BUFFALO – Looking back on it, Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson considers the lower-body injury he suffered earlier this season to be a blessing in disguise.
A few months ago, Samuelsson, 24, acknowledged he was “just in my head about a lot of things.”
“Worrying about things we can’t control,” he told the Times Herald following Thursday’s practice in KeyBank Center. “When you’re like that, you’re obviously not playing your best and not playing free.”
Samuelsson was playing so poorly he fell out of the lineup, sitting out three straight games as a healthy scratch under new coach Lindy Ruff. When he returned Nov. 11, he suffered a lower-body injury and missed the next 12 games.
That’s when his season began to change. The month he spent recovering and rehabbing offered him a chance to reset mentally.
“When you get injured, all you want to get worried about is when you can play again and that stuff kind of goes out the window,” said Samuelsson, whose Sabres host superstar Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. “So when I came back, (I) just tried to forget about that stuff and not overthink things or worry about things you can’t control.
“Yeah, I was just happy to be playing again, and it felt pretty good out there. It felt like I was just playing my game and not worrying about a lot of the outside stuff.”
Since returning Dec. 11, the 6-foot-4, 227-pound Samuelsson has looked more like himself, efficiently killing plays. He resembles the shutdown defender the Sabres awarded a seven-year, $30 million contract to in 2022.
“I think there’s no comparison from the start to where he’s at now,” Ruff said of the American’s recent play.
Ruff has rewarded Samuelsson, upping his ice time. In his last 14 outings, he has averaged 20 minutes, 34 seconds. In 13 appearances before going down, he averaged just 16 minutes, 5 seconds.
He played just under 20 minutes in Wednesday’s 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in his return after missing two games because of illness.
Samuelsson is used to sitting out, having missed a whopping 84 games since the start of 2022-23, including 41 last year, when he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery.
Then he began this season in a career-worst slump, often making ill-advised plays and getting scored against. In the past, he said he might get in his own head for a game or two.
“But I think that was the first time where there was a longer period of time where I was doing more damage in my head than good,” Samuelsson said. “So it doesn’t happen too often. …
“I’m pretty easygoing. So, yeah, that was a tough moment, but a little bit of a blessing in disguise there.”
Ruff, who replaced Don Granato, a coach Samuelsson often thrived under, challenged him to raise his standard. He wanted him to be more direct, be tougher to play against and move the puck quicker.
While about five weeks is a small sample size, it appears Samuelsson has revamped his game.
“I think he spent a lot of time on conditioning in that time coming back,” Ruff said. “I think he spent some time reflecting on his play, and I think he got his head in a real good place.”
At his best, Samuelsson said he’s moving his feet and “breaking up plays not questioning your reads or anything.”
“Just reading and reacting,” said Samuelsson, who has blocked seven shots in his last two outings. “When you’re doing that, you’re playing a little more free and not thinking as much.”
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Ruff said Sabres winger Jordan Greenway, who recently underwent surgery to repair a mid-body injury, has resumed skating. Greenway has a stall in the team’s dressing room again.
“He’s on a schedule where he’ll be skating now still for a couple of weeks on his own and just see where he’s at,” Ruff said.
Greenway has missed the last 13 games.
Meanwhile, center Jiri Kulich, who has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, rejoined practice Thursday. Kulich participated in Wednesday’s pregame skate.
Ruff said the rookie likely won’t play against the Penguins.
In other news, goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who made 35 saves against the Hurricanes, had a maintenance day Thursday.