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Ralph Krueger has announced that forward Jeff Skinner will be a healthy scratch tonight. Casey Mittelstadt will play in place of Skinner.
It should come as no surprise that the Buffalo Sabres are looking for a spark. The Sabres have struggled and are still looking for consistency. Sabres forward Jeff Skinner has been infected with a case of coach scratch fever. If Sunday's practice trios are to be believed to be an indicator for future deployments, Skinner is seemingly going to be a health bomb for Monday night's road game against the NY Islanders.
Skinner is the owner of zero goals in 13 games this season, could be a healthy scratch for Monday’s road game against the New York Islanders.
In the first 14 games of the 2021 season, Skinner has been a frequent flyer from the fourth line to the Eichel line and back down to the basement trio. On Sunday, Skinner, 28, skated Rasmus Asn the fifth line with center Rasmus Asplund and winger Tage Thompson.
After the skate, inquiring minds asked Krueger about his forward lines. Krueger used an abundance of diplomacy to explain where his head is at regarding the four forward lines that have risen to top of mind awareness amongst the coaching staff.
“We will continue to analyze postgame what we feel what we see, look at our roster, depending on whether it’s still COVID or injuries and look for the mix that we believe gives us as a team within the roles that we need the best chance to be successful,” Krueger said. “You saw a potential change in the mix today. We won’t confirm it until tomorrow."
“But it’s how we function here, we look honestly at production, we look honestly at the inputs in and around the team game that we need and try to put that mix into place that gives us a chance.”
Skinner is guaranteed $9M AAV this season, which is a helluva price to pay for just one assist and 31 shots on goal. Skinner is only in the second year of his guaraneed $72 million contract which was signed off on by former Sabres GM Jason Botterill.
"This is my 11th year,” said Skinner said in defense of his role as an extra forward. “I don’t think I’ve ever really felt I need a day off to relook at things. I think I’ve seen a lot in this league, run through adversity before in my career. You just work, keep working and put you’re head down. That’s what I’ll do.”
Skinner is pissed. It’s understood. Getting slapped and singled out is not fun.it can leave a mark.
Players with 700+ games in the NHL are considered untouchables, right? I don’t agree one iota. Skinner is a slumping player with a massive contract and zero points production at a time when his team needs him to be at his best on a nightly basis. Take your medicine, Jeff. Skinner would be wise to remain humble, hungry and upbeat. His teammates and coaches are watching his verbal and nonverbal-verbal communication cues. Being scratched from games is a reality in professional sports. No player is immune from criticism.
Thanks, Sabres.com
There are several tried and true plans of correction to ease the burden of negativity off of veteran NHL scorers like Skinner that find themselves mired in long term scoring slumps.
All scorers go through cold spells where they are not burying their scoring chances. Playing responisbly and stopping on pucks is step number one. Cheating the process by blowing the zone only leads to more side-eye stares from head coach and teammates. The obvious solution is to simplify one's own game by getting pucks deep and to the net, creating opportunties for one's line mates with well-placed shots at the far pad that create loose change rebounds and high danger scoring attempts. Another solution is for the struggling forward to play out of character by amping up their commitment to playing a physical brand of hockey that when executed correctly will create turnovers that lead to scoring attempts off the transfer of possession. Yet another sure-fire panacea to kill all that ails a slumping scorer is to use speed to draw penalties that will put one's team on the man advantage. Another solution to a nasty scoring slump is to play out of character by dropping the gloves and chucking knucks with an opponents to get a rise out of one's one teammates.
At times this season, Skinner has tried some of the above tactics to end his excruciating scoring slump this season. The infuriating thing about Skinner is that he appears to be going through the motions inside shifts and games. Through the prism of this observer's eyes, Skinner appears to be content with an ever-changing usage role. Line one, Line four, line five. Whatever. Skinner's middle of the road performances seemingly suggest that he will eventually land in the top six forward group and on one of the power play units because of his eleven year old body of work. Skinner appears to be playing the long game with his head coach while Krueger is asking "what have you done to earn your ice time lately?"
Krueger clearly has the support of rookie general manager Kevyn Adams in demanding excellence on a shift-by-shift basis.
