BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Sabres' season is lost, but Jeff Skinner's game is found.
With four goals and an assist in Sunday's 5-3 win over Montreal, the former NHL All-Star has shown he's returning to form.
Skinner leads the Sabres in goals after scoring just seven last season.
His ability to bounce back comes, in part, to another passion on the ice: figure skating.
"My mom tells the story that my sister was a figure skater, and I went to the rink, and she won a medal," Skinner said. "I said to my mom, 'I want to win one of those.' So she's like, 'OK, well, then you have to skate.'
"I tagged along and started liking it, and just kept doing it."
The fight for a medal began, one jump at a time.
A college hockey coach who grew up near Skinner in Ontario, Canada, told 2 On Your Side's Julianne Pelusi he and his teammates always hoped the future Sabres forward would be figure skating each weekend, and that they wouldn't see him in hockey tournaments.
Otherwise, Skinner would be blowing their doors off. He was living a double life on skates, growing in both figure skating and hockey, for about eight years.
"I just liked the jumping parts," Skinner said about the former sport. "I come from a big family, so maybe getting a little more attention, maybe I kind of tended to enjoy the performance part of it."
He was working on landing his triple jumps when it came time to make a decision. Skinner said he loved hockey just a little bit more, and chose to keep his focus invested there, quitting figure skating around the age of 13.
He wasn't quite at the level of the most recent Team USA gold medalist men's figure skater, Nathan Chen, nicknamed the "Quad King," for his quadruple jumps in his performance.
"I saw a little bit of it, yeah," Skinner said about Chen's performance.
"It's pretty impressive. Now, I think back when I was skating, I can remember sort of watching, and it was kind of rare that a quad was being landed, and now it's kind of like they're doing multiples of them and combinations with them."
But he learned how to be a better skater, getting the opportunity to skate so often and how to be resilient.
"I think with anything, it's kind of like ... you have good coaching, and if you like it and you enjoy it, then you find a way to sort of battle through those tough times," Skinner said about his figure skating career.
Over his 12-season NHL career, Skinner has gone through those tough times.
A 40-goal season three years ago made the 29-year-old a $72 million man, before he was benched by former coach Ralph Krueger last season.
"Over 700 games ... I've never really thought I need a day off to re-look at things," Skinner said, while he was struggling to score back in February 2021.
He said he was able to keep things in perspective day-to-day while he was benched.
"You just try and work through your game and keep improving and just sort of know that there's going to be ups and downs, and you just have to battle through some of those periods where you experience adversity, and that was kind of how I viewed it," Skinner said.
"I think it's kind of my mindset as I go forward, is there's going to be some tough, tough spots. There's going to be good times and you just have to keep going through it all."
Questions about Skinner's monster contract turned into trash talk on the ice early in the season, but he was able to let the chirps roll off of his shoulders.
"It's the heat of the moment. I think guys say a lot of things, and you got to take things with a grain of salt out there, because you take too many things personally out there, you're going to have your feelings hurt," Skinner said. "You got to have a thick skin."
But will Skinner get the last laugh? He's regaining his confidence with his new head coach, Don Granato.
Jeff can't exactly put his finger on the difference between the two seasons.
"There's a lot of variables, I think, that go into it, so it's tough to pinpoint one or two different things that changed," he said.
"Obviously, I've been getting a little bit more opportunity, and when you do get that, I think you want to try and prove the coach right."
Seeing the hard work Skinner has provided, Granato has put it on himself to help his winger be productive, putting him on a successful line with Tage Thompson, who moved to center this season.
The move is working out for both of them.
"It's been good. I really enjoyed working with him," Skinner said of Granato.
"He communicates extremely well. He believes in his players."
A little bit of belief has gone a long way, and Skinner is getting back on track in Buffalo, where a rebuild -- chasing the silver Stanley Cup, instead of a gold medal -- could be legitimate this time around.
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