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1 Winnipeg Free Press He's baaaack! It's not just another game for Kane, despite his insistence it is By: Melissa Martin It s just another game, Evander Kane kept saying, but the way he emerged from the Buffalo Sabres dressing room Saturday told a slightly different story. Grey plaid suit, crisply tailored. Belt and shoes, gleaming patent leather. A silent message, loudly delivered: it was definitely not a track suit. "It s just another game," he said then, but nothing about the lead-up to Sunday's matinee at the MTS Centre felt particularly normal. Forty minutes earlier, Kane s fellow ex-jet Zach Bogosian sauntered off the ice and met with media, still in sweat-damp gear. After a Sabres team meeting, other players padded through the visitors area in athletic shorts, cocking an eyebrow at the gaggle of reporters clustered in the hall. "You want me?" captain Brian Gionta called, laughing as he made his way off the practice ice. "You want me?" No one took him up on the offer. Instead, reporters chatted with Bogosian, then waited; they peppered Sabres coach Dan Bylsma with questions, then waited some more. They waited until it was time for Kane, and for "just another game," and to watch the 24-year-old forward stop himself from giving much more away. It was, he stressed again, just business as usual. "It s an afternoon game, so it s a little different that way," Kane said. "But I m going into it preparing as if we were playing any other team in the league. We re on a six-game slide here, so I m looking for two points." Yet on this weekend, his first time back at the MTS Centre since the Feb. 10 trade, it feels as if there is so much more to say. In the 11 months since Kane was swapped to Buffalo along with Bogosian, for a package including Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford, Kane has spoken up about what went wrong in Manitoba. Not here, though. Saturday, the forward was more circumspect when asked about his rocky history with the Jets, about what it was that didn t fit. "I think sometimes in pro sports it happens more often than not, certain things just don t fit," he said. "A prime example of that, you see (Ryan) Johansen and Seth Jones just getting flipflopped with one another. It just goes to show that sometimes a new scene can help."

2 On that note, was he joking or serious when he told Barstool Sports he d want to fight Jets leaders Andrew Ladd or Blake Wheeler? "I guess you can take it whatever way you want it," Kane replied. "It s up for you guys to determine." Or, given that he told The Hockey News he asked for a trade from the Jets each year, why did he always duck that question when it was asked here? "Hockey s a business, and business is handled in different ways," he said. "At that point in time, it was best for business. So, that s why." So that s it then, it s just business, and Sunday's matchup is just another game. Except it isn t quite, of course or at least not outside the boards. In Winnipeg, fans proposed chants to hurl at the player. A popular movement dubbed the game Track Suit Night and spread plans to wear that athletic attire to the game, a nod to the infamous report of a dress-code violation days before Kane was traded. ("I have no reaction to that," Kane said.) More heavily, the tilt comes just two weeks after The Buffalo News reported Kane was the subject of an open sexual-assault investigation, one triggered when a young woman turned up at a Buffalo hospital early Dec. 27 with "signs of trauma on her body" and little memory of what happened. Authorities told reporters the investigation could take weeks. Kane has not been charged, and in a brief statement said he had done nothing wrong and intends to clear his name. Still, the news hangs as a far more serious unanswered question than any of the rumours that once flew around Winnipeg. So it cannot be business as usual, cannot be exactly like any other game. Besides, Bylsma said, the first time he met Kane in early June, they talked about what would happen Jan. 10. The coach did not remember who raised the topic, but he smirked a bit when he recalled it. If anything, he said, the "warm reception" fans have planned could spark both player and the struggling Sabres. "He s going to have some emotion, and he s going to be revved up," Bylsma said. "I don t know if you can calm that down... He s going to want to come back in here, and have something to prove." And maybe he does, or maybe he will. But 30 minutes later, Kane met the same reporters and downplayed the significance of that conversation. "We were talking about some of the rivalries we ve had in the past together, me and Dan," he said. "So I think it came up, but as I said, just another game." Bogo loves Buffalo, but misses Jets

