Tyler Myers breaks leg, out for season

Towering Sabres blueliner Tyler Myers' game had become as small as his salary is huge. (Alan Schwartz/Icon SMI) ByAllan Muir It was hard to imagine things

Towering Sabres blueliner Tyler Myers' game had become as small as his salary is huge. (Alan Schwartz/Icon SMI)

ByAllan Muir

It was hard to imagine things getting much worse for the Buffalo Sabres after that truly shameful effort against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night, but this is a team that demands you keep an open mind about the levels to which it might sink.

So, really, this morning's news that defenseman Tyler Myers had broken his leg in the 5-1 loss shouldn't come as a shock, given the way this disastrous campaign has played out for Buffalo.

For Myers, this almost qualifies as a merciful end to a brutal season. The 2010 Calder winner -- and the league's highest-paid player -- has lost his mojo and needs his career reset as much as he does his leg. It might have been the weight of trying to play up to that $12 million salary, or the responsibility of carrying an undermanned blueline, but Myers' game fell apart this year with a flurry of unforced puck errors, weak positioning and poor decisions. Getting away from this gong show might be exactly what he needs right now.

Another positive: the Sabres can get a look at one of their promising young defenders. The team hasn't announced a call-up yet, but Alex Biega, a fifth-rounder from 2006, could be the guy. At just 5'-10", he's nearly a foot shorter than Myers, but he has shown some playmaking ability from the back end.

And if nothing else, the Sabres are one game closer to the draft lottery, right? Of course, the way things are going, the NHL will forget to put Buffalo's balls in the hopper...

As Jesse Spector summed it up: