For several days, the Buffalo Sabres targeted Monday's game against Nashville as winger Ales Kotalik's return to the lineup after missing seven games with a strained hamstring. Kotalik made that timetable but the news was tempered by the fact two of his teammates missed the game with injuries of their own.

Captain Craig Rivet was a surprise scratch, as the Sabres announced 90 minutes before faceoff that he would sit out the game with an undisclosed upper-body injury. Rivet played 20 minutes, 48 seconds Saturday in Montreal and took part in the pregame skate Monday.

The team emphasized Rivet's injury was an upper-body ailment and not related to the knee surgery that caused the defenseman to miss five games last month. Coach Lindy Ruff said Rivet was injured on a hit during the Montreal game.

"I have no timeframe [for Rivet's return]," Ruff said after the 2-0 loss to the Predators. "He tried this morning but just came off the ice and said it was no good to go."

Following the morning skate, Ruff revealed that winger Patrick Kaleta suffered a "head/neck" injury was he was drilled into the boards in the third period Saturday by Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn. Kaleta didn't play in the final 17 minutes.

"We'll have to wait and see how long that's going to be," Ruff said. "He didn't skate [during Sunday's optional workout] and it might be a little bit of time."

Kotalik was injured during the Nov. 14 loss to Columbus and the team was 2-5 in his absence, including four straight defeats.

Kotalik was hurt trying to leap over a Blue Jackets player while pushing the puck into the Columbus zone and said he was relieved the injury was not as serious as feared.

"I was worried it was a tear, much more severe," he said. "It could have been way worse so I'm happy it was only two weeks."

With Rivet and Kaleta out, Nathan Paetsch and Andrew Peters joined Kotalik in the lineup. Maxim Afinogenov was a healthy scratch for the third time in six games.

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Winger Thomas Vanek said he was surprised to learn the NHL had upped his league-leading goal total to 18 while he was on the Sabres' flight home from Montreal Saturday night.

Vanek was credited with the tying goal Friday night against Pittsburgh at 3:11 of the third period. The goal was initially credited to Drew Stafford off a Vanek pass but the league ruled the puck went in off Penguins defenseman Kris Letang.

"Right as the play happened, Drew came up to me and said he didn't think he touched it," Vanek said. "From the angle I looked at it, it looked to me like it went right off his stick but it was really no big deal to me. The good thing was we got the two points that night."

Stafford said he didn't really know if he touched the puck or not because his stick was entangled with Letang's.

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With a two-point night, former Sabre J.P. Dumont took over the Predators' team lead in scoring with 24 points (five goals, 19 assists). He registered his 400th career point with a goal Oct. 17 at Columbus. Dumont had career highs in goals (29) and points (72) last year for Nashville.

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It was like old home days in the press box with the Predators in town.

Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer Pete Weber, the longtime former voice of the Bisons and the Sabres' radio man for a couple of seasons in the mid-90s, was back in town calling the game for Nashville television. Tom Callahan, a Lackawanna native and St. Francis grad, was also on hand to call the game for the Predators' radio network.

Weber has been the voice of the Predators since their inception in 1998, calling games with former Philadelphia Flyers center Terry Crisp. Weber was featured on last week's episode of "Voices," an NHL Network weekly series profiling the game's play-by-play men.

Also in the house was St. Bonaventure grad Gerry Helper, Nashville's senior vice president of communications and a former public relations head of the Sabres during their Memorial Auditorium days.