3 Buffalo defenceman Zach Bogosian went to some lengths Saturday to say how close he remains with some of his former Jets teammates and how much regard he has for numerous individuals from his former organization. He also made a point of saying he never told a reporter who wrote about his return to Winnipeg this week he asked for a trade. First and foremost, I didn t say that to (Sportsnet s) Damien Cox. And my respect for the Jets organization dates back to my first contract. I think with Chevy, the way he handles things, it was always in-house. And I ll keep it that way. I m not going to say yes or no. But I will say that I ve enjoyed my move to Buffalo and I m glad I m a Sabre. Bogosian was also asked why he thought he went stale in Winnipeg. I just think I wasn t performing the way I wanted to perform, he said. It just didn t go the way you d like it to go. But that s in the past. I ve moved on from that. I m excited to be in Buffalo and it s been a good transition. - Tim Campbell Evander who? Kane's return has Jets shrugging shoulders By: Tim Campbell However hard he has tried, Evander Kane hasn t managed to provoke much of a reaction from his former teammates on the Winnipeg Jets. It was the same to mark Kane s first appearance at the MTS Centre since February s major trade. The Jets meet the Buffalo Sabres today at 2 p.m. After Saturday s practice downtown, the Jets dressing room was saturated with Kane questions, including the matter of the left-winger saying last year jokingly or not, we can t be sure and he wouldn t say Saturday he wouldn t mind fighting former teammates Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler. "There s no chance of that happening tomorrow," Wheeler said. "I m here to help my team win a hockey game and that doesn t fall under that criteria. That s his prerogative. He can do it however he wants. I can t change the way he feels. If he wants to fight, I m sure there are guys in here that would love to, but that ain t going to be me." The question was repeated to Wheeler later in his interview. "He s always been pretty good at causing a reaction. I ve answered that question already," he said. "I don t anticipate doing that tomorrow. I ll dictate when my gloves come off."

4 Ladd shrugged off the matter, also declining comment on the incident that may have been the point of no return February in Vancouver when Kane arrived for a team meeting in a track suit, which was later dumped in a cold tub by Dustin Byfuglien. "I m still not talking about it," Ladd said. The Jets captain was asked if he was surprised to learn Kane said he had repeatedly asked for a trade. "I don t think anyone was aware of it," he said. "To me, he showed up and worked and was a part of what we were trying to do. "Maybe a little surprised because he signed a long-term deal to be here. If he wasn t happy, you d think he would have shied away from signing long term." Following suit, Byfuglien wasn t biting either. "It s just like any other game, any other teammate that s been traded," Byfuglien said. "It s business. We go and do our job. "How will he be? That s a question for him. I ll take it as another game." Byfuglien was asked if he had any reaction to how the fans might be upping the ante for today s game. "They (fans) can do whatever they want," he said. "I ll be putting on my jersey and doing my job. "We don t even notice it. We focus on our jobs and what fans do, fans do." Jets coach Paul Maurice said he s thankful there s likely to be extra buzz in the building for the game against the Sabres. "It will be a positive for us," Maurice said, his team just finished with a season-long five-game road trip. "You worry about that game coming back off an extended road trip, the energy level. I think it s going to be built into this game when the puck drops. And there won t be anything overly unusual five minutes into the game. I think it settles right into a hockey game. "They ve played well. They did in Chicago, but they re not winning, so that keeps them unhappy. We ve got quite a task ahead of us and we ll be real focused on that. "There will be some energy and a bit of a buzz above the ice surface. People will be excited, but the puck will drop and the game will get played." Scheifele doesn t practise, game status shaky Playing with discomfort near end of game in Dallas By: Tim Campbell

