The Sabres are one of the best teams in the league, and Jack Eichel still doesn’t get any love

[Mattilaus]

Eichel is fine, please no more threads, need less threads to bump after every loss. K thx.

 

[MayDay]

I don't think Buffalo is this good at all. Not yet.

Eichel, it was only a matter of time as a top 2 pick that he would begin to dominate. I still dream he hates Buffalo and comes to the Bruins.

If he hated Buffalo and wanted to leave, why did he sign a max term contract extension last summer?

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

If he hated Buffalo and wanted to leave, why did he sign a max term contract extension last summer?

Don't take it personally. I said I dream not that he will.

 

[MayDay]

Don't take it personally. I said I dream not that he will.

Oh I gotcha.

A lot of Buffalo fans have long had the same fantasy about Buffalo native Patrick Kane “coming home.”

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Alexandre Daigle commenting on #2 selection Chris Pronger, if I’m not mistaken.

 

[sabrebuild]

Because his face makes me hate him

I think we can agree, neither of our star players are the Beyoncé’s.

The backup singers are better looking, but our divas look like character actors in a Wes Anderson movie.

 

[Sabresfansince1980]

They just got dumped on by the upper echelon of hockey teams. Give these threads a rest. A good team, trending upwards. Nothing special, at all, not yet.

If we want to stop the hyperbole we could also put an end to the characterization that the Sabres were "dumped on" by losing three 1-goal games to the top three teams in the league.

Too many silly factors go into when a player gets attention and how good/bad it is. Eichel is hitting his prime and staying healthy just when the team is climbing out of the garbage heap. He's not in the best 3 or 4 Cs, but one of the top 10. Nothing to hype up or criticize...a player any team would want. Whether he ever becomes more and/or wins a Cup depends on a lot more than him.

 

[sabremike]

They just got dumped on by the upper echelon of hockey teams. Give these threads a rest. A good team, trending upwards. Nothing special, at all, not yet.

Losing 3 one goal games with 2 on the road, one in OT and 2 back to back= Dumped on

 

[Tage2Tuch]

TheJackAttack is going to ask you out any minute now.

Don’t swing that way, but I laughed. Good one. I hit like.

Come back to us when he leads his team to the playoffs.

Because a guy who plays 1/3rd of an entire game determines whether you make the playoffs. This isn’t the NBA where star players decide if you make it or not. In hockey your star sits out 2/3rds of the game, I bet you think Matthews lead the leafs to the playoffs too, right? He was an integral part of that run, don’t get me wrong with the 69 pts he put up but addding Mitch Marner William Nylander and most importantly Freddy Andersen who plays the entire game was the reason the leafs managed to squeak in that year. It’s why the best player in the game last year who got 107 pts couldn’t drag his team there. And buffalo looks like they could make it this year anyway, and oh look they changed the goaltending and defense up a bit....showing there are more important aspects then just one guy leading a team there. Thats not how you grade players or barkov wouldn’t be a consensus better player then guy after guy after guy. I know he’s made it once (I believe he was there?) this sport is a team game.

 

[Prospero]

I guess most fans wouldn't go fishing for respect after losing four straight. Especially after being the worst team in the NHL since 2013.

The Sabres were below .500 from January 2013 till October 2018.

That's 70 straight months of sub .500 hockey.​

So early in their first season above .500, I'd be worried about a jinx.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

He's elite, future top 10 C in the league. His play away from the puck could get better along with his compete level at all times but other than that, he's got an elite skillset and physical tools.

And that part you said needs to improve has surprised me this year, it’s the part of his game that’s actually improved the most he’s gone from being -20 to plus nine and has even killed the odd penalty (was a double Minor but still) and made little plays in the neutral zone, that you wouldn’t notice unless you were looking for it and he’s done THAT part the last two years.

