The Sabres have taken the NHL by storm this season. Eichel has been the crane that has lifted the Sabres out of the wreckage of 31st place in the NHL standings last season to second place in the Eastern Confernece standing this season. After 34 games played, the Sabres are 20-9-5 (45 points). Last season, the Sabres did not achieve their 20th of their season from hell until February 28, when Buffalo were 20-33-11 in the NHL standings.
On Sunday night, Eichel and the Sabres beat the Boston Bruins in their barn. Eichel, a Boston native, elevated his game and lef his team with 2 goals and 2 assists despite having lost to the Washington Capitals in the shootout on Saturday night.
Eichel's Boston homecoming was a thing of beauty. He dropped the collective jaws of the same fans who cheered him on during his sensational season at Boston University where as a freshman he carried the Terriers to the NCAA championship game.
When the haters-- and yes, there are still Sabres haters in the world-- said the Eichel & Company would be humbled and soundly beaten by Eastern Conference foes Washington and Boston, Jack scoffed. Eichel then motioned to his teammates to jump on his back.
Jack and his Sabres earned 3 of 4 points on the road in hostile buildings.
Jack Eichel enters Tuesday night's Atlantic Division showdown with the Florida Panthers on a six-game point streak in which Eichel has scored 9 goals and 4 assists. Eichel has been hotter and more explosive than an M-80 on the Fourth of July.
On Monday, Eichel was named the NHL’s Third Star for the week ending December 16 with 5 goals and 4 assists in four games played last week.
Eichel ranked second in the NHL with 5 goals and 4 assists in four games to power the Sabres to a 3-0-1 week and into second place in the Atlantic Division. Eichel scored 1G,1A (including an assist on the OT GWG) in a 4-3 win over the LA Kings December 11. Eichel then picked up one helper in a 3-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes December 13, followed by two goals in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Washington Capitals December 15. Eichel capped the week with 2-2—4, his fifth career four-point performance, in a 4-2 win over the Boston Bruins December 16.
Eichel is on a mission to take his Sabres team from worst to first. His stated goal from Day 1 was to deliver the Sabres to the Stanley Cup playoffs, a goal he failed to achieve in his first three NHL seasons. Look out NHL. Hell hath no fury like a Jack Eichel scorned.
Eichel, 22, is seventh in the NHL scoring with 14G, 31A for 45 points in 34 games this season, including 9G, 4A during an active six-game point streak.
I've said it before and I will say it again and again:
Jack Eichel is a legit NHL MVP candidate.
Deal with it.
Eichel collected his 17th multi-point game of the season on Sunday at Boston (2G,2A). He has now recorded two points in seven of his last nine games.
Eichel’s 17 multi-point games tied for the NHL lead this season. Through 34 games, he is one shy of his career-high 18 in a season.
Sabres GM Jason Botterill recently told Pierre LeBrun, Scott Burnside and Craig Custance that its a joy to watch Eichel play the game of hockey. Botterill spent ten season with the Pittsburgh Penguins and he saw the rise to stardom and Stanley Cup championships of future Hall of Famers Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin, and Kris Letang. Botterill is seeing a growth in Eichel's game and in his leadership capabilities on and off the ice.
"How he's playing right now and the pace he is playing with out there, it's a joy to watch. You look at all the stats and its not just the offenisve zone starts. He's doing it in the defensive zone . Tracking back hard. Creating off the rush but also you see with him and Jeff Skinner in the offensive zone he's really becoming an excellent two-way player. He always drives us whether its a practice or a game . He drives our team. Its been fun watching him. Phil Housley, myself and The Pegulas talked a lot over the summer about obviously not having a captain, whether Jack was ready for that. We always knew Jack eventually was going to be our captain. You just don't want top put so much pressure on a young player. Sometimes these players come into the league at age eighteen and you think they are so mature and they've got everything handled by still there is a lot of pressure when you put the "C" on the jersey. Instead of adding off adding more pressure to him he has really taken a step in a leadership stanpoint about his practice habits. I think the biggest thing thats just improved is our communication with Jack. Its not earth shattering but even just with his interaction with myself and Phil Housley. The previous year, you are taalking about things in the summer with him , but its just "get to know each other". This past summer, when the emotion of the season is gone, you can now talk about specofic things and thats what we really enjoy in interacting with Jack is that part of it. He's a sports nut. He's a hockey nut. He loves talking about the details of the game and that is what has been so exciting about us having just a little bit of success here. Now we can talk about the specifics like " OK, how do we want to do things better at the net front creating more traffic at the front of the net?" isnstead of "Oh my goodness. We can't even get the puck out of our zone" which is what the situation was last year. Now that we can talk about some of those little details, that will hopefully allow us to have better results down the road".