5 Centre Mark Scheifele will be a game-time decision Sunday when the Jets meet the Buffalo Sabres at the MTS Centre. Jets coach Paul Maurice said Saturday Scheifele will likely take the pre-game skate and a decision will then be made. Scheifele didn t practise Saturday. He was in some discomfort at the end of Thursday s game in Dallas with a lower-body issue. Alex Burmistrov was also missing from Saturday s practice, but the coach said he s expecting Burmistrov will be a player against the Sabres. *** At exactly the half-way point, the schedule turns from unfavourable to favourable for the Jets. At the 41-game mark, they are the NHL team with the biggest discrepancy between home and road games 17 versus 24 but begin a string of nine of 10 at the MTS Centre with Sunday s matinee against Buffalo. Winnipeg has played the league s most road games so far. "Just in terms of the miles you spend on the road, well, just look at our last trip," said captain Andrew Ladd. "I don t know if I ve ever been a part of going from Anaheim to Nashville in the middle of it. "We ve had some long road trips and long plane rides and just weird trips in general. I think you want to take advantage of being at home, the rest that you get from not being on the plane travelling from city to city. It s a place we ve had success this year, so we re excited about the opportunity we have here in front of us." Energy is the biggest difference Maurice expects to see in the coming weeks. "We ll have better rest and a little quicker recovery on games," Maurice said. "A little more of an even energy-level expectation every night. "I like the structure of what we re doing, the lines that we re running and the pairings that we have. So I m excited about each game." There are other items that make a difference, such as line matchups, the coach said, but energy is the bottom line. "The one advantage you do have at home is that you re not travelling, that you re not getting off the plane at 3 o clock in the morning, that you re not changing time zones seemingly two and three times a road trip, so that energy is a big one," he said. ***

6 Lost in some of the hype surrounding Sunday s game and the first Winnipeg appearance for Evander Kane since last February s trade is there will be four other players on the ice who switched teams in the deal. Drew Stafford, who gave the Jets nine goals and 19 points in the 26 games he played after last season s trade, has 14 goals in this season s first half. He played eight-plus seasons in Buffalo before the move. "It s always weird, I m sure, for guys who play former teams but for us, for the most part we focus on winning and getting the points and it s doesn t really matter who we re against," Stafford said Saturday. "We re in that urgent mode right now where we need the points." Blue-liner Tyler Myers and forward Joel Armia also came over from Buffalo. Marlies html Moose no match for Marlies Lose for sixth consecutive time to Toronto s league leaders By: Scott Billeck The Toronto Marlies, once again, showed the Manitoba Moose this is their ride and the Moose are merely passengers. Yes, the Moose lost yet again to the Toronto Maple Leafs affiliate, 4-1, Saturday night at the MTS Centre. It s the sixth time in six games this season the Moose have fallen to the Marlies, and rubbing salt in the wound is the fact Toronto has outscored the Moose 27-7 in that stretch. Even with new threads the Moose wore polar bear-inspired jerseys for a one-night promotion with the Assiniboine Park Zoo their luck failed to change. A pair of ill-advised third-period penalties to Nic Petan and Jimmy Lodge resulted in consecutive power-play makers for the Marlies as the Moose dug their own grave and promptly jumped in it. The Moose were outshot handily, as well, "I thought we were in the game," said forward J.C. Lipon. "But at the end of the day, you got to play that full 60 that s kind of been what we re preaching. I think once we start realizing that when you re down 2-1 you can still win the game, that ll help us in the long run." The Marlies win pushed their league-best record to while the Moose fell dangerously close to the league s basement. The Moose loss they are now coupled with an Iowa Wild win on Saturday has Manitoba just one point above the Wild for the unwanted recognition of league-worst. A REVERSAL OF FORTUNES: If Friday night s start against the Marlies was the gold standard, the Moose fell short of reaching the podium to open the second half of the back-to-back against Toronto.

7 The Marlies dictated much of the early pace, and looked primed to score early, if it weren t for the stellar play of goalie Eric Comrie. The most excitement the 8,890-strong sellout crowd saw in the first frame was a spirited scrap between former Nashville Predators forward Rich Clune and Moose tough guy, Darren Kramer. Kramer tried to fight Clune earlier in the period after the latter took a long run at the Moose forward. Clune was having none of it, however, and Kramer wound up in the box for unsportsmanlike conduct. COMRIE CAN T CARRY: Comrie held the Moose in the game until the third period when he was breached three times, with two of those goals coming on the power play. You d be hard pressed to blame the loss on Comrie, who made a number of impressive saves on the night. Comrie endured an early barrage of rubber from the Marlies. But the former Tri-City American netminder steered aside four shots in 20 seconds to keep the tilt scoreless, including an impressive sliding pad save after a particularly juicy rebound. In total, the 20-year-old faced 45 shots, stopping 41, as his record fell to on the season. "When you give up that many chances... I look more at the grade-a chances, and there were way too many grade-a chances in the slot areas," said Moose head coach Keith McCambridge. "If you have to defend for that long period of time, they re going to make you pay. "You can t expect your goaltender to make the kind of saves Eric had to make tonight." For what it s worth, Comrie said he likes the high volume of rubber coming his way. "It s good for development," he said. "It s a lot of fun, to be honest with you." STREAK BROKEN: The Moose broke an ugly streak with 3:50 to go in the second period as they finally solved a Marlies netminder after 159:57 of play that spanned four games. More importantly, perhaps, was Lipon s seventh marker of the season tied the game despite the Moose playing most of the contest on their heels. The Moose were outshot 17-8 in the period, but sprung to life on a late power play, as Lipon s one-timer blast off a feed from Josh Morrissey beat Ray Emery cleanly. Captain John Albert was the previous Moose to score against the Marlies, late in the third period of their Dec. 5 contest, a 3-1 loss. WHAT S NEXT? Thankfully for the Moose, it s not the Marlies. But they will still face a stiff Central Division test in the Lake Erie Monsters, who will be at the MTS Centre for two games Jan. 11 and Jan.13. Winnipeg Sun

