Buffalo Sabres: Being Eliminated From World Cup Might Be Best Thing For Jack Eichel
Team North America might get eliminated tonight. Here is why this is the best case scenario for the Buffalo Sabres and their No.2 center.
Go, Russia, go!
Put your pitchforks and torches down, Buffalo Sabres fans – I really don’t mean that.
I’ve been watching the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, just as many of you have also been doing, and I am as enamored with Team North America as the rest of the world. The hockey fan inside of me, the guy who loves a set of sick hands, jaw-dropping dekes, and 8-goal games, wants to see North America make it all the way to the championship game.
Team North America making it to the semifinals and beyond would be great for hockey . . . but for the Buffalo Sabres? Not so much.
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See, whether or not I think the Sabres can make the playoffs this season is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the players on this team feel like they have a shot at playing in the postseason, and have set that as a goal. I would love to be proven wrong – I would take a four-and-out playoff series in 2017 over Team North America winning the 2016 World Cup of Hockey any day of the week – but in order for this team to earn a playoffs spot, it’s going to require all-hands-on-deck.
Specifically, it’s going to require (among other things) a sophomore season from Jack Eichel that surpasses what he did his rookie season, and based on what I’ve seen from him in the WCH, I’m eager to get him out of Toronto and into the Buffalo Sabres training camp, ASAP.
For starters, let’s state the obvious: there have been some pretty good players who have suffered injuries during World Cup play, and I’m in no hurry to see Eichel take a few more monster shots like the ones he suffered while playing Team Russia. Thanks but no thanks on a season-threatening injury!
Even if Eichel manages to avoid injury, however, his game has looked . . . hmmm . . . inconsistent, to say the least. Sure, he scored the first official goal of the tournament for Team North America . . . and then he spent a lot of time on the bench during the team’s loss to Russia. This was followed by a demotion to the team’s fourth line, which seems to have spurred him to the five-shot, one assist effort he enjoyed Wednesday in a 4-3 victory over Sweden.
Long story short, Eichel still needs to work on his game. Like, a lot. Hate to say it, but compared to Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Johhny Gaudreau and Auston Matthews, Eichel has looked . . . meh. I was sort of hoping Eichel would step up and use the tournament to fast-track him to a hot regular season; instead, he gets benched and demoted. If you’re not disappointed in those results, you need to take the fan-blinders off.
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With the Buffalo Sabres set to open training camp this weekend, Russia eliminating Team North America might be the best thing to happen to Jack Eichel this offseason. Getting on the ice with his teammates and working on the kinks in his game will benefit him more than playing in the World Cup of Hockey at this point, and keep him from suffering a setback in his confidence.