How are the Sabres this bad with Eichel?

[CupofOil]

Strange. It's almost like hockey is a team sport and one player can't do it all.

But I was told repeatedly last season that the Oilers had McDavid and nothing else.

You need a TEAM to win in hockey. The only position where you can make the playoffs with one great player and a bunch of average players is goalie, just look at the Habs the last few years and the Sabres in the late 90s.

 

[Royal Thunder]

Scandella, who has been terrific and our best D, was a 2nd pairing guy on a playoff team. Risto is a fun player and can be dominant at times offensively and physically, but he just is not near good enough defensively to play the minutes and competition he does.

It can't be understated how poor the forward group is. All of these players make little to no positive impact on the ice: Okposo, Girgensons, Pouliot, Larsson, Nolan, Pominville. They are all equally awful and the biggest reason why we suck so much IMO. They have 3 top 6 players (Eichel/Reinhart/ROR) and a few guys who can fill decent bottom 6 minutes (Wilson/Rodrigues/Baptiste/Josefsen when he's not hurt). Any suggestions that Eichel isn't good enough are laughable if you follow the team closely and that's all I have to say about that. He and Reinhart were both greener out of the draft than many young players are these days, buth both seem to be developing and maturing into very good players.

Goaltending is a disaster with Lehner and Johnson. They are hoping young Linus Ullmark can be a starter possibly as soon as next year but it's far from a sure thing. The only other notable goalie prospect is Ukko Pekka Luukkonen who is years away from even being in the conversation. It will be very interesting to see what they do in the offseason here. Lehner has to go, I've never seen a goalie who is as deflating to a teams confidence.

It feels like we are in good hands now with Botterill who preaches patience and development. And while it's the last thing fans want to hear after so many years of suck, it's our only real option. We do have some decent kids on the way and after this draft we could potentially have a very nice prospect pool. Just have to slowly move forward, exchanging bad pieces for upgrades as much as we can along the way.

 

[DapperCam]

Too many non-NHLers on the roster. Many should be retired or on an AHL team.

Many of the goals against are due to some face palm play by somebody who has no business in the NHL (looking at you Beaulieu).

Sabres need 6 more NHL-caliber forwards, and 3 more NHL-caliber defensemen. Botteril has his work cut out for him.

Luckily we actually have some top level talent, but the depth is just atrocious.

 

[Pez68]

They could start with learning how to assemble a team.

 

[glovesave_35]

For two, he's only played at least 60 games twice. So a tad disingenuous there.

That's true. But with so few quality players on the roster you'd like your star player on the ice for more than 60 games. It's not entirely disingenuous when the bare fact is true. Buffalo needs Eichel in the lineup every night all season to have a shot.

 

[Cotton]

Eichel needs 2 goals and 1 assist against Toronto to match his production from last year. Otherwise he's taken a step back this year...

He’ll probably get it, he’s been waiting to play Toronto, and plays well against them.

 

[AfroThunder396]

The guy has not hit 60 points yet in a season. Look at Edmonton with the leading scorer this year.

That's pretty disingenuous considering his rookie year he had 57 points, and the last two years he never played more than 61 games due to injury despite scoring at almost a point per game.

 

[Fear]

They have a very good one-two center punch, led by a future superstar. Reinhart has not quite lived up to his hype yet but he's still a quality top-6 winger. Ristolainen is very good on the offensive side of the puck.

That's the exhaustive list of nice things you can about the Sabres. The rest of the roster is full of warm bodies, AHL tweeners and guys who are in the twilight of their careers.
The defensive group is just depressing. Lehner is not a good starter.

They do have a nice forward prospect pool, and if they don't get Dahlin should still get a gamechanger. But the current roster has about 8 guys who should be the worst guy on a team that hopes to compete.

 

[LeafFever]

That's pretty disingenuous considering his rookie year he had 57 points, and the last two years he never played more than 61 games due to injury despite scoring at almost a point per game.

Yes I am aware. The point stands. That is the production and hockey is a team game.

 

[rent free]

Would Jack EiCHeL even go top 5 in a redraft?

1. McDavid
2. Marner
3. Barzal
4. Rantanen
5. Boeser

ofc he would. he'd either go 2/3.
1. mcdavid
2. barzal/eichel
3. "/"
4. provorov
5. boeser

 

[bottomofthefoodchain]

Matthews team is in the playoffs for the second season.

That’s nice. I think Matthews is a better player than Eichel, but as far as I know this thread is not about Matthews.