8 Jets ready for Kane-mania By Paul Friesen, Winnipeg Sun The Winnipeg Jets are ready for the sideshow that will ensue for Evander Kane's return to the city, Sunday afternoon. Kane and his Buffalo Sabres visit Winnipeg for the first time since Kane was unceremoniously shipped out by the Jets last February. I'm sure it'll be loud, Blake Wheeler said. People will probably try to razz him a little bit. Our crowd does a pretty good job of that. Kane's four-year stay in Winnipeg was a rocky one, marked by off-ice distractions and culminating in a dressing-room run-in with teammates that saw him scratched from a game in his hometown of Vancouver. He was traded soon after. Since then, he's acknowledged asking the Jets to be traded every year he was with the team. Clearly it wasn't a good fit for him here, Wheeler said. If he harbours bad feelings towards us, it's unfortunate. For the most part as a team we tried to make him an integral part of what we did. STILL MAKING NEWS Kane hasn't stopped making headlines as a Sabre. For instance, he told an on-line show the two players he'd most like to drop the gloves with are Wheeler and Jets captain Andrew Ladd. He's always been pretty good at causing a reaction, Wheeler said. I'm trying to do everything I can, no different than I have for 40 games already this season, to help our team win every night. Fighting hasn't entered that equation yet this year. I don't anticipate doing that. I'll dictate when my gloves come off. Ladd says the Jets have to treat the game as any other and block out the distraction of No. 9's return. You understand what's going on around it, but you've got to be able to focus on what we need to, Ladd said. I'm sure he'll come out playing the way he plays. He's always been a pretty consistent player in terms of how he skates and how physical he is. But we've got a couple of guys in here that are playing their old team, too, so I'm sure they'll be fired up. Kane is currently under police investigation in Buffalo for an alleged sexual assault. He has not been charged. THE TRADE REQUESTS

9 Andrew Ladd says teammates weren't aware Kane had asked the Jets to trade him every offseason. Because he signed a long-term deal to be here, Ladd said. If he wasn't happy then you'd think he would have shied away from signing long-term. I don't think anyone was aware of it. He showed up and worked and was part of what we were trying to do. Wheeler had praise for Kane's work habits, too, but wasn't all that surprised at the trade requests. I guess not, he said. The run-ins he's had with you guys and some of the stuff that's happened for us it's mostly just pretty funny. The stuff we had to answer questions about never really was too much of a distraction. TRACK SUIT, ANYONE? The Jets expect their home crowd to have some fun with Kane, either through what they're chanting or wearing. I'm sure they'll be amped up for it, Ladd said. Our fans are always pretty creative. The man who made Kane's track suit infamous just shrugged at all the hoopla. They can do whatever they want, Dustin Byfuglien said. I'm going to be putting on a jersey and just doing my job. SIDE BENEFIT While teams often suffer a letdown in their first game after a long road trip, coach Paul Maurice can't see that being a problem, Sunday thanks to Kane, et al. It'll be a positive for us, Maurice said. There'll be some energy, a little bit of buzz, probably. There's going to be five players in that lineup playing a former teammate. So there'll be extra energy. THE OTHER GUYS It'll be the first time Jets Drew Stafford and Tyler Myers, acquired in the Kane trade, face their old team. It's always weird, I'm sure, for guys to play former teams, Stafford said. We need the points and it doesn't really matter who we're playing. Former Jets defenceman Zach Bogosian also went to Buffalo in the blockbuster deal, and is looking forward to throwing his weight into some old friends.