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Eichel and Jeff Skinner are currently on pace to shatter their personal bests in points and put their autographs in the Buffalo Sabres record books with their prodgious career-best points production at even strength that ranks them among the best even-strength players in the NHL this season.
Assuming he maintains his current pace, Eichel would finish the season with the second-most even-strength points ever recorded by a Buffalo Sabre (82), trailing only Pat LaFontaine (83) in 1992-93, and would top LaFontaine’s franchise-record 52 even-strength assists that season. Eichel would also become the first Sabre to record more than 95 points since the 1992-93 season (LaFontaine/Mogilny/Hawerchuk).
Skinner is currently on pace to score the second-highest goal total in Buffalo Sabres history (58), trailing only Mogilny's 76 snipes in 1992-93. Skinner's 43 EV goals would finish behind only Mogilny’s even-strength total from 1992-93 (49) and Rick Martin’s 44 in 1973-74 for most in team history.
Skinner is staring at a huge contract extension. He's eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2019. Recently, Sabres GM Jason Botterill told Pierre LeBrun of the Athletic that he knew Skinner was good. However, he underestimated how great a player Skinner truly is. Botterill and Skinner's agent will begin talks in the near future concerning a contract extension to keep the Toronto native in a crossed swords sweater for the next eight seasons.
"I will admit its been an amzing fit so far. The smile on his face. You can see he is really enjoying the game of hockey. We talked a lot about it this summer. Its why we thought it was a fit. As we started to get more into the discussions with Carolina. We wanted to improve our even strength scoring. What I underestimated was the impact that Jeff Skinner was going to have on Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Ristolainen because I was bringing in a player that would help them outright now. It wasn't in the future. It was help them right now and it really invigorated some other players here which has been great to see. We talked a lot about if we were going to change the resuts here in Buffalo, we had to bring in players who were excited about being in Buffalo. Its easy to talk about changing things but its different . There are always going to be ups and downs. We have not seen that here this year. Althoygh there have been a lot of positives, behind the scenes its always difficult. Sometimes there can be difficult moments and you have to work through that. That Jeff waived his no trade clause to come to Buffalo to come to Buffalo was a huge thing for us. It's just like Eichel signing an eight-year contract extension last year. Rasmus Dahlin having a huge smile on his face wanting to come to Buffalo. That's how you change results here. Jeff haas come in here, and we heard all the rumors about how he takes care of himself off the ice and everything like that. That was evident to me when he got here. Just his practivce habits, how hard he works after practice. The enthusiasm he brought . I thinks that is the balance we didn't have here last year. Last year, we were too loosey goosey in practice, having too much fun. Or, there were times when we were too serious banging sticks against the glass and not enjoying the moment. We found a balance here of work but also having fun . Where I think Jeff has been just great is just a great fit is that he's probably he is probably impressed me even more with his play than I had anticipated. I think as Jack and Jeff have developed chemistry down there they are realizing howI think Jack looks for Jack through the neutral zone and once they get into the offensive zone. Jack knows where Jeff is going to be-- he's going to be right around the net or behind the net type of thing. Just his ability to win one on one battles and find those loose pucks at the front of the net has been really, really impressive. There's certainly the contract thing down the road. We've been talking to Newport Sports at the start of the season when we made teh tradae to bring Jeff in that, hey, lets just start the season. Lets get through things and there's always going to be more tme later on to discuss the contract (extension). That has woked out pretty well. Yes. we would love to get Jeff signed down the road and we are ecstatic of the fit so far".
Skinner leads the NHL with 6 GWG, 3 OTG, and +21 rating. Skinner's 18 EVG is second in the NHL, and is his 24 goals. Skinner's 6 PPG are ninth in the NHL.
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