Sabres notebook
Pens happy to have streaky Satan
PITTSBURGH — From the Some-Things-Never-Change-Department: Miroslav Satan is a streaky player.
The former perennial scoring leader for the Buffalo Sabres now makes his living in Pittsburgh. He's treating Penguins fans to the same type of game that made him a mercurial wonder in Buffalo. He can carry a team for a while and then make people wonder if he'll ever score again.
So far, Satan had hot streaks of four goals in five games and four goals in three games. But entering Monday's meeting with the Sabres in Mellon Arena, he had scored just twice in 13 games. That included two five-game droughts.
Still, despite the inconsistencies, the Pens are glad to have the man who signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract this summer.
"He's a goal scorer," Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. "He knows where to go and finds his spots. He's fit in well here."
The 34-year-old Satan went to Pittsburgh after three seasons with the New York Islanders. They made the playoffs just once, a five-game, opening-round defeat to the Sabres in 2007. Satan is content joining a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations after reaching the finals last season.
"It's a good team and has a chance to go far in the playoffs again," Satan said. "Hopefully, very far. I'd like to be part of that.
"There's a lot of good players here on the team."
Satan isn't playing with one of the Penguins' good players. He's playing with one of the NHL's best, lining up to the right of Crosby. It's helped Satan get 10 goals and nine assists in the opening 26 games, including four goals on the power play.
"I knew he was kind of a dangerous guy, kind of lurks around out there, and if you put the puck on his stick it'd be in the back of the net," Crosby said. "He finds those holes and kind of finds those quiet areas."
It's just that occasionally the quietest area is the goal column, though that can always change.
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Two things prevented Joe and Terrie Gerbe from witnessing their son's NHL debut: Nathan was called up less than 24 hours before Saturday's game, and it's a long way from Michigan to Tampa Bay.
Two things allowed them to see his second game: They had three days to plan, and only a four-hour drive to get there. The parents of the Sabres rookie were scheduled to attend Monday.
It was certainly the best duo Gerbe got a chance to see in his first few days in The Show, but it was far from the only one. He was excited to be on the ice with Tampa's Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis, and few would fail to be star-struck skating with Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
"It's an awesome experience," Gerbe said. "It seems every team you're going to play, you're going to see some All-Stars or superstars.
"Playing against Sidney and Malkin, it's going to be pretty fun out there to look around and be on the same sheet as them, but I can't have that mentality during the game. I have to be just like one of them."
Being around the stars might just help Gerbe become one.
"I was watching Lecavalier on the power play from the bench, and he's obviously a special player," Gerbe said. "You can learn a lot from doing that, and just watching how poised he was, you learn a lot and see how good these guys really are and how hard you've got to work to get up there."
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Sabres prospects Tyler Myers and Tyler Ennis, first-round picks in June's entry draft, have been invited to Canada's selection camp for this year's world junior tournament.
Thomas McCollum, the Sanborn native drafted in the first round by Detroit, will be Team USA's goaltender.