10 That'd probably be more fun, Bogosian said. But you try to treat the game as professional as possible. I'm sure there will be a couple of smiles out there, but once the puck drops it's game on. There are reports Bogosian also asked the Jets to trade him, something he's not denying. I'm not going to say yes or no. I will say I've enjoyed my move to Buffalo and I'm glad I'm a Sabre. SCHEIFELE OUT? The Jets could be without second-line centre Mark Scheifele, Sunday, after he suffered an injury late in Thursday's game in Dallas. It'll be a game-time decision, Maurice said. Want him to get the warmup skate and then we'll see. Winger Alex Burmistrov also missed Saturday's practice, but Maurice said he's optimistic he'll play. Kane has something to prove By Paul Friesen, Winnipeg Sun How much has Evander Kane been looking forward to his first game against the team he couldn't wait to get away from? I met Evander around June 2 -- and this game was one of the first things we talked about then, Buffalo Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said, Saturday. He's going to be revved up for this game and revved up to play his old team here in Winnipeg. I don't know if you can calm that down for him. He's going to come back in here and have something to prove. After months of anticipation, it's finally here: Kane vs all of Winnipeg, or so it seems. Teammates and the organization in general didn't have his back. The city treated him unfairly, spreading rumours about everything from unpaid restaurant tabs to bar fights and belittling him for posting internet photos of himself showing off his money. He butted heads with the first coach, Claude Noel, and got bounced to the press box twice for violating team rules by the second, Paul Maurice, including one particularly humiliating time in his home town of Vancouver. That episode came after a run-in with teammates in the dressing room on a game day, revolving around a dress-code infraction and a track suit that got soaked, the story goes. The Jets had seen enough, and quickly traded him.

11 The entire Sabres team didn't fly into the city with as much baggage as Kane alone packed for this trip. Yet No. 9 decided to leave all his talking for Sunday. A media horde including six TV cameras was waiting for him after Buffalo's practice, Saturday, only to get little in the way of promotional fodder. That's OK. We had plenty without any fresh comments. It's just another game, Kane said, managing a straight face. I'm going into it preparing as if we were playing any other team in the league. We're on a six-game slide here, so I'm looking for two points. The only comment that you might have construed as a veiled shot at the Jets was his praise of the Sabres. Sometimes you need a change of scenery, Kane said. Sometimes it doesn't fit quite right. Buffalo's an organization that's been outstanding in terms of their support for myself and each one of our players. They have a deep passion to win. Speaking with the owner quite a few times, I just see good things happening in Buffalo, and that's something I look forward to. Presumably he didn't speak with the owner, here. Or get support. Or sense a passion to win. Previously, Kane has acknowledged asking the Jets to trade him every off-season. So why did he keep it so quiet at the time? Hockey's a business. And at that point in time it was best for business. Any regrets? I don't really regret anything I've said or done in my time in Winnipeg. Was he joking when he told an online host the two players he'd most like to fight are Andrew Ladd and Blake Wheeler? I guess you can take it whatever way you want to. That's up for you guys to determine. How hostile does he expect Sunday's crowd to be? I don't know. I guess we'll find out together. What does he think of Track Suit Day? I have no reaction to that. Not until Sunday, anyway.

12 Players almost always have extra zip when they play their former team for the first time, and Kane has a millions reasons to have plenty. I expect he'll finish every check with extra gusto, particularly if he gets a shot at captain Andrew Ladd or Blake Wheeler, two of the people who presumably didn't have my back, as Kane has said since he left. He may know better than to take a run at Dustin Byfuglien, the dress-code enforcer. He'll probably adore the attention from the crowd like he adored the media scrums after one of his bizarre online posts. We can only imagine how he'll react if he scores a goal or two and the Sabres come out on top. And then he'll go back to acting like those four years here didn't really happen. I really don't think too much about Winnipeg, Kane said. At all. CBC.ca Winnipeg players, Kane reluctant to talk about history For Kane, it's 'just another game' on Sunday CBC News "It's just like any other game, any other teammate that's been traded. It's business," said Dustin Byfuglien, who said he and the rest of the team won't notice whether fans are wearing track suits at the game. Jets fans are getting creative about welcoming Kane back to Winnipeg, campaigning online to encourage people to wear track suits to Sunday's game at the MTS Centre using the hashtag #TrackSuitNight. The campaign is a reference to the track suit Kane wore to the arena about a week before he was shipped off, a violation of the club's dress code. "What the fans do, the fans do," Byfuglien said. Jets coach Paul Maurice acknowledged energy will be high at Sunday's game but, he said, it will be business as usual. 'There will be a little bit of buzz probably," he said. "Everyone above the ice surface will be excited and then the puck will drop and the game will get played."

13 Mathieu Perreault approached the topic of Kane with more of a sense of humour than the rest of the team. ''It will be fun," he said of #TrackSuitNight. "If they could try to get in his head and to disturb him during the game, good for us. It should be fun to watch." Kane has 'no reaction' Kane talked to a string of reporters on Saturday, saying he has "no reaction" to #TrackSuitNight. He summarized his time in Winnipeg as a case of the wrong fit; something that could be fixed with a change of scenery. "I have good memories here playing for this team and some of the seasons we had and now I've moved on to Buffalo and that's where my focus is," he said. "I really don't think too much about Winnipeg at all and I'm enjoying my life in Buffalo now." He did not, however, back down on the comments he made to U.S.-based blog site Barstool Sports, where he said if he had the opportunity to fight anyone in the NHL, it would be Andrew Ladd or Blake Wheeler. "I don't really regret anything I've said or done," he told reporters, adding they were free to interpret the statement as they wished when asked whether the comments were a joke or if he was serious when he made them. Overall, Kane said he wasn't thinking of the game in Winnipeg differently than he thinks about other times on the ice. "It's just another game," he said. Buffalo News Sabres Kane does his best to downplay Winnipeg return By Mike Harrington WINNIPEG, Manitoba Buffalo Sabres winger Evander Kane tried to say returning to the MTS Centre for Sunday s matchup with the Winnipeg Jets will be just another game. Kane, in fact, said it multiple times while facing a phalanx of reporters and television cameras after practice Saturday. The atmosphere in the Great White North belies his outward indifference. While the temperature here Saturday was an ungodly minus-20 degrees Fahrenheit, the chatter about the return of Kane was white-hot. The front page of the Winnipeg Sun had a picture of

14 Kane with a giant headline that said I ve moved on and a smaller picture of a fan in a Jets jersey with duct tape over Kane s nameplate on a No. 9 Winnipeg sweater. Inside the tabloid was a two-page spread on Kane from an interview done Friday morning in Chicago by Sun writer Ken Wiebe. There are rumors fans may wear track suits, in a sort of mocking homage to the widely celebrated locker room dispute about Kane s attire that saw him ultimately get traded to Buffalo last February. There are also darker rumors about chants the normally raucous crowd may hurl at Kane in the wake of the ongoing police investigation taking place in Buffalo about an incident early on the morning of Dec. 27 in the HarborCenter Marriott. No charges have been filed. It s an afternoon game so it s a little bit different that way, Kane said of Sunday s 3 p.m. Eastern time start. I m going into it preparing as if we re playing any other team in the league. We re on a six-game slide here so I m looking for two points. It s a place I used to play in and a team I used to play for. I play for the Buffalo Sabres now and I look at it as business as usual. As for what Kane anticipates from the crowd, he said, I don t know. I guess we ll all find out together. Kane met a couple dozen media members some 30 minutes after practice wearing a suit jacket, leather shoes and an open-collared shirt. He spoke in calm, measured tones in a clear effort to try to defuse the circus atmosphere likely to surround his return. There will be old matchups all over the ice Sunday in the wake of the February blockbuster trade, with Sabres defenseman Zach Bogosian meeting the Jets for the first time and the former Buffalo first-round draft trio of Tyler Myers, Drew Stafford and Joel Armia slated to be in the Winnipeg lineup. It s clear, however, this game is mostly about Kane. Sabres coach Dan Bylsma, in fact, said they discussed the matchup the first time they met in June after Bylsma was hired as coach. He s going to have some emotion and he s going to be revved up for this game and to play his old team, Bylsma said. I don t know if you can calm that down. I think he s going to want to come in here and have something to prove. I don t know what people are going to do and not going to do. I m just excited to be back and play the game, Bogosian said. I think it will be a cool experience. One of the coolest things was when we moved from Atlanta to Winnipeg and how loud the building was. I m sure tomorrow might be just as loud. Kane spent six seasons in the organization, the first two in Atlanta before the Thrashers moved here for the season. He posted career highs of 30 goals and 57 points that year. But Kane soon started to push for a trade out of Winnipeg and ran afoul of teammates in the dressing room. Dustin Byfuglien reportedly had some of the loudest objections to Kane wearing a track suit to a team meeting in Vancouver 11 months ago, while Kane said on an Internet

