One of the things that the Buffalo Sabres needed to make a legitimate run at the Stanley Cup Playoffs was a healthy Josh Norris playing on the top line as a #1 center, setting up sniper Tage Thompson.That hope lasted just one game, as Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff announced on Saturday that Norris will be out a “significant period of time” after being injured in the club’s 4-0 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday.
Norris left the game late in the third period after taking a faceoff. He fell to the ice, struggled to get back to the bench and did not return to the game. After practice on Friday before the club departed for Boston, Ruff said that Norris was upset about the injury after putting in a lot of work during the summer to get ready for the first full season with Buffalo. After the club’s morning skate at TD Garden on Saturday, the Sabres head coach provided an update.
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“(Norris is) going to miss a significant amount of time, I don’t know what that amount is for sure. He is still being evaluated,” Ruff said. “It’s an upper-body (injury), it’s not related to anything he has had in the past.”
The 26-year-old center was acquired by the Sabres in a deal that sent Dylan Cozens last March. Injuries have been a constant presence for Norris in his six-year NHL career. The former San Jose first rounder played the full 56-game COVID-shortened season in 2020-21, but since has missed 148 games with an assortment of injuries, including a serious shoulder injury. After the trade, Norris played just three games for Buffalo and was out the rest of the season..
Ruff indicated that Jiri Kulich will take Norris’s place on the top line with Tage Thompson. The Sabres have recalled center Josh Dunne from AHL Rochester to fill Norris’s roster spot. Jason Zucker will play alongside Kulich and Thompson, since Zach Benson is not making the trip to Boston after having to be admitted to hospital after a puck hit his left cheek in practice on Wednesday.
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