Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - With the regular season drawing to a close and another season without the playoffs on the horizon for the Buffalo Sabres, there's not much more to look forward to for fans with seven games remaining on the schedule.
However, Tuesday night's game against the Washington Capitals will carry some significance for winger Jeff Skinner, as he gets set to play in his 1,000th NHL game.
Skinner was acquired by the Sabres during the 2018 offseason from the Carolina Hurricanes, where he has played in 420 games in Buffalo while scoring 153 goals and 137 assists for 290 points. While he continues to wait to play in his first playoff game in his career, Skinner has become quite a popular figure in Buffalo since his arrival.
Meanwhile, in the Sabres locker room, the 31-year-old has become a key piece to the leadership group on one of the youngest teams in the entire league.
"When he gets really emotional in the game and emotionally charged, he's into it with another player on the other team, the referees are barking at him, he is a tremendous leader in those moments," said Sabres head coach Don Granato during his weekly appearance on the "Jeremy and Joe Show" on WGR. "He senses, feels, and creates urgency within the game, and guys around him feed off of that. That's probably when he's at his best, from a leadership standpoint. And then off the ice, around it, what you kind of see from the outside, the personality that he has and the type of person that he represents and presents is authentic. Guys like being around him off the ice."
Related
Granato has been around the NHL for a number of years, and understands the difficulty that players can face as their careers move along. Different players go through different trials and tribulations, and Granato highlighted Skinner's ability to adapt his style of play as he has matured in the NHL.
"He grew his game through early years of his career, and then you have to evolve your game," Granato said with Joe DiBiase on Tuesday. "You start getting older, your body changes a little bit. You're not as fast as you were when you were 22, and there's 22-year-olds, 23-year-olds all over the league. And you evolve your game, you change things you're doing. For 'Skinny', he looked at different ways to become more effective. One of them just making plays and seeing plays differently."
More from Granato's appearance during the "Jeremy and Joe Show" is available in the player below:
