@boosbuzzsabres
Reports from the rink this morning quoted Phil Housley saying that Sabres captain Jack Eichel will miss tonight's game against the Florida Panthers and Saturday night's game at Boston. Eichel aggravated an upper-body injury in Monday's loss to the NY Islanders skating just under 3 minutes before leaving. Speculation on Twitter was that Eichel was having back problems, from carrying 20 other teammates. Which may not be too far-fetched.
Eichel has been 'the man' this year. After taking over the mantel of the captaincy, the 22 yr. old been playing the best, most consistent hockey of his young career and leads Buffalo in points (49) and assists (34.) The pace prior to his injury would have him at about 100 points, a mark that hasn't been hit in Buffalo since Pat LaFontaine (148) and Alexander Mogilny (127) did so in 1992-93. Eichel's 2018-19 point total ranks him 15th in the league while his assists rank him tied for ninth.
The Sabres are taking a huge hit with him out of the lineup, but it will be up to the rest to pick up as much slack as possible. The team really came on strong against a streaking Islanders team on Monday but came up short. They pumped 28 shots on Isles goaltender Robin Lehner through the final 40 minutes but the former Sabre came up big and was rightfully awarded the game's first star.
Perhaps it was panic and adrenaline kicking vs. NY as Buffalo tilted the ice, especially in the third period (13-3 shots-on-goal advantage,) but they couldn't finish and that's been a big problem outside of the top line. Eichel in particular has been hot with 10 goals and seven assists in December while Sam Reinhart added 17 points (2+15.) Linemate Jeff Skinner had 11 points (6+5) during that span while the next closest forwards were checking forward Johan Larsson (3+0) and bottom-nine forward Evan Rodrigues (1+2.)
Housley was forced to do some juggling to the lines at practice yesterday and he came up with some interesting combinations. The lineup for the Islanders game looked like this:
Skinner - Eichel - Reinhart
Sheary - Mittelstadt - Rodrigues
Thompson - Sobotka - Pominville
C.J. Smith - Larsson - Okposo
Yesterday's practice looked like this for the line rushes:
Skinner - Rodrigues - Reinhart
Sheary - Sobotka - Thompson
Elie - Mittelstadt - Pominville
Smith - Larsson - Okposo
Also of note is that Rodrigues, who has been used all over the place in the bottom-nine but mostly in the bottom-six, gets top-line responsibilities at center.
This is a huge task for the Sabres, especially in facing Florida tonight. Buffalo has struggled mightily vs. the Panthers going winless in their last seven meetings (0-6-1) and are only 2-6-2 over the last three seasons. Complicating matters is the play of Cats goalie Roberto Luongo against Buffalo. The 39 yr. old has a career 20-8-0 record vs. the Sabres with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .934 save-percentage.
For as much of a curse as the Eichel injury looks, if it is short-term it could end up being a blessing in disguise.
During their 10-game winning streak, Eichel (1,) Skinner (10) and Pominville (1)/Reinhart (2,) who made up the top line, scored 14 of Buffalo's 33 goal-total during that streak (42%) while the remaining forwards contributed 11 goals (33%.) The last two games of the streak saw the top line with Reinhart on it catch fire but the Sabres slumped to a 4-7-4 record. That trio accounted for 24 of Buffalo's 40 goals (60%) while the remaining forwards accounted for only 10 goals (25%.) It might be construed that the bottom three forward lines were doing a little too much watching while Eichel and his linemates carried the team on their backs.
Who amongst this group can stand on their own? We're about to see.
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