15 interview in the fall he d most like to fight Jets captain Andrew Ladd or winger Blake Wheeler more than any players in the league. He s always been pretty good at causing a reaction, Wheeler said here Saturday. I m trying to do everything I can, no different than I have for 40 games already this season, to help our team win every night. Fighting hasn t entered that equation yet this year. I don t anticipate doing that tomorrow. I ll dictate when my gloves come off. Kane wouldn t revisit those comments, refusing to indicate if he was joking or serious. I guess you can take it whatever way you want it, Kane said. It s up for you guys to determine. Kane said he harbored no bitterness toward Winnipeg fans in the wake of his exit. And while Kane said he is enjoying his time in Buffalo, things haven t been enjoyable on the ice lately. The Sabres are one point out of last place in the NHL s overall standing, and Kane has just eight goals and five assists in 31 games. In fact, he has just two goals in the last 15 games and no points at all in the last six. Buffalo players had a post-practice meeting Saturday and Kane revealed there s been a lot of group-think in the wake of Friday s 3-1 loss in Chicago. The Sabres are just at the halfway point of the season and players were noticeably grumpy on the ice during practice. I have a fresh mindset going into the second half, Kane said. We need to get better as a team and that starts with individual play. I don t think anybody is accepting of where we are as a group and where we are in the standings. Sometimes it s good to get a little ticked off with how things are going. I think we can use that energy to our advantage to hopefully get us over the hump here. Sabres notebook: Reunion s all business for Stafford, Myers By Mike Harrington WINNIPEG, Manitoba Drew Stafford and Tyler Myers played a combined 928 games in their careers for the Buffalo Sabres until the blockbuster February trade that sent them to the Winnipeg Jets. Sunday in MTS Centre, they get their first chance to meet their former team. It s always weird I m sure for guys to play former teams but we re focused on winning, Stafford told Winnipeg reporters after the Jets practice here Saturday morning. We need the points and it doesn t really matter who we re playing against. We re in that urgent mode right now. We re more focused on a good game. The Jets entered Saturday night s games four points out of the Western Conference s final playoff spot and are coming off a road trip. Sunday s game is the first in a stretch that will

16 see Winnipeg play nine of its next 10 games at home; the Jets are in MTS Centre but just on the road. Our main focus coming in is not worrying about the outside noise that s going on with this game, Myers said. It s focusing on the way we ve been playing of late. It s an opportunity for sure. I don t think it s any secret we love playing in front of these fans. To play in this building you can tell it gives us a lot of energy. Stafford is tied for the Jets team lead in goals with 14 and has 22 points in 41 games. Myers has five goals, 13 assists and a plus-5 rating in 41 games. Stafford, Myers and Joel Armia came to Winnipeg in the deal along with a first-round draft pick and top Buffalo prospect Brendan Lemieux. The Sabres got Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian and prospect goaltender Jason Kasdorf, in his final season of college hockey at RPI. I m not in any position to judge the winning or losing of a trade but I can speak for Tyler probably that we re extremely happy how things have gone in Winnipeg so far, Stafford said. We re not really comparing anything but we were lucky to come here and be part of a playoff run. This year we re in the mix again. We can t ask for more than that. For me and a lot of us, it s just a normal game but you know there might some extra emotions for a lot of guys, said Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. It s guys I played with. I like to play against guys you know and you played with. It will be exciting.