PITTSBURGH – Early in Saturday’s 5-2 win, Buffalo Sabres winger Jordan Greenway spotted 30-goal scorer Carter Verhaeghe on his radar and leveled him, knocking off his helmet before he fell to the ice.
Later in the first period against the Florida Panthers, Greenway grabbed a loose puck at the net and backhanded it under the crossbar, tying the game at 1.
Overall, he enjoyed perhaps the finest of his 88 outings with the Sabres, playing an aggressive, gritty and heady style he complemented with his offensive talent.
“We talk about getting emotionally involved in the game, and right there he’s getting engaged in the game,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said following Tuesday’s practice in LECOM Harborcenter. “And I think if you’re going to get engaged and you get into the right people, it can frustrate the other team. And I think that’s what he did."
At his best, the 6-foot-6, 231-pound Greenway said he does “everything I did on Saturday.”
“Winning battles, beating guys to the net,” Ruff said. “You look at the goal, (he) beat his guy back to the net, scored a real nice, in-tight goal. He probably had the best opportunity to get another off the back side being around the net.
“Penalty killing has been strong. So I’ve really liked his game.”
A strong argument can be made Greenway, 27, has been the Sabres’ steadiest forward this season entering Wednesday’s contest against the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, the start of a three-game road trip. Not surprisingly, he has quickly earned Ruff’s trust.
“He’s just an incredibly smart player,” Ruff said. “His stick is incredible.”
Those are two big reasons the Canton native has morphed into the Sabres’ top penalty-killing forward.
He has a knack for anticipating the action and utilizing his long reach to break up plays.
“Typically when you’ve got a power play, you know where they want the puck to go, and basically I try to not let it go there, right?” Greenway said. “Anticipation’s huge, on the penalty kill, five-on-five, whatever the case is.
“I don’t really know where I got the knack for it maybe, but that’s just kind of my focus going out there, trying to predict what’s going to happen next.”
The Sabres predicted big things for Greenway when they traded a second-round pick and a prospect to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for him prior to the 2023-24 deadline. His physicality offered the Sabres an element they sorely needed.
But a shoulder injury he had been battling hampered his effectiveness over the final weeks that season. Last year, he often displayed why the Sabres coveted him, tying for the team lead among forwards with 141 hits in 67 games. He also played more than ever, averaging a career-high 17 minutes, 15 seconds per contest. He had never averaged 16 minutes of ice time in a full campaign.
Through four games this season, he has displayed strong chemistry on the third line alongside center Ryan McLeod and Jason Zucker, Buffalo’s two biggest offseason acquisitions.
The Sabres need more production from their third and four trios, and Greenway, who scored 10 goals last season, seems poised to provide it in the form of offense, hits or simply more efficient play.
“We’ve had a lot of time now – camp, practice, games, whatever the case is,” he said of his line. “But at the end of the day, we’re hockey players, right? … We’re playing hockey, we’re doing the simple things that would allow for any line to have success.”
Sometimes that might just be a hit like the one he laid on Verhaeghe.
“It gets the guys fired up, I would say,” Greenway said. “But at the same time, it lets the other team know there’s guys out there who are willing to hit this and that. But, yeah, more than anything momentum. I think it can be contagious, right, when everybody’s playing the body.”
Among their top-six defensemen, the Sabres have four left-handed shots and two right-handed ones meaning, one pair, the Bowen Byram-Owen Power duo, features two lefties.
“I’m not a fan of lefty-lefty,” Ruff said. “I mean, I could show you so many situations where the puck’s coming up the wall, where, if we were lefty-righty, we’re probably shooting instead of trying to pick it off the wall. But they’re both very comfortable. They both can get it off the wall and get it inside.”
Ruff said when captain Rasmus Dahlin, a left-handed shot and the Sabres’ most dynamic defenseman, plays on the right side, he can be limited.
“The puck’s coming up the wall, his only play is to try to backhand it,” he said. “It’s a lot tougher play than if you were a righty, so I think that group has been good at making the right play and getting the puck up ice. I just feel there’s a few plays left out there because of being on the opposite side in the offensive zone.”
Ruff said Sabres winger JJ Peterka, out since suffering a concussion Oct. 5, “had good day” practicing Tuesday.
"So hopefully he plays tomorrow,” he said.