Skinner's NHL body of work is very impressive. He has earned the reputation of being one of the best even strength goal scorers in the National League. The Toronto native is 28 years of age and in the prime years of his NHL career. Skinner has played in 734 regular season games and has scored 258 goals and 208 assists for 466 points. In his first two seasons in Buffalo, Skinner scored 35 goals and even strength and 19 goals on the power play.
In his career, Skinner has scored 53 power play goals and has accumulated 117 power play points. Skinner has scored 36 game winning goals and 5 OT GWG and has a 10.8% shooting percenSkinner scored a career-high 40 goals (24 EV) in 82 games in 2018-19, his first season with the Sabres. Skinner's goal scoring nose-dived to just 14 goals (11 EV) 59 games last year, his first season of his $72 million guaranteed contract. tage for his career for power play scoring opportunities.
The Sabres currently have the #3 ranked power play in the NHL.
The Buffalo man advantage battalions have successfully converted on 15 of the 46 power play opportunities (32.6%) that they have earned.
The Sabres are owners of the #1 road power play which is 7 for 17 (41.1%) this season.
Skinner has zero power play points this season. He isn't cashing his chances on the man advantage. Krueger clearly has seen enough of Skinner's shooting of blanks at even strength. So much so that he can no longer justify giving Skinner unlimited cookies on the third ranked power play in the NHL. Krueger's probably thinking "I look like a joke to the deserving forwards and defensemen on this team for allowing Skinner to eat hot fudge sundaes when he's not eating his dinner. Why am I rewarding him with a regular power play role when he doesn't deserve it?."
The Buffalo power play excellence has served as camouflage for Buffalo's inabiity to score goals at even strength.
In 14 games played this season, the Sabres have scored just 33 goals of which a paltry 18 have been scored at even strength. The Sabres have 42 games to play in the next 84 games and they need all of their stars and role players performing at peak efficiency.
The Sabres play the NY Islanders on Monday night and desperately need to earn two points to keep pace in the East Division playoff race. Last week, Skinner was invisible in two games against the Islanders by posting no points and only 3 shots (-1 rating) on goal in two games against the Isles while averaging 14:00 TOI.
After much consternation, it appears that the decision has been made.
Sitting Skinner out against the Islanders on Monday night is not personal. It's strictly business. Skinner is a team leader that continues to struggle inside shifts at practices and in games. The organizational goal for the 2021 season is to earn one of four playoff berths in the East Division. The Sabres cannot achieve their goals if Skinner continues to be a no-show from the score sheet on a game by game basis. On Friday night, Skinner was kept off the score sheet and didn't land one shot on goal in Buffalo's loss at Washngton in 11:26 TOI. On Saturday, Skinner had 4 shots on goal and no points in 11:22 TOI.
In this historical, at-times brutal COVID-shortened season in which the NHL owners are losing millions of dollars per month due to the lack of gate attendance and ancillary revenue streams, it is incumbent upon the star players on NHL teams to carry their weight on a game by game basis. The wins and losses were magnified one hundred fold when teams were originally scheduled to play 56 games in 114 days.
The Sabres were knocked out by a one-two combination sucker-punch to the jaw when they were forced to shut down their operations and training facilities for two straight weeks when nine of their players and Ralph Kreuger were forced into COVID quarantine after being exposed to the insidious virus by the New Jersey Devils on January 30 and 31. Eight Sabres players tested positive for COVID-19. Krueger also tested positive for the deadly virus. The Devils also were also forced to shut their program down for two weeks when 19 of their players were sent to COVID protocols.
On Monday February 15, the Sabres resumed their 2021 season. Eichel and Associates lost back to back games to the NY Islanders. They also dropped a game to the Washington Capitals before snapping their four game-losing streak with a win against teh New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon.
On February 22, 2011, the Buffalo Sabres introduced Terry Pegula as the team’s new owner during a press conference that I attended along with media, current and former Sabres players. Pegula became the fourth owner in franchise history, taking over from B. Thomas Golisano who owned the team from 2003-2011. The Sabres have not made the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2011.
On the 10-year anniversary of the Pegulas becoming the owners of the Sabres, the player with one of the richest contracts in franchise history will be a healthy scratch. The optics are not great for Jeff Skinner, Ralph Kreuger and Kevyn Adams.
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