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Does Casey Nelson deserve to get benched?

March 12, 2019, 3:04 PM ET [788 Comments]

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A flood of Milan Lucic/Ryan Miller memories came back to haunt Sabreland on Saturday as Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov took a run at Eichel with a late hit along the boards that many felt was a cheap shot. In case you had somehow forgotten about the Lucic/Miller incident that occurred in Boston over seven years ago, here's a quick rundown of what transpired:

--Boston Bruins Cro-Magnon winger Milan Lucic bowled over Sabres franchise goalie Ryan Miller as the two were going after a puck at the right faceoff dot without trying to avoid him
--Miller was knocked a little silly and the Sabres players on the ice half-heartedly, at best, tried to show that the were coming to Miller's defense, which is customary when the opposition violates a team mate
--the Sabres on the ice back in November, 2011 were captain Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Paul Gaustad, Andrej Sekera and Tyler Myers
--all of the aforementioned Buffalo players were known more for their skills than their physicality, save for Gaustad and all feigned anger in response to the hit
--nothing happened, Lucic got his minor penalty and the Bruins went on to defeat the Sabres 6-2.

Gaustad felt guilty afterward. He thought (as did the media and fanbase) that he should have taken on Lucic in defense of his team mate and he ended up doing so the next game. A lot of credit was given to him for that but the response was too late. For a team that was labeled soft-but-skilled to begin with, this was bullying moment that they never recovered from.

Over seven years later, there was a similar incident in Colorado.

Eichel was along the wall in the Avalanche game when Zadorov, a former Sabre, hit him into the boards and literally ripped Eichel's helmet off of him as he was going to the ice. Buffalo defenseman Casey Nelson was nearby and did nothing. However, unlike the Lucic/Miller incident, defenseman Marco Scandella jumped on Zadorov and forward Sam Reinhart followed suit. In the mean time Sabres forward Jeff Skinner was engaged with Colorado's Mikko Rantenen and the duo received coincidental minors for roughing.

Although the Sabres on the ice did show a pack-mentality, Nelson did not and word from the rink today is that he'll be a healthy scratch for tonight's home game against the Dallas Stars. When asked about that choice, here's what head coach Phil Housley told the gathered media, “I'm not going to get into that. We had a discussion with him and we'll just keep that in house" before adding that the reason for his scratch might have been something different. “It was mainly just his play," Housley was quoted as saying, "I think his play has dipped the last couple of games and we’ve got some other guys that are available (Matt Hunwick) and we haven’t had a lot of success, so we made some changes.”

"We haven't had a lot of success" is both an understatement and a cop-out. The first part is true as Buffalo hasn't had a lot of success. Housley's been switching things up for months to the point where it's probably been detrimental to any hope for chemistry and their sorry record of 13-23-7 since their November 10-game winning streak proves that.

However, to say that Nelson is being sat because of his performance might stretch the truth a bit. Whether it's the eye test or analytics where his numbers are either better than or about even with many of the d-men chosen to start before him, Nelson has been as advertised--a bottom-pairing/reserve defenseman. But you just can't be on the ice and not respond when your star player is wrecked like that.

To defend what's considered indefensible, simply put, Nelson is who he is. He's a quiet defenseman who's solid in his own zone, can move the puck up ice and is a responsible point-man who can get his shot through. Passion has never been a predominant emotion and probably never will be. He is who he is just like those Sabres players in 2011 who were on the ice for the Lucic/Miller incident.

This edition of the Buffalo Sabres has a much more passion than that 2011 team but they've still been built with skill in mind, which isn't a bad thing, especially the way the NHL is played today. Problems arise when other teams lay the body on them and get away with it. General manager Jason Botterill wants speed and skill but the downside is that certain teams know that a rough and tumble game isn't the Sabres style and they will try to take advantage of that.

For years former Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff would plead for his team to "play out of character" but it proved impossible. They were who they were. Asking Nelson to be someone he isn't is the exact same thing. Avoiding cheap shots is difficult and will prove to be a bit harder after this incident but it's up to the coaching staff to prepare the players for games like that and up to the GM to figure out how he can build a fast, skilled team while finding players with a little more passion than Nelson displayed.

However, t's really not his fault that he's the player the Sabres signed him for.


From hockeyfigths.com, here's the Lucic/Miller incident:

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