Sabres move Leino to wing

First Niagara Center - The Buffalo Sabres are going to be without forward Tyler Ennis for awhile. He's week to week with an ankle sprain suffered Saturday night at Tampa Bay.

So with Ennis out, the Sabres moved forward Ville Leino to wing on a line with Derek Roy and Drew Stafford. Leino was supposed to play center when the Sabres signed him Now they're just trying to find a place for him to play.

“You’d like to find a line and keep them together,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after the skate on Monday. “I think that’s the thing you would hope most. You would hope Leino and Stafford and
Roy could stay together and develop a little chemistry and play together.”

Leino welcomes the move to the wing, and says he’d prefer to play wing. He’s also excited about settling into a regular line with the Sabres, two and a half weeks into the season.

“That’s been probably one of the issues. We’ll try to work on it, “ Leino said, “and we’ll try to find a spot here. We’ll get things going. It’s kinda tough when you don’t know exactly where you are, and what the coaches wanted me to do.”

“I’ve always been a right winger, I’m kinda a left winger now,” he said. “It’s pretty much the same. But I know the routines, I know my lanes and stuff like that. It will be a lot easier, and I won’t have to think as much when I go on the ice, because when you think, you slow down a little bit.”

The Sabres play their next five games at home, starting Tuesday night, when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning at the First Niagara Center.