MONTREAL -- The Buffalo Sabres got savaged in the North American media and on the Internet on Sunday for not responding to Milan Lucic's bulldozing of Ryan Miller on Saturday night in Boston. They apparently heard about it in strong terms as well from coach Lindy Ruff and General Manager Darcy Regier during a meeting Sunday in the Bell Centre.

And things took on a much more ominous tone later in the evening, when Regier told The Buffalo News that Miller has a concussion and will be out an undetermined period.

Regier is adamant Lucic should be suspended for the hit. Lucic will have a hearing today at 1 p.m. to discuss the first-period play in which Miller was knocked to the ice and his helmet was knocked off.

"If this hit and other types of hits like this are not suspended, we are opening up the possibility of losing goaltenders to injury. And not just injury, but concussion," Regier said. "... When I look at the position of goaltending, in a lot of ways it's not unlike quarterback in football. I feel very strongly the protection has to be provided and players committing these types of action should be punished."

Any concussion is serious, given the increased emphasis on their diagnosis and treatment by the NFL and NHL. But Miller's is of particular concern because it's his second in eight months, as he missed time in March when struck in the head by a shot from New Jersey's Brian Rolston.

A 31-year-old goaltender with two concussions in a short period of time is suddenly quite a bit more of a risk, and Miller's health and dependability have never been so uncertain during his NHL career.

Jhonas Enroth will thus start tonight's game against the Montreal Canadiens and assume the No. 1 role for the foreseeable future. Drew MacIntyre was called up from Rochester on Sunday night and will be the backup.

After the collision with Lucic, Miller continued to play and, in fact, played the entire second period of the eventual 6-2 loss.

"What happened was that he gradually got worse until he was removed from the game and diagnosed by the Boston doctors," Regier said. "I'm not in position to disagree with the doctors or the league protocol. He's better today but still, hopefully it is not severe and hopefully it is not long-term.

"I'm not an expert in this but I know this is not an exact science trying to predict a time frame on concussions."

Miller was seen in the building Sunday walking through the locker room hallway and was in the trainers' area. The thought was that if he had a concussion, he would probably not be nearly as mobile. That theory proved false.

Miller assailed Lucic after Saturday's game, calling him "gutless" and twice referring to him as a "piece of [bleep]." He would not take any questions about the play or his team's response. Through team spokesman Michael Gilbert, Miller said he had no comment Sunday.

Neither did coach Lindy Ruff, whose club is getting lampooned worse than at any other moment in his 15 seasons. Told by Gilbert after the meeting that reporters were waiting for his daily press briefing, Ruff shot back, "[Bleep] the media" and stormed out of the building's loading dock without commment.

Players were stone-faced as they left through the same exit.

"We need to do a better job of challenging Milan and protecting Ryan," said defenseman Robyn Regehr. "That was part of [the Bruins'] game plan."

Non-fighters Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville and Andrej Sekera were on the ice when the hit took place. Vanek and Sekera were first to Lucic and 6-foot-8 Tyler Myers followed.

Paul Gaustad, who didn't actually see the hit live, was late in reacting and by the time he headed to the zone, he was screened off by Boston's Nathan Horton, with 6-9 Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara following a couple of seconds later.

Gaustad said he was "embarrassed" by the reaction Saturday night and reiterated that stance Sunday.

"We talked in here. We have to stick together as a team," Gaustad said. "Guys are willing to do that in the locker room. It was something that we can't let happen again."

After Saturday's game, Lucic openly admitted he was surprised the Sabres did not respond. Boston goalie Tim Thomas said he was expecting a hit as well. The teams meet five more times, with the next matchup Nov. 23 in First Niagara Center.

"You could go to each one of our players and they would tell you that they wished they had dealt with it differently," Regier said. "And they will deal with it differently in the future. There are things that come into play but we were all disappointed."

The Sabres spent the summer as a big topic of conversation in the NHL because of owner Terry Pegula's wide-open checkbook. They were the talk of the league again Sunday, although Pegula probably never expected his team to become a laughingstock while he's talking Stanley Cup.

Some words and phrases used to describe the team by the media included soft, gutless, easily intimidated, timid and no spine.

"I hoped I could have done more there," Gaustad said. "It's the media's opinion. They can have their opinion."

Reminded that Miller missed several games with an ankle injury and the Sabres probably lost out on a playoff berth when the goalie was felled during a less-violent collision with Scott Gomez of the New York Rangers in 2009, Gaustad said, "Are we going to take action? Guys got in there pretty quickly. The Gomez thing was a different scenario."

Maybe. But the bigger issue was there was no response from the Sabres in the 45 minutes of play after the Lucic hit.

Most observers agree Patrick Kaleta's hands were pretty much tied, as he was coming off a four-game suspension for head-butting. He runs off and does something crazy and NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan probably rings him up for eight or 10 more.

Tough guy Cody McCormick's willingness might have been compromised as well by the stitches he took in his fight Tuesday with Winnipeg's Tanner Glass. There was no such out for Myers or Gaustad, who is taking the brunt of the media chatter because he was by far the main fighter on the ice.

"I thought it was an illegal hit," Gaustad said. "And today it's one of those things you take a look at how guys respond and how I responded. And I can only look at myself and look myself in the mirror."

mharrington@buffnews.comnull