BUFFALO – On March 12 in Detroit, center Josh Norris scored his first goal for the Sabres in their 7-3 loss to the Red Wings.
No one knew it then, but that game, his third with the Sabres after arriving in a trade with the Ottawa Senators, would be his last of the season.
Norris, 25, revealed Saturday a torn oblique muscle he suffered with the Senators on Feb. 1 sidelined him for the final 18 games.
“But I’m feeling good now,” he said Saturday as the Sabres held end-of-season interviews in KeyBank Center.
After the Sabres acquired him in a deal that sent center Dylan Cozens to Ottawa, he said the injury “kind of just kept getting worse.”
“I probably came back a little early, originally, back in February,” said Norris, who missed six games with the Senators. “Just didn’t really get better.”
Norris, who has undergone three surgeries on his left shoulder since 2019, did not want to rush back. He said if the Sabres had made the playoffs, he would’ve been “pretty close” to playing.
“It’s just something where I think if you played with that, especially at this stage of the season, then you could really mess your summer training up from skating,” he said. “Yeah, I didn’t think it was worth that, especially given my history the last couple years not being able to train properly, things like that, because of my shoulder.
“I thought it was important this summer was a healthy one and one that I can not have to worry about any injuries.”
General manager Kevyn Adams said the Sabres were aware of Norris’ injury when they acquired him.
“He’d been cleared to come back and play, and once he got here, I would say there was a feeling that maybe he came back too early from that,” he said. “I don’t think it would have changed anything in our mind of making the trade, that’s for sure, because we did this for long-term reasons. We were aware of it and then, unfortunately, it was so quickly when he got here, re-injured it, and it’s almost like he had to start over.
“Those are tough injuries. He’s doing much better. He would have been very close to being ready to play if we were still playing, but we did know about it.”