The Sabres get a three-day break from games before returning to the grind.

And it will be a grind.

Beginning Wednesday, Buffalo will play three games in four nights, starting with a road contest against Chicago and followup home dates against Toronto Thursday and Tampa Bay Saturday.

Then it's off to Boston Jan. 15 with a return game against the Bruins Jan. 17. Throw in contests against Vancouver on Jan. 19 and at Montreal on Jan. 20, and the Sabres are looking at seven games in an 11-day span.

Buffalo will take a 30-9-3 record and 63 points in the standings into its brief mini-break. That leads the Northeast Division by 12 points over the nearest team, Montreal, through Saturday.

The Sabres would like to go into this grueling stretch of games this month at full strength. But Henrik Tallinder is out with a high right ankle sprain, the latest setback for the suddenly injury-plagued defenseman. He had played only six games after missing the previous 24 contests with a broken left arm.

REPLAY
The Sabres ended their rare two-game losing streak by turning away the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 Saturday night.

Daniel Briere, Ales Kotalik and Chris Drury had a goal and assist each. Dmitri Kalinin also scored for the Sabres, who avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season.

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