Playoffs or not, the Buffalo Sabres getting one of their best players back is a big deal.
Coming back from one destructive injury is hard enough but doing it twice in the span of an NHL season is borderline cruel. Jack Quinn’s been down this road once already after he tore his Achilles tendon over the summer. That kind of experience made going through another brutal injury in the same left leg and rehabilitating a second time in months a lot to handle. It also made it almost routine this time around.
“It was easier because it was a lot less of an injury, way quicker timeline, stuff like that,” Quinn said on Tuesday. “The actual being out of the lineup is the same, it’s not easy.”
The entire season for Quinn has not been easy. Going back last June when he tore his Achilles tendon and the time put into surgery, recovery, rehab, and ultimately his return to play in mid-December, it was the kind of thing that went by both as a blur and yet an agonizing wait.
But with Quinn on the precipice of returning to action after a brutal lower-body injury he sustained against the San Jose Sharks in late-January, doing it all again with the aim of getting back to where he left off is the most important turn for him, and the Buffalo Sabres, with a few weeks left in the season.
“You know everything the kid’s gone through with injuries in the past two seasons, which is his career to this point, and you thought it was potential season-ending,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “So, to see him come back and be able to play games right now is really significant, for him and for our team. Unfortunately, with some guys … sometimes it’s acclimating to the league and situations within the league, being able to protect yourself better, and I think that’s just part of a process for lots of guys. Part of being a younger player is adjusting the way you need to adjust sometimes, which I do think these guys do.
“It’s significant to have him back for us as a team and a franchise and certainly for him, where he’s at in his career.”
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Seeing Quinn back with the team on Tuesday and skating on a line with old pals Dylan Cozens and JJ Peterka was the sort of reintroduction both he and his teammates needed to give the group a lift after a five-game road trip they desperately needed to win as many games as possible saw them wind up 2-3-0 instead. Although the trip ended on a high note with a 4-1 win in Calgary, they return home for a five-game stand of their own knowing any more losses could be the one that does them in (mathematically) for good.
That’s what makes Quinn’s reintroduction to the team and the lineup such a big deal.
Not only is Quinn a guy that brings lightness to the room itself with his presence, but his performance on the ice provides one more glimmer of hope. Given what he’s been through already this year, that he’s out there in the first place says a lot about him.
“It would certainly discourage anybody,” Granato said. “But when people don’t get discouraged under adversity, that’s demonstrative of their confidence. People that lose confidence and through adversity, they don’t have a vision and a picture and a determination that I will get there.”
Adversity has been somewhat of a self-made issue for the Sabres this season. Certainly, now as they sit dangerously far back of the second wild card in the Eastern Conference, all they’ve got from now until it is over is adversity. But all they can worry about now is winning their own games. That’s something Quinn is eager to be part of, even if it’s just for the final 10 games.
“I think it makes a big difference (returning),” Quinn said. “I mean, we got a lot of energy, and we got some belief, so definitely it was motivating for me the last few weeks to see these guys winning games and keeping us in it.”
It’s not to say that Quinn has been the missing piece all season, he’s been one of the missing pieces, and a major one at that. It’s not about putting the difficult position the Sabres are in now on his shoulders because that’s not fair, nor correct. But in seeing him work as hard as he did to come back from the torn Achilles, even returning a little earlier than expected, and now following this latest malady to return even before the calendar turns to April, it’s impressive that he’s worked himself back so hard to be cleared to play again. Having done it once already this season made this seem almost easy. Quinn also realized it’s as much about the mental side as it is the physical to overcome.
“I think just probably trying to keep getting better and staying engaged in the game and never kind of losing it from my brain and watching hockey and stuff like that,” Quinn said about the process coming back from the Achilles. “I felt like when I came back, there was a little bit of stuff with the timing, but other than that I was mentally right in it.”
This time around it was roughly eight weeks he was kept out of action after jamming his left leg, the same one he injured his Achilles, into the boards in San Jose. Quinn knew it was bad right away and even the fact that Sabres GM Kevyn Adams weeks ago wouldn’t commit to Quinn coming back this season made it seem like it would be a long shot.
And yet, here he was skating with his best friends Cozens and Peterka and the rest of the team again on March 26. Whether he returns on Wednesday night against Ottawa or Friday or Saturday night against New Jersey or Toronto, Quinn is back and that’s the best news the Sabres have had in a while.
“The history of it, the energy that they bring, those guys as a trio they’re in sync,” Granato said. “And again, it will open up more scoring opportunity. Everybody wants to say (Tage) Thompson hasn’t scored as much. When you don’t have the scoring depth, the other team can key more on you. When you have the second line and third line scoring depth, it preoccupies the attention of the other team to a greater degree, and it opens up more space for the next guy to score. Putting Quinner back there, we know the potential right away for them to have that dynamic component. The familiarity is there; you could see it today in practice. Hopefully that opens up.”
This season was meant to be a major breakout year for Quinn, but his body and misfortune had other ideas. But he’s undeterred and focused on what he can do to try, against all odds, to try and keep hope alive for the Sabres and for himself.
“Jack has such a deep passion, love for the game, but he’s got a clear vision of how good he can be, and he knows it,” Granato said.