BUFFALO – For one of the few times this season, you couldn’t miss Jack Quinn. The Sabres winger dazzled throughout the night, aggressively creating offense.
Quinn, 23, was often the best player on the ice.
While he did not score, similar efforts will almost certainly produce the goals that have been so difficult to come by this season.
“I thought it was my best game by far,” Quinn said of Friday’s 3-2 overtime road win against the Anaheim Ducks. “I thought I was doing stuff that makes me a good player, which for some reason this year it’s been hard to find.
“I thought I was attacking, creating shots for myself, kind of being that offensive threat that I want to be. So I need to do more of that every night.”
In 21 outings, Quinn has scored just one goal, an empty-netter Oct. 26.
Incredibly, one-quarter into the season, he hasn’t beaten a goalie. Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild in KeyBank Center was his 13th straight goalless game.
Quinn, the eighth overall pick in 2020, likely has never experienced anything like the first two months of his third NHL season.
Right now, he said he has no explanation for his scoring woes.
“I mean, it’s been a struggle,” he said Wednesday prior to pumping a season-high six shots on goal. “I’ve been a little bit snakebitten. I felt a little bit rusty for the start of the year, which was weird because I didn’t feel like that last year coming back from injury. It’s been frustrating, but I think I’m starting to find my game.”
A year ago, Quinn was a few weeks away from returning from a torn Achilles tendon he suffered in June 2023. Despite his long rehab, he looked sharp from the get-go, scoring four goals in his first seven games. After a leg injury sidelined him for two months later in the season, he found a groove late, scoring four goals in his final six contests.
But he has only showcased glimpses of being that player this season. He has compiled just five points and a team-worst minus-8 rating.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff scratched him Oct. 17. Ruff, however, has kept him on scoring lines and the power play while consistently giving him around 15 minutes of ice time each game.
“If you look at the production part, he’s had an opportunity for production,” Ruff said. “The production hasn’t been there. I did think the Anaheim game was one of his best games of the year. It is about making that next play or taking advantage of that play that has happened on the ice. I think he’s been a little bit snakebit.”
Ruff said on Friday that Quinn, who registered two shots on goal, was “evasive in the offensive zone, found that next play.”
“From the blue line in his quickness was real evident,” he said. “He got to the middle of the ice in a couple of good opportunities. He made a couple of really good plays from below the goal line where (he) found open people.”
Quinn said “the Anaheim game was I feel like the player I can be.”
“Just got to keep chipping away and find that every night,” he said. “I think, I mean, if I play the way I did in Anaheim, with those kind of plays, that kind of attacking mentality, I think the goals and points will follow.”
Notes: Sabres center Tage Thompson returned Wednesday from the lower-body injury that sidelined him for five games. … The Sabres scratched winger Nicolas Aube-Kubel and defenseman Dennis Gilbert (both healthy). … Minnesota has three former Sabres – forwards Marcus Foligno and Marcus Johansson and defenseman Zach Bogosian – on its roster.
The #Bills need to keep the pedal down coming out of the bye and @billhoppe.bsky.social and I discuss why. We also weigh Josh Allen’s MVP odds and the #Sabres finally stringing together wins.
fireside.fm/episode/sMvb…— Nick Sabato (@nicksabatognn.bsky.social) November 27, 2024 at 5:44 PM