‘He was unbelievable’: Sabres relish Josh Norris’ return in 5-1 win against Winnipeg
Josh Norris scores two goals with an assist to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets after missing 24 games due to an upper-body injury.
If a rising tide lifts all ships, then consider Josh Norris the storm surge for the Buffalo Sabres -- at least for Monday night.
Now that Norris is healthy and back in the lineup, the Sabres hope this becomes a prolonged surge.
Playing in his first game since Oct. 9, Norris scored two goals and added an assist to help the Sabres to a 5-1 win against the Winnipeg Jets.
The center from the University of Michigan didn't rush his return from an upper-body injury he sustained in the season opener.
He didn't hesitate in his return to the ice, either. He fell back on his own history with injuries to get the best sense of when and how he would return to the ice after a 24-game absence.
And when Norris returned to the ice Monday night at KeyBank Center, he didn’t waste much time in making an impact on the Sabres.
Still, Norris was understated in his initial evaluation of his return.
“Pretty good,” he said.
What made it pretty good?
“I wanted to come back and get right back in, and not be a distraction,” Norris said. “The guys have done a good job. They’ve been battling and we’ve had some guys out, and I know it happens across the league, but it’s hard to do that when you have so many guys out.
“I just wanted to come in and contribute, and I’m really happy to be back.”
His play said as much.
Norris assisted on Jason Zucker’s power-play goal that gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 2:46, with Dylan DeMelo penalized for holding, then opened the Sabres’ lead to 3-0 with his first goal of the season, at 14:54 of the second.
Norris scored his second goal 41 seconds into the third and had a chance to finish the night with a hat trick when he drove in on Winnipeg goalie Thomas Milic (15 saves), but Eden’s Alex Iafallo hooked the puck away from Norris as he approached Winnipeg’s goal in the third.
“We had some guys step up in his absence, but at the same time, to replace a guy like that, it’s damn near impossible,” Sabres wing Alex Tuch said of Norris. “He’s got such a high-end skill set. Such a good skater. He’s an unbelievable 200-foot centerman. His IQ is off the charts. He put it on full display tonight. He was unbelievable. When you miss a guy like that, it definitely hurts, and it’s good to have him back.”
Case in point: Norris centered the Sabres’ top line with Tage Thompson and Zach Benson on the Sabres’ top line, a combination the Sabres had also used in the preseason. Benson and Thompson each broke a three-game scoreless drought; Thompson assisted on Norris' first goal and Benson assisted on both of Norris’ goals.
“I didn’t know how tonight was going to go, to be honest,” Norris said. “I wanted to keep things really simple. I told Tommer and Benny, ‘first two shifts, it’s going to be really simple.’ End up getting a power play and it gets you right into the game.”
The freshest of them all
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves against the Jets in his seventh start of the season, and gave up the Jets’ lone goal at 11:26 of the second, when Kyle Connor redirected Mark Scheifele’s shot from the point, and the puck trickled between UPL's pads and into the goal.But a little more than a minute later, Tuch picked up his own rebound on the right side and batted the puck past Milic to make it 4-1.
The Sabres’ defense limited the Jets to eight shots in the first period and six in the second. The Jets went more than seven minutes into the second before Gustav Nyquist put his team’s first shot on goal of the period.
“I felt great,” Luukkonen said. “We played solid defense, plays were kind of easy to read. We slowed the game down well tonight.”
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said he based his decision to start Luukkonen on several factors, including the Sabres’ return from Minnesota, maintenance for Colten Ellis after he made 22 saves in a shootout win against the Wild on Saturday, and the fact that Luukkonen was the freshest of the Sabres’ three goalies.
“He’s won three of his last four games,” Ruff said.
“He had a real solid night. He looked in control, and to me, it didn’t look like he was going to be beat.”
Boosted by numbers
Norris’ return to the lineup is the latest in a series of players returning from injuries to contribute to the Sabres. Jason Zucker returned to the lineup Nov. 21 after missing eight games due a viral illness, Zach Benson returned Nov. 23 after missing 10 games due to a left-leg injury, and Jordan Greenway returned to the lineup Oct. 30 after missing the first 10 games following offseason hernia surgery. Greenway is on what Ruff termed a “load-management plan” and had two hits in 14 minutes, 21 seconds of ice time Monday.“We had a fair amount of guys in and out,” Norris said. “Kess (Michael Kesselring) has had a tough go, and I feel for him, but getting guys back in the lineup definitely makes things easier. It takes pressure off of certain positions, and guys can just go out and play.”
