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Alexei Yashin is in a familiar position at playoff time — nailed to the bench.

The Islanders' 10-year, $90-million (U.S., before the lockout discount) man has declined to break with tradition and is once again a National Hockey League playoff bust. Ted Nolan lived with Yashin's inconsistency during the regular season but he had enough during Saturday night's 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Nolan busted Yashin, 33, down to centre on the fourth line halfway through the first period of the Eastern Conference quarter-final game. Yashin played between Richard Park and Andy Hilbert, while Richard Zednik was promoted to Yashin's spot with centre Viktor Kozlov and right winger Miroslav Satan. Yashin barely got off the bench in the third period.

Still, Nolan danced around the question of why he benched the highest-paid player on his team.

"Sometimes you sit people to move other people in," Nolan said. "Zednik jumped up to that line and gave us some great minutes. Our team has been like that since the start of the season."

Yashin was one of 12 Islanders to skate at Sunday's optional practice and he had no interest in discussing any problems between him and Nolan. "There is nothing I can say," Yashin said, shortly before meeting Nolan for about 20 minutes.

Nolan would not say if Yashin will stay on the fourth line but at this point it looks like he will.

Yashin played 7 minutes, 7 seconds in Saturday's game, the least amount of ice time of anyone on the team except for backup goaltender Wade Dubielewicz. But it is richly deserved.

In 850 regular-season games over his 11-year career, Yashin has 781 points. In 46 playoff games, he has 27 points.

So far in this series, which is tied 1-1, winger Chris Simon has been a bigger help to the team. Simon, 35, was suspended for the rest of the season and all of the playoffs by the NHL for a vicious stick chop to the head of New York Rangers forward Ryan Hollweg. But he is a visible presence around the team, cheering and encouraging his teammates from the sidelines.

Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller was not at his best in Saturday's game. His performance was held up next to Islander goaltender Rick DiPietro's sparkling effort by several newspaper writers and found wanting. When this was pointed out to Miller at Sunday's practice, he grew rather testy.

"Don't come in here telling me what was in the newspapers," he snapped at one scribe. "I don't read the newspapers."

Sabres centres Tim Connolly, who returned late in the season from a concussion and stress fracture in his leg, and Chris Drury did not practice Sunday. But head coach Lindy Ruff said they were just excused to rest and will play Monday night when the series resumes.