However there’s definitely been a change in his game defensively. It seems since making him captain it’s made him accountable and has realized more the ever he has to play great in both ends. The way he skates with his stride makes it appear at times like “he’s floating” or not back-checking but it’s because of a unique skating style, his ability to make plays at high speed have helped his backchecking as well. He’s not a great defensive player but he’s far from being a bad one. He gets caught a lot because of the game he plays but he also had a very weak defense before. I think this aspect of his game it maybe under appreciated but there’s stilll a lot more he needs to add to be considered among the best.

Coming up from the guy with the closeup of Matthews’ smugly mug as his avatar? Rich.

People write lol a lot I guess but I actually laughed out loud here. I had this exact thought when I saw this comment when looking at his av. It’s the smuggest look I’ve seen from him.

I don’t know. He’s boring to watch. No personality. No flair.

I can’t tell if serious? Maybe you saw a game of the sabres where he didn’t play particularly noteworthy and are judging it based on a small sample size? I can’t see any other explanation because he’s a lot of things, but that’s maybe the least accurate thing I’ve ever seen said about him, weird. He’s actually one of the only things that made buffalo watchable the last few years, and before when he was a liability defensively you either had to see because it was a car-wreck or a great play lol. Thankfully as I quoted the guy above that’s improved but still a ways to go.

Preferences are subjective of course but there are a lot of players out there who are great but can be boring to watch. I just think he’d be at the end of that list more-so then at the top. But that’s me of course so hardly surprising.

 

[slimbob8]

People are starting to realize how good Eichel is, please stop with the "he gets no love" narrative. Injuries the last 2 years prevented him from really breaking out.

Ya really. I think it's pretty much widely accepted that he's an elite franchise level C.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

Eichel is amazing, but the Sabres are a very average team, getting elite goaltending currently, and a ton of bounces going their way. They've had a nice month or so of playing teams having bad games, backup goalies, and a winning a ton of 1 goal games that easily could go the other way.

They finally played a real team in the Predators and sure the score wasn't insane, but if you watched, you knew the Sabres had zero chance all game.

Back to Eichel, the majority of games I watch, I feel bad for him not having much talent around him to work with. Reminds me a ton of McDavid. If he had a Rantanen type player complimenting him, we would be talking about him and whoever as the best duo in the league.

 

[Mattilaus]

I guess most fans wouldn't go fishing for respect after losing four straight. Especially after being the worst team in the NHL since 2013.

The Sabres were below .500 from January 2013 till October 2018.

That's 70 straight months of sub .500 hockey.​

So early in their first season above .500, I'd be worried about a jinx.

OP is a Ducks fan, not a Sabres fan.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

I’ll post what I think now, he’s getting a lot more attention. Before when I made threads a year ago was the last one I think, I would just be curious as to why this happpened but that’s been already explained in here. I don’t feel inclined to make an threads like this even though people will still associate me to a thread like this like the guy did in the first page.

He’s getting lots of recognition now, could t be more? Sure but for a player who is a high assist guy (highlights love GOOOOALS) I think with a rival like Toronto he will get plenty of coverage since the leafs do.

Hockey central at noon has been giving him lots of love lately.

I don’t see guys like Giroux get any (well he did before he had his drop off but since then he gets none) so things like this happen and Philly is a big market.

I was thinking he was going to be kind of like a parise (as far as recognition) as early as last year but his cieling is way higher so it will come around. As for being overshadowed, yeah stat watchers or highlight people may see skinner or look at the change with dahlin and that may get mentioned a lot but it should. It’s never just one guy when a team does well. He’s getting a lot of recognition now and even on HF he’s being ranked somewhat fairly so it’s all good in my books.

 

[StarvinArvyn33]

He's a great young player ....

Buffalo has a great young team....

But they have accomplished nothing...

It's a long road to the top, they're still in 1st gear.

Love watching them and Toronto hell even MTL w drouin and domi.


The league is back on an upswingof offensive talent and it's awesome

 

[sabremike]

Eichel is amazing, but the Sabres are a very average team, getting elite goaltending currently, and a ton of bounces going their way. They've had a nice month or so of playing teams having bad games, backup goalies, and a winning a ton of 1 goal games that easily could go the other way.

They finally played a real team in the Predators and sure the score wasn't insane, but if you watched, you knew the Sabres had zero chance all game.

