Number 15 was buying shots of Jack Fire on Saturday night.
You should have been there!
Jack Eichel continued his mastery of the Toronto Maple Leafs when he sciored 2 goals and added an assist in Buffalo's 5-2 win.
Eichel now has 8 points in his last 6 games against the Buds.
Jack torched Toronto with two highlight package goals.
Eichel elevated his game to elite status and put on a pyrotechnics show for 20 million Canadians who were glued to their tubes for Hockey Night In Canada.
Eichel did not disappoint.
This scud missile PPG.
And this beauty!
Thanks, Sportsnet
Eichel now has 53 points in 54 games played this season.
Eichel’s .98 points per game rank him 9th among all players with at least 20 games played.
Eichel now has 109 points in 135 career NHL games (47G, 62A).
Eichel's 47 goals are the most from a player in the 2015 NHL Draft.
Here, Eichel steals the souls from the stiff bodies of two stunned Leafs fans. Roughly 50% of the fans in attendance at Key Bank Center on Saturday night was Leafs fans. Eichel made their 2+ hour sit on the Peace Bridge all the more miserable.
Eichel, the super sophomore has not gone two games without a point since January 31 and February 2. In the 25 games since, Eichel has totaled 32 points (11G, 21A).
In the time since his November 29 return from an injury that sidelined him for 21 games, Jack Eichel is tied for 10th among all NHL skaters with 53 points (23G, 30A).
Eichel has logged 38 points (15G, 23A) in his last 33 games, including 10 multi-point outings during that stretch. The Sabres are 13-2-0 this season (and 22-5-0 in his career) when he has at least two points.
The home team has won 24 of the last 29 games between the Sabres and the Maple Leafs?
The Sabres are 18-2-1 in their last 21 home games against the Maple Leafs.
Toronto’s win in Buffalo on November 3, 2016 snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Sabres that lasted 1,373 days.
Each team has won its last road game the series, marking the first time the Sabres and Maple Leafs have won in each other’s arenas in the same season since 2012-13.
The Maple Leafs haven’t won consecutive games in Buffalo since March 21 and December 12, 2008.
This was the fourth of five meetings between the Sabres and Maple Leafs this season.
Same two teams play Monday, April 3 in Buffalo
The Sabres are 7-3-1 in their last 11 games vs. the Maple Leafs; 9-1-1 at home.
This is the 206th game all-time between Buffalo and Toronto; Buffalo has a 113-66-26 series record.
The Sabres are 69-26-8 at home against the Maple Leafs all-time.
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Leafs rookie Auston Matthews scored his 34th goal of the season tying Wendel Clark for franchise rookie goal scoring record.
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Leafs' meal ticket Freddy Andersen suffered an upper body injury in the first and didn't answer the bell for the rest of the game. He was replaced by Curtis McIlhenny, who allowed three second period goalies to Buffalo.
The Sabres won 5-2.
After the game, a concerned Mike Babcock spoke. Listening to Babcock describe Andersen's injury as an "upper body", I couldn't help but think of a concussion for the Toronto net minder.
“Obviously, the other team’s doctor thought he should come out of the game, so he came out of the game,” said Babcock. “So once our doctor has seen him tomorrow then I’ll have a better handle on what’s going on and I’ll be able to tell you.”
I watched the game early Sunday morning and I can isolate two collisions between two different Sabres players and Andersen where the goalie likely was injured. Both collisions occurred during the first period of play.
First, Toronto fourth liner Brian Boyle checked Sabres energy forward Will Carrier into Andersen. Carrier's head made hard contact with Andersen's. After the crash, Andersen lay on the ice before hopping up to his skates.
The second collision with Andersen occurred during a furious goal mouth scramble. Evander Kane ended up on top of Andersen, who appeared to be shaken up.
My guess is the NHL concussion spotters phoned down to or paid a visit to the Maple Leafs locker room at the end of the first twenty minutes of play. Perhaps it was determined by the spotter and the Buffalo team doctor that Andersen remain peel off his goalie pads, shower and put his Hugo Boss gear back on.
As Andersen goes, so go the Leafs.
Andersen is 30-15-14 this season with four shutouts and a 2.66 GAA and .918 save percentage.
Losing Andersen now to a long term injury would seriously jeopardize Toronto's playoff aspirations.
The Leafs have a paper thin one point lead on Boston (85 to 84 points) for the third place seed in the Atlantic Division race. The Nay Islanders have 82 points and Tampa Bay Lighting are still alive with 81 points.
A long term injury to Andersen would leave Curtis McIlhenny and Garrett Sparks in the Toronto net during the final eight gut check games.
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