Updated:
Jack Eichel injured himself in the pre-game skate on Thursady night, according Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger.
Kreuger said Eichel missed the 4-3 OT loss to New Jersey due to a new lower body ailment not an aggravation of an existing injury.
Krueger: Eichel injury happened in warm up skate tonight. Its not an aggravation of another injury.
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) February 26, 2021
Ullmark lower-body injury will need to be assessed further.
Eichel and Ullmark are day to day
Ristolainen. McCabe. Skinner. Eichel. Ullmark. pic.twitter.com/npUTQGesXV
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) February 26, 2021
Get the Devils the hell out of here. #Sabres have lost two games on home ice vs. Devils and have suffered injuries to McCabe, Eichel and Ullmark against New Jersey. To say nothing of the COVID-19 crisis created when Devils played in Buffalo on January 30 and 31.
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) February 26, 2021
Buffalo Sabres players are falling like lake effect snow.
On Thursday night, Sabres captain Jack Eichel was announced as a late scratch moments before the opening faceoff against the New Jersey Devils.
Eichel, who has been betting an upper body injury since before the beginning of training camp in early January, now has a lower-body injury.
Here is the lower body injury. Watch Devils forward Nico Hischier took down Eichel with a sneaky curl of his skate around Eichel's right ankle.
Jack Eichel was injured Tuesday night when he collided with Nico Hischier #Sabres https://t.co/MzRJj4dbiG
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) February 26, 2021
Eichel was given the morning off on Thursday and took the warmup skate on Thursday night before he was replaced by Tage Thompson in the lineup. Riley Sheahan took Eichel's place at first line center and scored a pretty spino-o-rama goal.
Riley Sheahan with the funky backhand, 1-0! #LetsGoBuffalo #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/Tgfcs0psYz
— Buffalo Hockey moments (@SabresPlays) February 26, 2021
The 24-year-old only has two goals (1 EV) and 14 points in 16 games. In 68 games last season, Eichel scored a career-high 36 goals (25 EV) and 42 assists 78 points.
Eichel is now nursing a wonky ankle as well as an upper body ailment.
In an interview with Sabres' radio rights holder on Thursday morning, Krueger commented on the injury that Eichel suffered prior to training camp, which limited the All Star center in training camp and regular season games before the Sabres were forced to close their program down for two weeks in February after being exposed to COVID-19 by the New Jersey Devils on January 30 and 31.
"Everybody has to realize that he had an injury pre-training camp that pretty well parked him from doing a lot of physical activities for multiple weeks," Krueger said, according to NHL.com. "He started training camp a week delayed. The game pace that we've had and the forced almost eight-day break that everyone had a few weeks ago, he has worked as hard as anybody else to get himself up to speed. But all the circumstances are preventing him from being at 100 per cent physical condition and shape because we just have no practices and we have no training time between the games."