Jordan Greenway’s season had a lot of ups and downs.
The Buffalo Sabres forward missed 10 games starting in the second month of the season in what was called a middle-body injury, returned for four games before getting surgery, returned again, then aggravated the injury in late March and missed the rest of the season.
“Mentally, it can be tough,” said Greenway. “An injury’s an injury. There’s not much, of course there’s maybe some things you say I could do in the gym recovery-wise, but I don’t know if there’s a lot I could have done to prevent the injury.”
As far as changing his style of play following the injury? Greenway says that’s not going to happen.
“If I have a shoulder injury and I’m back, a left shoulder injury, I’m still going to go out and throw a hit with my left shoulder,” he said.
The 6’6” forward averaged 11.4 hits per 60 minutes this season — the third most on the Sabres — had three fighting majors in 34 games and, when healthy, was a notable presence on the ice.
“I try to play a physical, power forward-type game. I try to do it to the best of my ability. Why was I so effective at it? I don’t know, I guess I’m pretty good at it. I don’t know,” Greenway laughed.
As for this summer, Greenway doesn’t expect the injury to linger or affect his offseason workouts.
“For me, just in the rehab that I’ve done and the workouts that I’ve done was to basically get me to a spot to where I can go into the offseason ready to train, ready to do what I need to do to come back and be 100% effective at training camp,” he said.
Greenway says he looks to play in all 82 games next season — and some after that. He signed a two-year contract extension with the Sabres in March.