Kane-Eichel-Reinhart Making It Rain https://t.co/FAfWYicvkt pic.twitter.com/cojGWQJB0J
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) March 12, 2016
He's a serial goalie killer. He lurks in the shadows and attacks at will.
He has linemates who have the hands of jewel thieves.
His name is Jack Eichel.
Heretofore, he will be dubbed "Jack The Ripper".
On Saturday afternoon,with icy Niagara River water coarsing through his veins, the 19 year old generational talent scored his first career OT GWG.
Oh, what a spectacular goal it was!
It started with a sky scraping rainbow and it ended with a rain storm.
A singular puck rained down from hockey heaven and found it's way to Jack Eichel's prodigious stick.
Picture a three on three battle between the Sabres and Hurricanes.
Tension ratcheting up. Carolina is in the hunt for a playoff berth. Buffalo in spoiler mode.
Midway through OT. Puck on Evander Kane's twig deep in the Buffalo end of the rink near the boards. Kane flipped what he would later describe as a "62 degree sand wedge" to a sprinting Eichel who would camp out underneath the sky high pass and recieve it cleanly in the Carolina end.
Jack tells @duffersabres and @maydayhockey that when he caught puck he looked up and saw that he had 4.5 seconds to make a play #WOW
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) March 12, 2016
Eichel told MSG's Brian Duff and Brad May after the game that he peeked up at the clock and noticed thatr he had 4.5 seconds to make a play on Cam Ward. Eichel also said that his teammates and coaches were imploring him to take it to the house before the OT period horn had sounded.
Eichel did just that. Man, did he ever!
Like Tyrod Taylor to Sammy Watkins, Eichel exploded down the ice on a 9 route to Cam Ward's crease, where he deked, shimmied, and shaked just enough to get the veteran keeper to oipen his five hole.
Poor Cam Ward. The all-world rookie made him look like a beer leaguer on a Thursday night at 11:30 pm.
The rest is history now.
Thanks, Sabres TV
The OT winner, his second goal of the game, now gives Eichel 22 goals and counting this season. Eichel now ties Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy and Ric Seiling for fifth place on the Sabres' all time rookie list for game winning goals. Not bad company for the BU grad to be in.
With 48 points, Eichel is second in NHL rookie scoring to Chicago's 24 year old freshman Artemi Panarin's 62 points (25 goals).
The scary thing is, with Ryan O'Reilly out of the lineup the past 1 games and Eichel playing teh #1 center role, he is shooting more than he has all season long. At this pace, Eichel may well end up with 30 goals season.
Eichel now has 22 goal sand 26 assists for 48 points in 70 games played this season. Ryan O'Reilly leads the Sabres with 49 points. ROR may return to practice on Monday after sitting out th epast 11 games due to a jacked up right foot. If all goes according to plan, ROR may play against Montreal on Wednesday night in Buffalo.
Dan Bylsma will be faced with a decision in tyhe days to come.
Will he break up the highly productive Kane-Eichel-Reinhart line when Ryan O'Reilly returns?
The 9-15-23 line is one of the hottest trios in the NHL right now, having scored 5 points on Saturday. Eichel had two goals, Kane two assists and Reinhart one helper.
Kane-Eichel-Reinhart has scored 17 points in five of the past six games.
Bylsma's third like of Foligno-Larsson-Gionta has also been a high achieving trio in recen weeks. 82-22-12 are grinding, shooting, aclring, hitting, fighting and possessing the puck.
I would break apart the 82-22-12 line long before I separated the torrid 8-15-23 line.
Were I Bylsma, I would tap Foligno to play LW for O'Reilly. Foligno is Jamie McGinn Version 2.0. He's big, fast, strong and he lives in the low post.
I like the idea of a Foligno-ROR-Girgensons line.
My preseason prediction for points for Eichel in his rookie season was 54. He will easily surpass my projections for him in no time at all.
Reinhart has 19 goals and 15 assists.
Kane has 19 goals and 14 assists.
Eichel gave the Sabres the 2-1 lead just five minutes into the third period on a nifty passing play from Evander Kane and Samson Reinhart.
Thanks, Sabres TV
Marcus Foligno scored his career high ninth goal of the season to tie the game at 1s.