Greenway feeling healthy, confident as season kicks off

When targeting potential acquisitions ahead of last season’s trade deadline, Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato spoke highly of Jordan Greenway to general manager Kevyn Adams and insisted he was a player who had yet to reach his full potential.

Greenway offered a glimpse of that potential on Thursday. He played a physical game, was aggressive on the forecheck, and broke up plays in the defensive zone during the Sabres’ season-opening loss to the New York Rangers.

Greenway, who had his first full offseason and training camp with the team since being acquired in a trade with Minnesota last March, was pleased with his performance but knows he has more to give.

“… For game one, I was pretty happy,” Greenway said. “I feel I played hard, and I played pretty well defensively. Offensively, I think there’s more. We expect more as a line, as a team, as an individual. But yeah, overall, my game was alright.”

The 6-foot-6 forward spent the summer focusing on rehabbing some minor injuries and is feeling back to normal. Last season, Greenway struggled to find his game after having offseason shoulder surgery. He tallied seven points (2+5) in 42 games with the Wild and scored four goals in 17 games with the Sabres following the trade.

The 26-year-old is looking forward to the season ahead now that he is healthy.

“I still had a couple of issues that I was dealing with. It was tough, man. It was a tough injury. I’m not making any excuses, but it was tough,” Greenway said. “But now, it’s nice. I feel like it’s kind of in the past for me. I’ve kind of overcome it. Now we’re here and I’m just looking forward.”

After practice, Granato emphasized what Greenway’s game is like when he’s feeling his best.

“He's engaging, physically engaging. He’s using his reach, his athleticism to kill plays, disrupt plays, and he has a presence when he's on his game. There's a real presence to him,” Granato said. “… He has a very good feel. He's got hockey sense. He knows where to get a puck, his spatial orientation is really good, and he's an athlete. He's agile for a big guy and so when he's on his game, he's all of that.”

Granato’s confidence in Greenway stems from the pairs’ relationship as Granato previously coached Greenway with the U.S. National Team Development Program, winning a gold medal together at the 2015 IIHF U-18 World Championship. His belief in Greenway has encouraged the forward to continue working hard to be the best player he can be.

“Truthfully, he’s been a guy – he’s been in my hockey career for a while now. He’s been in my life for a while now and he's really helped my career. Now, in the past, he’s been a great influence for me,” Greenway said.

“And you know, the fact that he’s still kind of pulling for me, has the confidence like you said, it’s a great thing for a player. That’s not always the case on a lot of teams. And yeah, it’s a beautiful thing that he has that confidence, and I just got to continue to do what I need to do to allow him to keep that confidence.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s practice at KeyBank Center.

1. The group stuck with the same lines and pairs as Thursday:

Forwards

53 Jeff Skinner - 72 Tage Thompson - 89 Alex Tuch

77 JJ Peterka - 24 Dylan Cozens - 71 Victor Olofsson

12 Jordan Greenway - 37 Casey Mittelstadt - 9 Zach Benson

28 Zemgus Girgensons - 19 Peyton Krebs - 21 Kyle Okposo

17 Tyson Jost

93 Matt Savoie

Defensemen

26 Rasmus Dahlin - 23 Mattias Samuelsson

25 Owen Power - 10 Henri Jokiharju

75 Connor Clifton - 6 Erik Johnson

78 Jacob Bryson

Goalies

27 Devon Levi

31 Eric Comrie

1 Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

2. Zach Benson made his NHL debut Thursday, logging over 14 minutes of ice time and tallying two shots. 

The 18-year-old earned praise from Greenway after practice.

"He’s fearless, man. I remember my first year, I was so nervous. I was the same size. I was 6-6," Greenway said. "You know, he's a small kid, he's 18 years old. He doesn't back down. He’ll go into the dirty areas. And on top of that, he's got a skill set that's great. He can score. He can do a lot of good things. So, the sky is the limit for him. He still has some things that he's got to learn, for sure, and experience will help with that. But this kid's been doing great." 

Granato was also impressed with Benson's ability to remain levelheaded and not get intimidated by veteran players.

"He's a gamer. He's a competitive little guy that's hard," Granato said. "Reminds me in that regard of Alex DeBrincat, who I was with in Chicago during his rookie year. He was just a tough, tough player that you could not intimidate and he wasn't gonna go away. In fact, you probably are just inciting to do more."

3. Now that the team has its first regular season game out of the way and has film to look at, Granato believes the players will have a better idea of the areas they need to work on after seeing the tape for themselves. 

"This is what we love about coaching. We finally have some film to put in front of these guys and that's where they typically learn," Granato said. "We all wake up and we look in the mirror, we know what we look like. You’ve got to see yourself and that's what the video does, you have to see yourself every day. We have that now and we'll use that every morning."

4. In his regular-season debut for the Sabres, Connor Clifton skated 16:50 and led the team with four hits, including a massive hit on Blake Wheeler in front of the Buffalo bench just 1:46 into the contest. 

Granato liked his game and his physicality throughout.

"The hit he threw on Wheeler by the bench was hard. I was five feet away," Granato said. "That was a heavy hit against a big guy. And you feel that one the rest of the game. 

"He's very imposing and he played more toward his style, which is a little less conducive in the preseason."

5. The Sabres return to action Saturday against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena.

Coverage on MSG/MSG+ begins at 7 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7:30 on MSG and WGR 550.