Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - The long road back is finally over for Jordan Greenway, as the Buffalo Sabres winger will make his season debut on Thursday in Boston against the Bruins.
Greenway had to have a second surgery over the summer, but he’s back and ready to center Jason Zucker and Jack Quinn. Greenway never shows emotion, but he said he’s excited to be back,
“Absolutely, it’s been a long process and I’m pumped to be out there and be back with the guys and playing in front of the fans.”
When you’re out this long and when you keep getting injuries, he said there’s questions, but he’s ready to answer them,
“You haven’t played in a little bit, you start to ask yourself, ‘How are you going to feel?' So I try to keep it simple especially when I’m just returning to the lineup and there’s probably four or five things I’ll focus on and if I can do those things, I think it’ll be a good start to my season.”
Greenway has been back at practice for almost a few weeks now and the medical staff had him in a process and they weren’t going to change it. He said sometimes you want to speed it up,
“It’s always difficult, there’s not many athletes that are patient when it comes to injuries, but I’ve been in situations where probably I did come back too early because I’ve wanted to, but you have to find a way to be patient and just stick to the process and I have all the trust in the world in our medical team, so I listen to them more than I would like to.”
If there’s a problem with Greenway playing center, Josh Dunne can move to the middle.
Last game Michael Kesselring returned and Jacob Bryson was cleared for action. Now they get Greenway back and Ruff thinks he makes them better,
“We know what he brings, great skater, heavy on the puck and is another guy that can be strong on pucks down low, so he’ll make an impact for us.”
Noah Ostlund didn’t have a regular line in practice on Wednesday, so he may be sent down to Rochester to make room for Greenway.