Buffalo Sabres notes: Zach Metsa sent down, Noah Östlund injury and Jordan Greenway’s progress
The last 10 games of the regular season are going to be a test for the Sabres.
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The Sabres reassigned defenseman Zach Metsa to AHL Rochester on Thursday. Morgan Tencza / Imagn Images
For two and a half years, Jordan Greenway has been looking for a solution. Twice (once in the middle of last season and once in the summer before this season), the Buffalo Sabres’ veteran winger has undergone surgery for a core muscle injury. And twice, the surgery has failed to eliminate the pain from the injury.
That’s why Greenway recently decided to visit an outside specialist and seek an alternative treatment. This time, he didn’t have surgery or require any procedure. It was a non-traditional rehab method, and he couldn’t believe how well he responded to it. He’s back on the ice practicing and getting closer to being available for game action.
“Over the last two and a half years, there’s been a lot of question marks on what the play is,” Greenway said. “We’ve done so many things and everyone was searching for something and collectively we all came to the same decision that we wanted to do the program that I went through and truthfully, I’m absolutely shocked on how much better I feel, how great the outcome was because there were a lot of times where it was dark, I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be, if I ever was going to get better, so the excitement, the shock, but ultimately I feel 100 times better than I did even two months ago and it’s just so positive and so reassuring.”
Greenway could be a useful player for the Sabres in the postseason. He’s one of the team’s strongest penalty killers and plays a heavy, defensive game that can come in handy in the playoffs.
But getting him into the lineup won’t be easy. The Sabres already have a full line of forwards (Tyson Kozak, Josh Dunne, Tanner Pearson) who are healthy scratches and waiting for an opportunity. That’s in addition to the full forward lineup that has played together for most of the games since the Olympic break.
Greenway has been a quiet leader in Buffalo’s locker room the last few years. Unsurprisingly, he’s thinking more about the team than he is himself when it comes to his return from injury.
“My ultimate goal is for us to continue to win games in the regular season and into the playoffs over and over again,” Greenway said. “These guys have shown that they’re able to do that right now, and I don’t know a team that can beat us right now, truthfully. I’m ready, not at this moment, but I’m ready to come back whenever I can help us accomplish that goal. If it’s a week from now, two weeks from now, whatever the case is, I’m ready. Obviously, I have individual goals and individual things I want to do, and I will continue to do what I need to do to get there. But ultimately, this team comes first. I’m here to help in any way that I can when the time comes.”
Greenway said the run the Sabres have been on the last few months has afforded him the time to be patient with his injury in a way he typically wouldn’t be in season. That’s part of why this latest rehab method worked. He didn’t rush back.
“Now seeing the guys rolling helps me mentally for sure,” he said. “I couldn’t be more proud of what these guys are accomplishing. I don’t read a lot of stuff, so I don’t see what everyone is saying and this and that. But I don’t even know if these guys are getting the credit that they deserve. From where we’ve been to what it is now, I mean, you guys can write it. You know what I’m saying. It’s great.”
Greenway is one of the players in Buffalo’s locker room who has experienced the postseason. So he understands what’s coming better than most. And he sees no reason why the Sabres can’t continue this run through April and beyond.
“We can’t be beat right now,” Greenway said. “Truthfully. I could give you so many reasons on why it’s going to be tough. We haven’t been there before in a long time, guys haven’t played, whatever you want to say. At the end of the day, we go out there every single night, and yes, we may lose games here and there. But I would say nine out of the 10 games that I’m watching, we are playing dominant hockey. We may not have it for a period, we may not have it for two periods, but we’re going to find a way to get it done. I’ve seen that repeatedly over and over again. I’ve seen teams get deflated. I’ve seen teams go up on us 3-0, think we’re out of it, and we come back. I’ve seen us take the lead, keep the lead. We can win in a lot of different ways against a lot of different teams. Whether that’s March 15 or June 15, I don’t know the big difference. I guess we’re going to find out.”
Quick hits
1. Noah Östlund wasn’t on the ice for practice on Thursday. He’s dealing with an upper-body injury and is currently being evaluated. It’s too early to press the panic button, but Östlund has quickly become a critical player for Buffalo. The rookie is up to 27 points in 60 games, and the Sabres are outscoring teams 35-22 during his five-on-five minutes.If Östlund needs to miss time, that will give Lindy Ruff a chance to mix up some lines and work another player into the lineup. Östlund’s line with Josh Norris and Josh Doan has an on-ice expected goal share of 49.5 percent, according to Money Puck. But the Sabres are outscoring opponents 7-2 during their five-on-five minutes. Norris, though, has just two goals in March. Finding a way to get him scoring again would be ideal.
Last time the Sabres had an injury at forward, Kozak was the one to jump into the lineup. Pearson could be due for a game and played well on Buffalo’s fourth line in the one game he got since coming over in the trade with Winnipeg.
2. The Sabres sent Zach Metsa down to the AHL on Thursday afternoon. The move comes as a bit of a surprise after Metsa had seemingly passed Michael Kesselring and Luke Schenn on the depth chart. He played every game on the West Coast trip, had two points and was plus-4. The 27-year-old rookie has been a great story for the Sabres this season. Buffalo is outscoring teams 23-2 during his five-on-five minutes. He’s been doing that mostly in a sheltered role with limited minutes and easier matchups. But he’s still proven himself as a steady and smart player. The Sabres weren’t using him on the penalty kill, though, so that made it tough to make room for him in the lineup, especially with Conor Timmins healthy. Timmins, also a right shot, is one of the team’s most heavily used penalty killers. Buffalo still has eight healthy defensemen on the roster with Metsa in the AHL.
3. Despite jumping onto a new team and playing with four different defensive partners in eight games, Logan Stanley is starting to settle into his role in Buffalo nicely. He’s only been on the ice for two five-on-five goals against in the eight games he’s played, and both of those came when he was playing with Schenn. There are still questions about which six defensemen will be on the ice when the Sabres start the playoffs, but it’s looking likely that Stanley will be one of them.
4. Jason Zucker wasn’t buying into any excuses for the Sabres’ substandard game against the Bruins on Wednesday night. But he also knows these last 10 games are going to be a test for the Sabres. What’s worked for them to this point is being able to focus on one game at a time. But as clinching the playoffs gets closer, it’s easier to get pulled into the different scenarios that could be waiting for Buffalo in the postseason. As of now, according to HockeyStats, the Sabres have a 37 percent chance to play the Canadiens in Round 1, a 23 percent chance to play the Senators, a 21 percent chance to play the Bruins and an 11 percent chance to play the Red Wings. In short, it’s still a guessing game. That makes it easier for the Sabres to focus on themselves.
“For me, it has nothing to do with playoffs and has everything to do with us,” Zucker said. “I think that’s the mentality that we’re working on. The playoffs are a byproduct of what we’re doing … We need to make sure for the last 10 we feel really good about our game going in. And we feel that if we do that, we’re going to put ourselves in a good place no matter who we play.”