Sabres notes: Jack Quinn winning more battles, scoring goals

In turn, he has the puck more often and the ability to showcase his talent.

Quinn, 23, has transformed his 6-foot-1, 185-pound frame a bit during his trying season, adding strength. So far, it has paid dividends.

“It’s that a little and probably just the focas of it,” Quinn said. “Kind of been focusing on it for a few months now and that part of the game, and I think it’s coming along a little bit.”

After scoring just once in his first 24 games, he had compiled nine goals in his last 24 outings entering Tuesday’s contest against the Anaheim Ducks in KeyBank Center.

“It feels like I’m getting a little bit more offense from (winning battles),” said Quinn, who sat out five straight games in early December as a healthy scratch.

He added: “I think I’m skating better and a little stronger than earlier in the year.”

Quinn opened the scoring in Saturday afternoon’s 8-2 thumping of the New York Rangers, fooling goalie Igor Shesterkin from the right circle with a shot he said “came off a little weird.”

“It was my changeup, I guess,” he joked.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said the NHL’s recent break for the 4 Nations Face-Off benefited Quinn.

“I think the break was good for him and the extra practice work was real good for him,” he said. “He got rewarded. I think if you look at it, he kind of missed his shot but still found the hole.

“But I thought his play, his strength on the puck, was better. I thought he got rewarded for doing a lot of good things.”

On Tuesday, Quinn skated at right wing again alongside center Dylan Cozens and Jordan Greenway. The trio stood out Saturday in Greenway’s return to the lineup, generating six scoring chances and giving up just one.

Scoring, of course, has a way of relieving pressure. As he struggled for months, the normally affable Quinn looked stressed. In recent weeks, he has been in a better mood.

“I try to have good energy all the time,” he said. “I feel like it’s my personality. I feel like I was really struggling at the start of the year hockey-wise, so it probably was a little tougher to be like that.”

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Early in Saturday’s win, winger Tage Thompson knocked a defender off the puck in the corner before grabbing it and dragging another defender to the net and putting the Sabres up 3-0.

Ruff said the heavy play by the 6-foot-6 Thompson is “a goal that you would show prospects, you’d show anybody about coming off the wall, taking it to the net.”

Thompson scored again later in the game.

When he returned from a concussion Feb. 8, the Sabres’ last game prior to the break, he endured perhaps his worst game of the season in a 6-4 loss to the Nashville Predators.

“Tommer wasn’t quite 100 percent when he played in Nashville,” Ruff said. “I think we all saw that. I think his skating the last game was a long ways ahead from where he finished in Nashville. Maybe Nashville, he shouldn’t have played. I mean, there was a debate whether he would play that game.

“Give him credit for playing it, but I think when you when you look at how he skated (Saturday) versus that game, no comparison.”

Notes: Sabres wingers Alex Tuch and Jason Zucker, both of whom were injured Saturday and game-time decisions, played against the Ducks. … Sabres defenseman Dennis Gilbert has played five straight games for the first time this season. … The Sabres scratched forward Sam Lafferty and defensemen Jacob Bryson and Connor Clifton. … Thompson’s father, Brent, is an assistant coach with the Ducks.