‘“It’ll be a sprint. There’s no if ands or buts about it,” Sabres forward Matt Ellis said. “It’s going to be jump right into it and nose to the grindstone with not a whole lot of down time. Get right after it. There’s no time to have a bad stretch of hockey. You need to be ready, and I know judging from the guys here and the attitude in the locker room, we’re going to do our best to be ready when the puck drops.”’