalo will also have to their best to limit any against. It should be a good game, against a team that we do not see too often.