Not happening. Same old Jack. A fresh start, a $10M a year contract, the captaincy and it means nothing. As a lifelong Sabres fan it's not easy to accept but accept we must. Many people here and elsewhere thought he'd break out in a way similar to Nathan Mackinnon, he won't, it's not in his personality though it's not all about his makeup as a person he's also got a fairly pedestrian hockey IQ, it's Year 4, he'll be a point per game or slightly better but the McDavids, Matthews's, Mackinnons have left him in the dust. His wingman Reinhart has 0 goals. The Sabres tanked hard and deliberately for 2 seasons, their fans suffered, and the reward for that suffering was Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel. Hard to criticize the GM's, 31 other GM's would have taken Eichel 2nd overall and probably half of GM's would have taken Reinhart.
Better coaching would help but Sabres fans who cleave to that as some magic key that unlocks his potential are dreaming. Great talent, good player but generational was a fantasy and franchise player is looking to be beyond him as well.
The Sabres are 3-3 on the season, if they had last year's tandem of Lehner and Johnson in goal they'd be 1-5 or 0-6.
At first I thought this was a parody of some sort...but, no...it’s sadly real. They should put warnings before Buffalo Sabres games, since I know the guy who does the “Sabres Hockey is brought to you by” I should tell ol’ Ralph to add a disclaimer “WARNING: Watching your team lose for decades can cause delusional behaviour and misplaced anger, viewer discretion is advised”.
Tell me? How many wins does ROR have?
Evander Kane?
They both went to better teams and don’t have as many wins as a team captained by Jack Eichel.
Your not actually blaming the best player we’ve had in 20 years since HASEK who dances by every teams best d-men every game with ease and producers multiple glorious scoring chances a night are you? What about the others who aren’t producing? Goalless Sam? Housley for not playing Skinner with Eichel and giving up on that idea after one game we lost 4-0 which I I KNEW was more of an indication where the bruins were (5-1) then we probably were. As the records here indicate thus far (3-3). They did just come off a 7-0 loss and had a chance to get the taste out of their mouths 24 hours later.
People can say what they want but Eichs always been our leading scorer no matter how many games he plays, he’s our best forward in twenty five years since lafontaine and has had multiple chances every game. Some of them are ridiculously close that I can’t help but think would be goals on any other first line, Sheary fanning on an empty net tap in, Sam “I forget the season starts in October” Reinhart hitting how many posts fed to him by Eichel now? Is it four? Or just three? Seriously these aren’t just chances but would be goals, and has caught bad breaks like the “GOAL” he created through the legs he set up against the avs that was called a goal three times only for the fourth time to be said, nah that doesent count. The NHL needs to change that setup by the way. I’ve seen other fans complain but when it happens to you, yeah it’s annoying.
You talk about Mackinnon and Matthews and McD, yeah these guys are on an absolute tear, I agree that’s hard to watch at times even though I like mcdavid and the oilers but your looking at three teams here 27 other teams don’t he those guys either. We got an amazing franchise center who a lot of teams would want as the Third guy said.
He generates just as much offense or near it as all these other guys you named besides mcdavid and just because he doesn’t have a rantanen, marner, or nugent-Hopkins doesent make him less great. I wouldn’t even defend Eichel if he wasn’t all these things and I’d be right there with ya. He ain’t perfect man. But he’s far from the issue, he’s still just 22 after all .....and I’ve seen improvement in his maturity and leadership. Even his defensive game on some nights, no reason to think the other stuff Wont come.
This is about as misguided as the Edmonton journalists suggesting to trade mcdavid when they started 0-2. It’s called sticking with your team. Go for a run or something man. Blow off some steam, lol.
Eichel isn’t in conversation with Matthews, McDavid, or MacKinnon as it currently stands. Not close either.
Talent? He has enough to be up in that group, however....
Ability to play the team game that is hockey? This is where the current questions are. And boy will they get loud soon if he keeps phoning in games and only giving 100% when he’s angry or on an odd man rush.
You clearly haven’t warned him play...like ever.....
Not close to Mackinnon? Lol he outscored Mackinnon year before last despite missing an entire two months nd playing the whole year get as a 20 yr old kid. Matthews? He had a higher points per game then Matthews since Auston entered the league until just two weeks ago (0.94>>>0.88) and that’s despite going up against the legues top checkers, and coming off two sprained ankles. (While having to play two different and bad coaching systems)
I have no problem with anyone saying he’s not as good as them presently but saying he’s not evenose? That’s beyond ridiculous and would only come from someone who hasn’t watched him play the game, or hasn’t some agenda, or both. And deep down, you know that too. I wouldn’t even waste my time defending him if this wasn’t true.
Eichel for Drai. Lets do this. Come on Chia, botch another trade. Also offer a first and 3 million retained.
Are you kidding right now?
Trying to get eichel and then saying “botch another trade” you do realize Eichels averaged more points per game then auston Matthews since auston arrived in the NHL just until two weeks ago right?
The guy has all the talent in the world but he has no motor. What separates him from the Matthews/ McDavid/ MacKinnon (of last year) is those guys have elite effort and consistency. Very rarely do these guys take shifts off and almost never have off games. I've watched Jack play about 150 games from the NDTP all the way up to the Sabres and one thing that I still hold against him to this day is that he still lacks the effort. He's often the most talented and physically gifted player on the ice and that allowed him to dominate when he was younger because no amount of effort at that level would beat out the shear difference in talent. In the NHL, however, even the worst players have a decent amount of skill and unless you have a good motor and good compete, you will get outmuscled and out hustled by the opposition. Jack still hasn't adjusted to it.
To the person who called him this generations Phil Kessel. I 100% agree. Phil Kessel is an absolute monster and on the right team, he can be a massive contributor and a difference maker. But if you put him on a team as the main piece (like he was on the Leafs), that team probably won't go far.
He has a motor it’s just not channeled correctly. I’ve seen eichel turn it on so many times only for a dimwit to shoot the puck into the mesh, go offside, make a pass to far, fan on a tap in, etc
Your really not giving him enough credit here, he generates so much offense every game it isn’t even funny. Kessel use to flat out take games off and not care. Eichel cares more thn anyone on the team.
