"Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff woke up Monday morning looking to put the first three weeks of the season exactly where they belonged, as far behind him as possible. The listless efforts and poor performances were tossed aside, the shoddy defense and undiscipled penalties erased from his memory.

If only Ruff had a magic delete button for the Sabres' 3-7-2 record to start the season. The first step toward cleaning up the mess began with concussed winger Jason Pominville's return Monday and fresh new lines in preparation for the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.

"There's not a damn thing we can do about that crap that's behind us," Ruff said after practice Monday in the Northtowns Center. "There's not one person who is happy, including myself. I find it embarrassing. We've moved on. I told the team that we're going to focus on one game."

Focusing, period, could be viewed as progress for a team that lost its way after winning the Northeast Division a year ago. The Sabres have had a difficult time rediscovering the passion and consistency that carried them through last season. The mishmash this year mostly consisted of poor and very poor performances with touches of good in between.

And that's when Ryan Miller was healthy.

The Vezina Trophy winner missed practice Monday with a lower-body something or other -- tweaked groin, sore hamstring? -- that is not believed to be serious. Miller received treatment over the weekend and was still sore Monday morning, but he's expected to be back on the ice today in Amherst.

"[Miller] didn't get hurt, but he was feeling a little tight," Ruff said. "He had some treatment in Dallas. He was in [Sunday] again and didn't feel quite right [Monday] morning, so we gave him the morning off."

Miller lacked Vezina-style sharpness in a 4-3 overtime loss to Atlanta last Friday and watched the 4-0 debacle against Dallas the following night. Patrick Lalime worked one crease during practice Monday while goaltending coach Jim Corsi strapped on pads for 80 minutes of abuse in the other.

Let's put it this way: Corsi was not Tim Thomas, who has a 6-0 record with a 0.50 goals-against average and .984 save percentage in his first six starts. The Sabres will need all the help they can get against the Bruins in their first game since Boston eliminated Buffalo from the playoffs last season.

Help is on the way.

Pominville was cleared for takeoff Monday after passing his neuro-psych exam on his third try, acing the visual-memory portion of the exam that had twice stumped the winger last week. He passed another test during practice when he rubbed out big forward Paul Gaustad near the corner. Rookie Luke Adam was returned to Portland."