Congratulations, Samson Reinhart.
Buffalo's silent rookie assassin scored his 20th goal of the season in Friday night's 3-1 over Ottawa.
Reinhart became the fourth rookie (and second Buffalo Sabres rookie) to hit the 20-goal plateau this season.
Sabres fans are relishing the success of the twins who are direct by products of the tank. Buffalo finished 30th in the NHL standings in 2014 and 2015. TI'm Murray "lost" the NHL lottery in each situation, however, nobody in Pegulaville cares about that now. Sabres fans are smitten with Reinhart, Eichel and the ultra-talented core of players that are surrounding the young superstars.
Reinhart, 20 , is the quiet, analytical play maker/ scorer with the vision and hands of a neurosurgeon.
Eichel is the grotesquely fast and furiously talented center who can slow the game down to his desired pace.
The Wonder Twins have Sabres fans have had rejoicing all season long.
Seemingly, Jack Eichel stalks the spot light and the media attention while Samson Reinhart prefers to lurk under the radar and off the grid. Two very similar yet very different young men you will never meet.
Eichel and Reinhart, each a second overall draft choice, have caused jaws drop this season with their gritty, fast and skilled style. The now share a piece of NHL history.
Eichel and Reinhart are the 13th and 14th Sabres to score 20+ goals as a rookie.
Not only did Reinhart score his 20th goal of his critically acclaimed rookie season, he also chipped in an assist in the Buffalo win.
Reinhart's PPG gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead 2:07 into the first period.
Jack Eichel & Sam Reinhart now the 8th set of rookie teammates to both get 20 goals in a season over the last 20 yrs pic.twitter.com/Eh3PvBaGdD
— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) March 19, 2016
"I think we came out and really wanted to turn around our starts," Reinhart said. "As of lately, they haven't been the best and we've been better as the game's gone on. To get that first one early and that next one right after, that got us going on the right page and we followed that up. It was a good effort tonight."
Full disclosure;
If you would have told me last summer that Jack Eichel and Samson Reinhart would already have a combined 42 goals between them after just 72 games played in their rookie seasons, I would have told you to go jump over Niagara Falls. Personally, I had Eichel and Reinhart pegged for a combined 30 goals this season. I had Eichel scoring 20.
Of his 20 goals this season, Reinhart has scored seven power play goals. He also has three game winning goals. Reinhart has taken 139 shots on goal and has buried 14.4% of his chances while skating 16:48 TOI per game,
I'm always happy to admit when I am wrong and boy was I ever.
Reinhart and Jack Eichel are the third pair of Sabres rookies to each score at least 20 goals in a season, and the first since 1974-75 (Danny Gare and Peter McNab). Gilbert Perreault and Steve Atkinson did it in 1970-71.
Jack Eichel (49 points) and Sam Reinhart (36) are the first pair of Sabres rookies to reach the 35-point mark since Ray Sheppard (65), Pierre Turgeon (42) and Calle Johansson (42) all did so in 1987-88.
â—¾Eichel (22 goals) and Reinhart (20) are the third pair of rookies in Sabres history to each record 20 goals in the same season, joining Danny Gare (31) and Peter McNab (22) in 1974-75 and Gilbert Perreault (38) and Steve Atkinson (20) in 1970-71.