Buffalo Sabres Preseason: Sam Reinhart Needs To Step Up
The preseason presses on forwards as the Buffalo Sabres will face off against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight. The last time these two teams met in the preseason, the Buffalo Sabres came out on top with a 6-4 victory. In that victory, there was a bit of a silent point producer in Sabres rookie Sam Reinhart. Since that game, his point production and overall success has not been as prominent as it should be.
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When the Buffalo Sabres came into the start of the preseason, all eyes were on the two young rookies Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel to be constant presences on the ice. Jack Eichel has been a dynamic point producer, and an overall difference maker while he is on the ice. Sam Reinhart, on the other hand, has been much more silent.
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Do not get me wrong here, Reinhart is still playing very well and producing points each night his is in the lineup, but his on-ice presence seems to go highly unnoticed. Even though I stand by having a silent point producer that opponents tend to forget about, Sam Reinhart needs to make his presence much more known while he is on the ice.
No matter which line he has been on, Sam Reinhart seems to be the guy following everyone else and still playing his own style of game (which is not a bad way for a rookie player to start out). The issue with this is that he is not developing his leadership skills and commanding the respect from his line mates that he should be.
For example, Ryan O’Reilly has been very vocal with Evander Kane and Tyler Ennis each night he has played, and the results have been very positive.
Jack Eichel even has been a much more vocal presence. No matter what players he has been with, he has been the orchestrator of his line’s success. Whether that means telling Zemgus Girgensons where to go, directing Matt Moulson to the front of the net, or knowing where Tyler Ennis is going to be, Jack Eichel has been a dominant voice and leader in the preseason so far.
That is what needs to happen with Sam Reinhart. He needs to put his foot on the gas and take some command of his line, especially tonight. In the first preseason game against the Leafs, Reinhart put up three assists, so he will most likely be on the Leafs’ watch list. He can no longer be the silent point producer in the preseason, he needs to step up and take control.
Should Reinhart make the change and challenge his line mates to keep up with him for once, the results would be exponentially better than what we have seen so far (and we’ve seen some good things from him). The reality is that “good” is not good enough when it comes to a player of his caliber.
Jack Eichel knows what is expected of him and has been competing to be better than that. Sam Reinhart knows he is better than what he is doing, so it is time that he pushed himself to be better.
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