Thankfully, the NHL All Star snooze fest is over.
For the Buffalo Sabres and their playoff aspirations, its now or never.
There is much work to be done to determine whether they are contenders or pretenders. The Sabres, currently fifth in the Atlantic standings, find themselves mucking and grinding in the corners of Jack's Diner in search of a wild card berth.
In their final 33 games, #Sabres50 will have to earn 45-46 points in order to earn a wild care berth. Botterill MUST deliver a T6 scoring forward to coincde with returns of Skinner and Olofsson. Can Kreuger inspire his players to go 23-10 after the All Star break? pic.twitter.com/MMgC8Nuraj
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 25, 2020
The Sabres (22-20-7, 51 points, .520 win %) are going to need a small miracle to assist them.
If my math is correct, Ralph Kreuger's Sabres are going to have to finish the regular season with a 23-10 in their final 33 games in order to achieve the 97 points in the standing required to qualify for Lord Stanley's invitation-only postseason tourney.
I know.
The odds are stacked against the Sabres to accomplish such a Herculean feat.
Stranger things have happened in the NHL in recent years.
Eichel & Associates will have a decided advanatage working in their favor in their quest to qualify for their first postseason bid since the 2010-11 season.
The Sabres will not be packing their luggage, playing poker on the private plane and beefing up Marriott Rewards points. That will have to wait until late February.
It's playoff time Buffalo style. Pass the bleu cheese and celery sticks.
Beginning Tuesday night and running for 20 days, the Sabres will play nine of their next ten games on home ice. Their only road game in the next 20 days will be played February 7 at the NY Rangers.
The one constant in their up and down season to this juncture has been the Sabres' red hot play on home ice. The Sabres are 14-6-3 after their first 23 home games this season. The Sabres .674 points percentage at home currently finds them seventh in the NHL.
Advantage: Sabres
Eichel & Company are averaging 3.43 goals per game at home this season, which would mark Buffalo’s best home scoring rate since the 2006-07 season (3.93 GPG).
Home cooking has been agreeing with the Sabres all season long. If they can win games and jump over the teams ahead of them in the wild card standings, they will improve their chances of playing meaningful hockey games in April and beyond.
Eichel, a 2020 NHL All Star, has literally carried his Sabres teammates on his shoulders all season long.
If they are indeed serious about earning a wild card berth it is imperative to get secondary and tertiary scoring from the forwards and defense corps to augment Eichel's Hart Trophy caliber body of work this season.
In other words, all 12 forwards and 6 defensemen must pull the rope with all their might or else this season is doomed.
The carrot tied to the business end of the hockey stick is if the Sabres players can string together 3-5 wins in a row to begin the long home stand, they will no doubt pressure their GM Jason Botterill to pull the trigger on a trade to import a oubt pressure top six forward to the Sabres' battle for a wild card.
Rickard Rakell, Chris Kreider, Tyler Toffoli, Kyle Palmieri, Tomas Hertl, Alex Tuch and Jason Zucker have all been targets for Botterill to trade for this season.
â¦@Jackeichel15â© #Sabres50 pic.twitter.com/2VmQ7m7wQT
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 25, 2020
This is why it is imperative for the Sabres set the tone with a fast, urgent start to their long home stand with a win over the Senators. Their on ice play will dictate whether they are buyers or sellers at the NHL trade deadline.
Captain Jack Eichel has scored 20 goals and 18 assist in 23 home games this season. Eichel’s 1.65 points per game at home is tied for second-best in the NHL. His plus-20 rating at home led the league. Eichel has scored 9 goals and 14 assists in 15 career games against the Senators, including at least a point in all but three of those games and 6 goals and 9 assists in eight home games. Eichel's 23 points and 1.53 points per game against the Sens are his best offensive production numbers against any NHL opponent.
With his 28th goal in his 46th game of the season on January 14 vs. Vegas, Eichel tied his career best total set in the 2018-19 season (77 games played).
Eichel’s high voltage points production through 49 team games currently has him on pace to finish the season with 47 goals and 105 points, which would be the highest goal and point totals by a Sabre since Pat LaFontaine (53G,95A) and Alexander Mogilny (76G,51A) in 1992-93.
Eichel's bro Samson Reinhart has scored 11 goals and 13 helpers is also producing at over a point-per-game rate through 23 home games this season. Reinhart has scored 5 goals and 8 assists in his last nine games on home ice, including five multi-point outings. Reinhart has scored 6 goals and 10 assists in his last 16 meetings with the Senators, including two-point games in the last three games played in Buffalo.
Conor Sheary has scored 4 goals and 3 assists in his last seven home games.
Marcus Johansson has scored a goal and four assists in his last five home games.
Super sohomore Rasmus Dahlin has scored a goals and six assists in his last seven games.
Former Senator Curtis Lazar has 1 goals and 3 assists in the Sabres' last four games.
Linus Ullmark has won eight of his last 10 games on home with a .919 SV% and a 2.52 GAA in those games. Ullmark is 5-2-0 since the beginning of January with a .932 SV% and a 2.00 GAA. Ullmark has allowed just one even-strength goal in each of Buffalo’s last four games, stopping 94 of 98 shots (.959 SV%) at even strength in those games.
Kreuger announced Monday afternoon that Jeff Skinner will return from injury when the season resumes Tuesday night against Ottawa. The sniping wing man practiced on Monday and is now full-go to return to the lineup.
Skinner was placed on injured reserve on December 29 with an upper body injury that he suffered in a collision with Boston's David Pastrnak on Decemeber 27. Skinner missed 10 games. Skinner will add even strength scoring as well as pop on the power play.
Jeff Skinner is back in the saddle again #Sabres50 pic.twitter.com/sQuleUJcFD
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) January 27, 2020
Victor Olofsson is still on IR and has missed 7 games with his lower body injury. Olofsson could return as soon as next week.
Since the beginning of January, the Sabres have gone 6-for-21 (28.6%) on the power play. Their conversion rate ranked as the seventh-best rate in the NHL in January.
In eight games played in January, the Sabres have killed 17 of 20 shorthanded attempts (85.0%), ranking as the seventh-best penalty kill percentage in the NHL in 2020.
Welcome to Jack's Diner.