 

[My3Sons]

Eichel is fairly young to put the weight of the entire organization on him and expect great results. Just because the Sabres pay him a ton his reality is what it is. Look at TAYLOR Hall in NJ. He needed to mature to move the needle. NJ roster probably isn’t that much better than Buff. Difference is really that Shero held the players accountable after last season and dumped guys he saw as soft. He met with Hall and got a buy in. Hall at 26 was ready for that. At 21-22 probably not. Shero at least offered NJ an identity as a team and Hall’s buy in and culture where they will actually blame the players rather than just fire the coach helped give Hischier some relative stability. Buff has to hope the new regime will be given some leeway by the ownership and put a plan in place to hopefully make progress. NJ plan was nothing special it seems, Shero looking to replicate what he built in PIT. Buff should find a team it wants to emulate and follow that plan. NJ did that under Lamoriello 30 years ago when they openly admitted to wanting to follow the then successful MTL model and imported Lemaire and Robinson and others to structure and coach the on ice product. One key will be scouting and Buff will need to hit on some additional picks but as noted they have some good pieces on the way in Nylander and Mittlestadt. Probably some less heralded pieces as well. It would be nice to see Buff achieve some success and it isn’t Eichel holding them back as I see it.

 

[MikeK]

That loser mentality. Losing culture. They don't know what winning is anymore. Not just on the ice, but in the offices as well.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

That loser mentality. Losing culture. They don't know what winning is anymore. Not just on the ice, but in the offices as well.

Something something Colorado.

 

[razor8]

That's pretty disingenuous considering his rookie year he had 57 points, and the last two years he never played more than 61 games due to injury despite scoring at almost a point per game.

Only the points actually scored matter. He's not helping the team when not playing.

Eichel is a good player, just needs to be healthy to help his team go forward.

 

[nickdawg95]

GoatChel back at it again

 

[Scrantonicity 2]

GOATchel once again making the Leafs his bitch.

 

[BrendanGallagher11]

Overrated

 

[Oddbob]

I don't get why hockey fans who are dedicated enough to join a hockey forum are unable to realize that hockey is a team sport

To be fair though, don't you remember when Gretzky was winning Cups 1 VS 20?

 

[GloryDaze4877]

That’s nice. I think Matthews is a better player than Eichel, but as far as I know this thread is not about Matthews.

EVERY thread is about Matthews.

Nice win by the Sabres tonight over Matthews.

(pssssst, I told you, always about Matthews).

 

[REALTALK81]

I can see Eichel doing what MacKinnon is doing this year. People were writing him off until he gets it all going. I say Buffalo is a playoff team in 2 years. They will get a decent pick this year and will add FAs over the next couple of seasons. The QEW rivalry is no where near done. With that said, Go Leafs Go!

 

[SnizzNasty88]

EVERY thread is about Matthews.

Nice win by the Sabres tonight over Matthews.

(pssssst, I told you, always about Matthews).

Honestly, I’d rather you guys beat us this late in the season cause you’ll get pts to move further away from the Dahlin pick, still be not even close to the playoffs for the pathetic year in and year out Buffalo Sabres, all while the Leafs enjoy great hockey and playoff runs year after year

 

[Mulletman]

He’ll probably get it, he’s been waiting to play Toronto, and plays well against them.

He didn't get.

 

[saffronleaf]

Eichel won the game for his team tonight, gotta respect that. He's very talented. Agreed with the poster above -- he'll pull a MacKinnon next year and prove to be generational.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

Honestly, I’d rather you guys beat us this late in the season cause you’ll get pts to move further away from the Dahlin pick, still be not even close to the playoffs for the pathetic year in and year out Buffalo Sabres, all while the Leafs enjoy great hockey and playoff runs year after year

I’m not a Sabres fan, I just find it amusing that the all things revolve around Matthews and the Leafs in Toronto fan’s minds. And that’s not a very nice thing to say about Buffalo, particularly when your team hasn’t won anything since 1967 (or 4 years before the Sabres even existed).

Since 1970-71, when the Sabres came into the NHL, they have made the playoffs 28 times. If you include this year, TOR has also made the playoffs 28 times. Buffalo is mired in a 7 year span of not making the playoffs, the same number of years in a row Toronto missed the playoffs from 2005/06-2011/12. The Leafs made the playoffs the next year and then promptly committed one of the most epic Game 7 chokes in NHL history against the Bruins. They followed that up with three more years of missing the playoffs.

It continues to amaze me how pompous Toronto fans are of late after years of ineptitude as bad/worse than a team like Buffalo. At least Sabre’s fans can say that their team went to the Finals in 98/99 (losing in controversial fashion in Game 6).