Eichs Exam (sabres canucks)

On Monday December 2, the Buffalo Sabres celebrated "Founders Night" to pay homage to the anniversary of the day the Knox brothers were awarded the franchise by the NHL.

After a trip down memory lane and an entertaining pregame ceremony featuring members of the Knox and Pegula families, the Sabres exorcized the New Jersey Devils by a score of 7-1.

This afternoon, Vancouver Canucks will host the Sabres in a reunion of the NHL expansion class of 1970.

The Canucks, along with the Sabres, were part of the second wave of NHL expansion. The Canucks played their inaugural NHL game on October 9, 1970.

The Sabres were awarded the first pick at the 1970 NHL Amateur Draft and selected Quebec junior league scoring rock star Gilbert Perreault. Perreault was available to the Sabres and Canucks as 1970 was the first year the Montreal Canadiens did not have a priority right to draft Quebec-born junior hockey players.

The rest is history.

Sabres captain Jack Eichel enters the Canucks game hotter than a pistol.

Eichel has in progress a torrid 11 game scoring streak that began on November 16, tying the longest streak of Eichel's career. His 10 goals and 20 points during the NHL's longest active streak leads the NHL during that timeframe.

With a point today, Eichel would have his first career 12-game point streak.

It would be the longest point streak recorded by a Sabre since Tim Connolly earned points in 16 straight games from December 23, 2009 to January 25, 2010.

Since Eichel began his current 11 game point streak on 11/16, he leads the NHL in points.

P̳oints ̳S̳i̳n̳c̳e̳ ̳1̳1̳/̳1̳6̳:̳

1. Eichel - 20 2. MacKinnon - 18 3. Malkin - 16 4. McDavid - 15 5. Guentzel, Kucherov - 14

Eichel has scored 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) during his point streak and is two points shy away of 300 career poimts in the NHL for the Sabres, who are 2-1-2 in their last five games after going 2-8-1 in its previous 11.

Captain Jack loves scoring points in bunches. When he gets hot he is one of the most prolific scorers in the NHL.

Eichel’s three games with at least four points this season tied for the NHL lead.

Since he entered the NHL in 2015-16, only seven players have totaled at least four points in a game more times than Eichel’s eight:

Nikita Kucherov (15) Patrick Kane (10) Connor McDavid (10) Johnny Gaudreau (9) Brad Marchand (9) Alex Ovechkin (9) Steven Stamkos (9).

Eichel has already scored nt least three points seven differ times this season, topping his previous career-high total (6) set in the 2016-17 season. Only Leon Draisaitl (8) and Connor McDavid (8) have more games with at least three points this season. Eichel and the Sabres will play McDavid and the Oilers Sunday night in Edmonton.

Eichel currently is in the top ten of many NHL statistical categories.

Eichel's 18 goals are fourth best in the NHL.

His 13 even strength goals are also fourth in the NHL.

Eichel's 27 even strength points are good for sixth in the league while his 39 points (7th), 109 shots on goal (7th), and 21 assists (8th) are also top ten.

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A win at Vancouver will give the Sabres sole possesion of second place in the Atlantic Ocean.

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The Sabres PP went an abysmal 1 for 8 on the man advantage in Buffalo's 4-3 loss at Calgary on Thursday night. Eichel and Company are leaving money on the tabe at the end of each game by not cashing in on the easy chances they create with their talented PP1 and PP2.

Ralph Kreuger is demanding more scoring from his power play units.

"Simplicity above all and allow the skill and the talent to take over if we create some chaos. That's what we've been unable to do of late", Krueger said Friday.

Since November 1, the Sabres' power play is a gawd awful 3-for-47 (6.4%).

At Friday's practice, Kreuger changed the personnel groupings on each power play unit as follows:

PP1: Eichel, Reinhart, Skinner, Olofsson, Ristolainen

PP2: Mittelstadt, Johansson, Sheary, Montour, Jokiharju

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Samson Reinhart loves playing against his hometown Canucks

Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Ristolainen like playing the Cancucks as well

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For the first time in two weeks, Kreuger will roll out an 12 forwatd/6 D formation. Injuries to Kyle Okposo, Evan Rodrigues, Vlad Sobotka and Tage Thompson forced Kreuger to use his D depth to offset the injured forward situation.

All in all, the 11/7 formation was a useful bandage that stopped the bleeding for a couple of week and helped the Sabres get back on the winning way.

The Sabres were 3-3-1 while Kreuger deployed 11 forwards and 7 D for seven straight games.

Here is the Sabres' projected firward trios:

Olofsson-Eichel -Reinhart Skinner-Johansson-Asplund Vesey-Mittelstadt-Sheary Girgensons-Larsson-Okposo

Sabres' projecetd D Duos:

Montour -Ristolainen Scandella -Jokiharju Miller -Bogosian

Sabres' Tendy:

Ullmark

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Canucks' Trios:

Miller -Pettersson -Boeser Pearson -Horvat -Leivo Roussel -Gaudette -Virtanen Schaller -Beagle -Ferland

Canucks' Duos:

Benn -Tanev Hughes -Myers Fantenberg -Stecher

Canucks Tendy: Demko

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