Buffalo Sabres Jack Eichel Impresses In WCH Debut
The Buffalo Sabres front office has to be happy with what it saw from two of its young, core players Sunday night in Toronto.
In case you forgot, the Buffalo Sabres have four players competing in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. While I enjoy watching Ryan O’Reilly play and have nothing against Dmitry Kulikov . . . yet . . . the two players I am the most interested in watching during the tournament are Jack Eichel and Rasmus Ristolainen.
How fortunate for me, then, that Eichel and Risto faced each other in their team’s opening game of the WCH. Even better, how lucky am I that I actually managed to watch Team North America rout Finland 4-1, despite the fact that the game took place during my kids’ bedtime? Because I never get to do ANTHING when it’s my kids’ bedtime!
The best part, of course, was watching Eichel (and Ristolainen, to an extent) play well enough that you cannot help but be excited if you are a Buffalo Sabres fan.
Eichel actually got North America on the board first, showing some great awareness, quick reflexes and strong hands when he stuffed an Auston Matthews rebound through Pekka Rinne’s five-hole.
Sabres fans had to love the fact that Jack scored his team’s first goal of the tournament, but bragging rights to something like that won’t win the Sabres much. However, if Eichel spends the 2016-17 season getting back on defense and creating turnovers like he did against Finland, well that just might! All in all, Eichel had a great game. He spent most of the evening playing alongside Detroit’s Dylan Larkin and Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, and their speed caused all sorts of havoc for Finland. Whether or not they can continue to get good scoring chances against Russia tonight remains to be seen, but that trio is definitely showcasing a dangerous combination of skill and chemistry.
Obviously, it was not just Eichel’s line that was fun to watch (unless you played or rooted for Finland). If you watched even 60 seconds of the game, it was clear that the young kids representing North America were the far better team. Finland is going to match up much better against the rest of the World Cup field, but the sheer speed of team North America was too much for the Finns. Honestly, Finland is lucky the score was only 4-1; North America had one goal waved off due to goaltender interference, and another goal erased when an alert Finnish defenseman swept the puck out of the net before it finished crossing the red line. This game could have been 7 or 8 to 1, easy.
The fact that Finland was overwhelmed early and often didn’t help Ristolainen’s cause. Also not helping? The time he wound up giving away the puck in his own zone, which led to one of North America’s four goals. Of course, it took an acrobatic redirection by Gaudreau to get that puck past Rinne, but turnovers are bad, no matter how you slice it. Still, Ristolainen finished the game -1, with 4 hits and 2 blocked shots – not terrible for a game that favored offense. I look for him to have more of a positive impact when Finland faces Sweden on Tuesday.
Next: Sabres Off To Disappointing Start In Prospects Challenge
The Buffalo Sabres may very well have two players that wind up playing in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey championship game. Betting on Ryan O’Reilly and Team Canada is the wise choice, but you would be a fool to count out Jack Eichel and Team North America. As for Rasmus Ristolainen, I think both he and Team Finland will fare better as the tournament progresses . . . unless they run into North America again, that is!