They played a real team last night (a team you could make a strong argument is better than the Preds) and played so well they probably deserved to win the game.

 

[Tage2Tuch]

Oh come on Eichel's face always looks like a billionaire accidentally walked into a homeless shelter and smelled someones fart.

This just like your perception above about him being in a tier below the tier of guys below mcdavid are your own. Not everyone agrees. Just like your “was called better then Matthews” and for the love of all things holy I’m not going there or starting that but I saw the exact opposite happen, ...(and last night I said Matthews is better then Eichel in the leaf forum) and to me Matthews has a face that looks like deserves to be punched at times, it comes from who you root for, but again your own perception is your own reality ....when it comes to this stuff I guess. Either way your post was somewhat fair, I’m not expecting everyone to agree.

 

[Beezeral]

Playing a ton of one goal games doesn’t make you a great team. It makes you a team that plays a ton of one goal games and leaves a ton up to chance. As for eichel, he’s had a great first 29 games, but he’s always been recognized as one of the young stars in the league.

 

[Isaac Nootin]

More like he's played like one this season, which is true.

McDavid
Crosby
Malkin
Mackinnon
Matthews
Bergeron
Barkov
Tavares
Eichel
Point

Kuznetsov and especially Scheiffele need to be in there. Tavares and Point probably come out for now, although maybe not Point, he's been incredible.

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

They played a real team last night (a team you could make a strong argument is better than the Preds) and played so well they probably deserved to win the game.

I one million percent disagree. The Leafs are a pretty bad defensive team and the Sabres still did not look like much of an offensive threat. The Leafs do have holy crap game-breaking offensive players obviously. Eichel for the majority of the game was trying to do it all himself.

The Leafs are slightly ahead of the Sabres overall, but they as well are getting elite goaltending that isn't likely to last.

The Preds are a real wagon.

 

[sabremike]

I one million percent disagree. The Leafs are a pretty bad defensive team and the Sabres still did not look like much of an offensive threat. The Leafs do have holy crap game-breaking offensive players obviously. Eichel for the majority of the game was trying to do it all himself.

The Leafs are slightly ahead of the Sabres overall, but they as well are getting elite goaltending that isn't likely to last.

The Preds are a real wagon.

Oh come on. I hate the Leafs as much as anyone but if you don't think they are an excellent team you're being completely daft. And the numbers suggest the "Leafs have no defense" narrative isn't all it's cracked up to be.

 

[Luminiferous]

If we want to stop the hyperbole we could also put an end to the characterization that the Sabres were "dumped on" by losing three 1-goal games to the top three teams in the league.

Too many silly factors go into when a player gets attention and how good/bad it is. Eichel is hitting his prime and staying healthy just when the team is climbing out of the garbage heap. He's not in the best 3 or 4 Cs, but one of the top 10. Nothing to hype up or criticize...a player any team would want. Whether he ever becomes more and/or wins a Cup depends on a lot more than him.

Dumped on, as in they won no recent games, against, imo, better teams. The talk around here, would lead you to believe they could have at least dismantled the shitty Leafs or Preds. I don't care about how they lost the games. If you feel good about how Buffalo played, great. They looked pretty bad as a team. Can't take anything away from Eichel tho, guy is great.

 

[Bedards Dad]

When either of the sabres or leafs win a round they will get credit they deserve, until then hf wont acknowledge them. After that hf will call them chokers till they go a bit further and further. How its works

Leafs fans know how good we are, I dont need your credit.


As for Eichel, he is really good, like Barkov good, and I think he will start getting the credit soon, but his bad team, apparent horrible personality and injuries have held back his league wide recognition.

 

[Drytoast]

He's a great young player ....

Buffalo has a great young team....

But they have accomplished nothing...

It's a long road to the top, they're still in 1st gear.

Love watching them and Toronto hell even MTL w drouin and domi.


The league is back on an upswingof offensive talent and it's awesome

And yet the one game I'm looking forward to watching the most is the next game Washington plays Las Vegas...

And that is not until next year.