BUFFALO - Josh Norris is starting to look like a player who can tilt games, and the signs go beyond the scoresheet.
A week after a bizarre overtime collision with Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson sent him into concussion protocol, the Sabres center was back on his feet quickly and back in the mix just as fast. Norris, 27, said he never wanted out of that game.
“It was just a small thing,” Norris told the Times Herald prior to Wednesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers in KeyBank Center. “… Everything is fine.”
He moved through protocol, returned to practice Friday and didn’t let what he called “a weird play” carry over into Saturday’s road game against the Montreal Canadiens. The response was exactly the kind of edge Buffalo has been looking for.
“I wasn’t fazed,” he said. “I was just a little angry and pissed off and wanted to have a good game.”
That game turned into his best of the season. Norris scored his second goal by driving hard to the net and finished with a season-high four shots on goal. It was the kind of direct, physical performance that fits what coach Lindy Ruff wants to see from him.
“There’s a physical element to being inside that you have to pay the price,” Ruff said. “I think he’s really trying to make a difference when it comes to that.”
Norris said his focus was simple.
“I was just trying to be hard to play against,” he said. “I thought I was skating and winning battles.”
He also said he missed a chance in overtime that opened the door for Cole Caufield’s breakaway winner.
That’s the balancing act with Norris: the skill is there, but the Sabres need the grit to show up with it. After a slow start, he has begun to find a rhythm, scoring in two of the last three games entering Wednesday’s matchup. Ruff even dropped him to the fourth line briefly last week, a nudge that may have helped reset things.
“Last game, I thought he skated well inside, I thought puck battles were good,” Ruff said. “He looked comfortable with the puck. He’s starting to look like the guy that can make a difference every game.”
Norris knows the formula isn’t complicated.
“I’ve been playing better,” he said. “I think just keeping it simple, honestly.
Just being harder to play against and getting my legs going. I think when I’m skating, that’s a big part of my game, and just staying on pucks, staying in battles.
Really just small things, honestly.
“Going back to the drawing board. Obviously, I was just trying to find my game there for a bit.”
He is expected to center Jason Zucker and rookie Konsta Helenius on Wednesday. Zucker, 34, is set to make his season debut after sports hernia surgery in early August. To make room, the Sabres placed forward Sam Carrick, who is dealing with a mid body injury, on injured reserve.
Norris’ surge comes with a familiar reminder of his own history: injuries have been part of the story before. This time, though, he bounced back quickly and found his stride.
Tage Thompson has taken a much different path to the top of Buffalo’s scoring charts. There was a time when even imagining him among the franchise’s great goal scorers would have sounded far-fetched. In his first three seasons, he scored 15 goals in 104 games.
Then former Sabres coach Don Granato moved him from wing to center five years ago, and everything changed.
Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Thompson has piled up 203 goals in 393 games, the seventh-most in the NHL over that stretch. On Saturday, his fifth goal this season and 218th as a Sabre tied into a late game-tying sequence and pushed him past Jason Pominville for 10th on the franchise’s all-time goal list.
Thompson said he didn’t realize what the milestone meant until after the game.
“There’s a lot of amazing players who are on that list, a lot of cool names to be associated with,” he said. “Also, just a testament to how long I’ve been here, and a pretty cool reminder for me just how my journey started here.
“To get to the point I am now, all the work and sacrifice that’s gone into it. So it’s a rewarding feeling.”
He now trails Rene Robert by four goals for ninth place and is almost certain to keep climbing. Thompson has averaged 40 goals over the last five seasons, and the Sabres’ top-10 list is now starting to reflect the reality of his run.
- Gilbert Perreault, 512 goals
- Rick Martin, 382 goals
- Dave Andreychuk, 368 goals
- Danny Gare, 267 goals
- Thomas Vanek, 254 goals
- Craig Ramsay, 252 goals
- Mike Foligno, 247 goals
- Miroslav Satan, 224 goals
- Robert, 222 goals
- Thompson, 218 goals
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