1) Eichel is not the problem. He's up-and-down, hot and cold, but overall a very good player who carries the team some nights. It's like blaming Gaudreau or Matthews for their teams' struggles. Even when they aren't playing their best, if the team is consistently losing it's probably an issue larger than just themselves. Overall Eichel's been great this year, couple off games, I'm fine with him. Dahlin is struggling defensively, but that was kinda predictable.
2) Housley was a problem. The fact that they still have problems does not mean that Housley was not a problem. I like Krueger, I think he does some good things, but the team seems to be struggling with the system right now. They had some smart strategies to start the year, teams figured 'em out, now we just don't have a great roster. I do think Krueger could change the lines a bit, I'll fault him for that, but overall I think it's too early to see it as a coaching problem. It's not Eich, it's not the coach, it's basically all our forwards outside of Eichel, Skinner, Olofsson, Reinhart, and Johansson. And like, LOG (Larsson, Okposo, Girgensons) has looked like a great 4th line at times- but the problem is they're often asked to play above their station even when we're healthy. Now there are some injuries, and basically everyone is covering for the black hole that is our 3rd line.
3) So the insistence on icing Sobotka, Sheary, and especially Vesey- it's really frustrating. We swung and missed on Vesey, he f***ing sucks- move on. Trade him, bench him, wave him, whatever it takes- but we have better options is Rochester we're not using because we don't wanna make the GM look bad or something. Which is f***ing insane, because every time Vesey steps on the ice the decision looks worse, but somehow if you don't admit the mistake it's not a mistake.
Summary- Eich and Krueger are fine. Dahlin gets a pass. We have some good pieces, but 3-4 below replacement players are killing us. I think Krueger should change up the lines, but no matter how you slice it we lack a 2nd line player. Our 3rd line sucks. Our 4th line would be fine if they weren't covering for the 3rd, but the end result is that we have maybe 1 and 2/3rds of a good offense when healthy. Botts needs to make a f***ing trade, but for some reason we're the epitomy of the dog in the "this is fine" burning house meme.
PS- Sabres have 5 goals in their last 3 games. Eichel has 4 goals, 1 (primary) assist. So if you say Eich you just aren't watching. He wasn't great at points during the start of the streak, but he's been the entire offense the last few games. Once again, when ya see something like that.. the concern lays elsewhere. We get it, you don't like his face, find a real reason to dislike a player.