Only so many players in the National Hockey League’s history can say they have reached the 1,000-game mark. It takes a whole lot of hard work, skill, and at the end of the day, some luck as well.
On Tuesday, Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner became the latest player to join the club as he suited up to face the Washington Capitals at KeyBank Center.
“You’ve got to have some good luck to get an opportunity to go out there,” Skinner said on Monday at practice. “Yeah, I’ve been fortunate to play well, and, yeah, I’m grateful for that.”
With the milestone falling on a home game, the Sabres were able to honour Skinner beforehand with a pre-game ceremony that included a video tribute and silver stick presentation while his family joined him on the ice.
His teammates joined in on the celebration, wearing what the team called Skinner’s “signature red beanie” for warmups ahead of the game.
Skinner was also gifted a Sea-Doo by the team with personalized emblems, including ‘1000 games’ and ‘1K’ which his teammates then signed, a cutout of his face and his jersey number ’55’.
But perhaps the greatest gift Skinner received was a personal shoutout from actress Lily Collins, who plays Emily Cooper in the Netflix series ‘Emily in Paris.’
“Bonjour Jeff, I heard that you were a big fan, so I wanted to send you a congratulatory video for your 1,000th game in the NHL,” said Collins in the video.
Skinner, 31, was originally drafted to the NHL by the Carolina Hurricanes as the seventh-overall pick in 2010. After winning the Calder Trophy in his rookie season in 2010-11, Skinner spent seven more seasons in Carolina.
The Markham, Ont. native was then traded to Buffalo in August of 2018, where he has spent the last six seasons. Across the span of his 14-year career, Skinner has recorded a total of 669 points (357 goals and 312 assists).
And despite having reached 1,000 regular-season games, Skinner has yet to appear in a single post-season game. He is the one and only player in NHL history to have reached the milestone having never played in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Unfortunately for Skinner, that streak will not be ending this year as the Sabres are far removed from the current playoff picture, sitting five spots out of a wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference.