Sabres Injury Update: Norris Held Out Until After Olympic Break

The Buffalo Sabres will finish out their schedule before the Olympic break against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night and will do so without center Josh Norris. The Sabres center began practicing last week and indicated that he would return when he felt 100% and that the two-and-a-half week break would not be a factor, but head coach Lindy Ruff indicated on Thursday morning that he did not feel that Norris was ready to return.

“(Norris is) just not quite ready. It's close, but conversations we've had, if he would have been available, he would have played, but he's just not available." Ruff said. "I would fully anticipate after the break, he'll be good."

The 26-year-old center has missed the last 11 games after suffering a rib injury against Philadelphia on January 14 vs. Philadelphia, after missing the first two months of the season with an upper-body injury. Ruff also provided updates on wingers Zach Benson and Jordan Greenway. 

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Benson missed the 4-3 overtime loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday with an upper-body injury and did not take the morning skate at KeyBank Center. Ruff stated that he will need “a little bit of therapy” and that he should be good to go when the club returns to action later in the month. 

Greenway has missed the last six games and has struggled (1 goal in 33 games this season) in recovering from a mid-body injury that required surgery last summer. Ruff indicated that the club has tried several things to rectify the issues, but that it is possible that another surgery may be necessary.

"We're just trying to figure out exactly what needs to be done. We'll know that with the next couple days,"Ruff said. "We've tried load management, but that didn't get too far. We got some games out of him, but he just didn't progress. We're just getting another opinion."

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