MONTREAL — The Buffalo Sabres may be without one of their most determined and physical players for a

while, as right wing Patrick Kaleta was diagnosed with a concussion Saturday night.

Kaleta was injured just three minutes into the Sabres' 4-3 shootout victory over Montreal.

Kaleta was playing the puck along the wall in the Buffalo zone when Maxim Lapierre hit him in

the back and drove the winger headfirst into the boards.

Lapierre was given a two-minute boarding penalty. Kaleta played a few more shifts before

retiring to the dressing room.

"Their doctors deemed him to have a concussion," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "That's

disappointing. When a player's got his back turned, it's disappointing. He took a tough blow

there. You hope that it's dealt with.

"That's serious. Head injuries are serious. It's been a big topic. It's been talked a lot

about. He was defenseless on the play. I don't like it. I don't think we should like it. I

think the players need to respect each other a little more.

"You can tell the impact by the fact his helmet flew off his head. I disagree with the lack

of respect that he showed our player on that play."

. . .

Every so often, Ruff will walk into a visiting arena and familiar questions pop up. The

out-of-town reporters he's seen year after year will ask him about his tenure as Buffalo's

coach.

More often than not, the questions come in a city that recently witnessed a coaching

change. It happened again Saturday.

The Montreal Canadiens fired coach Guy Carbonneau on March 9, and General Manager Bob

Gainey stepped behind the bench. Saturday marked the Sabres' first visit to Bell Centre since

the swap. Folks wanted to know how Ruff has managed to stay employed in one place since 1997

while the Canadiens have gone through Michel Therrien, Claude Julien, Carbonneau and Gainey.

"I think the reason I'm still here is I've got a general manager [Darcy Regier] who just

doesn't pull the pin that fast," Ruff said. "He looks for solutions, and we work at it

together. I think his patience is a reason."

The Quebec locals were also curious as to how Ruff manages to keep his message fresh after

11 seasons in the same job.

"You've got to have a Jekyll and Hyde personality," Ruff said. "You can't be the same guy

every day, and I don't try to be. There's days where you're one sour camper, and there's days

where I can make them laugh pretty hard.

"But I think you have to adapt to the personnel, you have to relate to the personalities.

There's a lot of times you have to be hard, but you have to be hard in a fair way. I think the

players understand that.

"You can't come in and give the same meeting, the same message, the same video day in, day

out in an 82-game schedule. You just can't. I like to think that we try to keep it fresh by

changing a lot of things up, try to surprise them a lot of times.

"When they think something's going to be tough, it might be easy. If they think it's going

to be easy, some days it's going to be real tough. You look for ways. I just try to look for

ways."

. . .

Ruff isn't the only coach in the organization being recognized. Kevin Dineen set the record

for most career victories in Portland this weekend. Dineen, who's in his fourth season with

the Pirates, earned his 190th win Friday to move into the top spot.

Dineen passed Barry Trotz, who has been in Nashville since Ruff came to Buffalo. This is

the Pirates' first season as the Sabres' minor league club.

"It's a great honor to be on a team that helped him reach that goal," forward Mark Mancari

told the Portland Press Herald. "It shows how he develops players and what a great coach he

is."

Dineen has a record of 191-136-22.

In other news involving the Sabres' farm club, defenseman Dennis Persson has been assigned

to Portland following a season in the Swedish elite league. Persson was the Sabres'

first-round pick in the 2006 draft.

The 20-year-old had one goal and five assists in 46 games with Timra IK.

. . .

Kaleta has a new Brad May memory. This one involves Kaleta instead of his aunt.

Kaleta has become a target for May since the former Sabres forward was traded to Toronto in

January. May has repeatedly challenged Kaleta to fights on faceoffs and yapped at him up and

down the ice. May took it one step further during Friday's meeting between the Sabres and

Maple Leafs.

The forward dropped a glove and chased down Kaleta from behind, earning a roughing call and

10-minute misconduct.

The original memory of May came in 1993. Kaleta was a 6-year-old Sabres fan watching

television when the famous "May Day" goal was scored, sending Buffalo past Boston in the first

round of the playoffs.

"I remember watching the May Day goal against Boston," Kaleta said. "I was at my aunt's

house. It's kind of weird that I remember that."