Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The last game Jordan Greenway played was back on March 23 in Winnipeg. He had surgery last season, which limited him to 34 games.
Then in the offseason, Greenway was still dealing with pain, so he had to have the same surgery over again.
Now Greenway is just getting back on the ice for practice. Like Josh Norris and Mattias Samuelsson, Greenway is a player that just can’t seem to stay healthy.
The winger set a career-high in games his rookie season with the Minnesota Wild with 81. Since then, he has played 67, 56, 62, 62, 67 and 34 games. That means he’s only been able to play just over 74% of his team’s games in his seven-year career.
Greenway has been around, but it’s hard to feel part of a team when you’re not on the ice with the guys. The winger says being around his buddies and teammates on the ice means the world.
"I enjoyed it tremendously. Those rehab skates by yourself can start getting pretty lonely," said Greenway following practice on Tuesday.
Speaking to Greenway right before the Sabres played the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday and winning, he has very good perspective whether the record is 0-3-0, like it was then, or 1-3-0 like it is now.
"It’s tough, because it’s easy to hit the panic button. It looks terrible, but probably every team in the league will lose three in-a-row at some point this season," Greenway said. "We just happened to do it at the beginning of the season, so there’s no reason for us to be down or call it a season, or whatever the case is. You just get ready for tomorrow and then move on to the next day."
Greenway was still wearing the yellow sweater on Friday, but that’s because he didn’t have a training camp.
"I felt great," he said. "I’ll get some more practices, and we’ll see where we’re at."
When it comes to injuries, the mental part can be as grueling as the physical. It’s been that way for Greenway.
"There’s been a lot of ups and downs, for sure," Greenway acknowledged. "It’s been mentally the most frustrating thing that I’ve been through in my career, but the only thing I can do is go out here and do the rehab, and do what I need to do to get back on the ice [for game action]. And at this point, I think I’ve gotten everything fixed. I’m going to be like 'The Terminator' when I get back. I don’t know what else could go wrong for me."
On other injuries, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said Michael Kesselring is now on the ice doing rehab skates. As for Mattias Samuelsson, he was a full go in practice and will play on Saturday.
The news wasn’t good on Justin Danforth, who couldn’t finish Wednesday’s game. Ruff says he’ll be out a significant amount of time with a lower-body injury, and said it’ll be more than a month.
Even without Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, the Florida Panthers won their first three games of the season. But Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils was their third-straight loss to make them 3-3-0.
In six games, Brad Marchand is their leading scorer with three goals and three assists for six points.
The Panthers and Sabres are tied for 26th in league scoring at 2.50 goal-for per-game. Florida is 12th in goals-against at 2.83, while Buffalo is 22nd at 3.50.
In special teams, the Sabres have killed off all but one penalty this season and are third overall at 93.8%. The Panthers are seventh overall at 90%.
Turning to the power play, Florida is seventh at 25%, while Buffalo is 15th at 21.4%.
The Sabres will likely see Sergei Bobrovsky in goal, who is 3-1-0 this season with a 1.77 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
Alex Lyon had his own net in practice on Friday, which means he’s the likely starter for Buffalo. He’s 1-3-0 this season with a 3.05 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
Join Brian Koziol for pregame coverage on WGR starting at 12 p.m. when you’ll hear from Ruff, Samuelsson, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Zach Metsa.
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