Buffalo Sabres Will Be Fine Without Jack Eichel? Please.
The Buffalo Sabres lost their No.2 center to injury Wednesday, and are in serious jeopardy of being a bottom-10 team as a result.
By now, everyone who consider him or her self to be a Buffalo Sabres has heard the news: No. 2 center Jack Eichel suffered a high ankle sprain in practice Wednesday, and is out indefinitely.
Most people peg his timetable for a return at around 4-6 weeks, but ankle sprains are tricky – just ask Robin Lehner, who missed three months in 2015-16 due to such an injury and had to undergo surgery during the offseason to fully repair it.
Since there is a lot of speculation as to how long Eichel will be out right now, I will refrain from commenting on where I think the Buffalo Sabres will be once the 2016-17 regular season comes to an end. In other words, no talk of tanking from me . . . yet.
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Instead, I will say this much: all of that Polyanna talk of how the Sabres will be all right without Jack Eichel? It’s garbage. Ignore it, and knock it off if you are one of the ones saying it.
No one wants to be negative, which is why I am not going to start talking about how the entire season is doomed, the Sabres need to set their goals on getting a high pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, etc. If Eichel manages to come back after just four weeks, there is a good chance the team could finish the season out of the bottom 10, which is exactly the sort of team I thought they would be this season in the first place. (Never thought they were going to make the playoffs, though – sorry.)
But the reality is this: there is no one on Buffalo’s roster, or in the Sabres’ prospect pool, who is going to make up for Eichel’s absence. I appreciate the fact that Kyle Okposo, Sam Reinhart and maybe Evander Kane are going to score a lot of points for the Sabres this season – but they were expected to do so already, along with, and in many cases because of, Jack Eichel. Reinhart is not going to give the Sabres 140 points this season by himself, but he and Eichel may have combined to hit that number, so Eichel’s production will be missed. Sorely.
Meanwhile, Zemgus Girgensons, who is the likely choice to fill in as Buffalo’s no.2 center, could very well be in for a career year . . . which will still fall well short of what Eichel did just last season.
As for Buffalo’s prospects – please. As excited as I am to see what Derek Grant has to offer, he’s accumulated 3 points in 40 NHL games throughout his career. Do we really believe he is going to explode for 50+ in 2016-17? I don’t think the Sabres even have two prospects who can combine to give the team what Eichel produced last season, and since we all believe Eichel was set to eclipse that, you can’t tell me with a straight face that our prospects will “step up” and “fill the void.”
And don’t even tell me that Buffalo’s defense can pick up some of the slack, which is a load of drivel I read at some blog. You can’t find one Sabres fan who was satisfied with Buffalo’s blueline a week ago, so how is it we suddenly feel like our defensive corps is good enough to make up Eichel’s points? Has everyone lost their minds?
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There was a piece over at The Hockey Writers site in which the author literally wrote, “it could have been worse” for the Buffalo Sabres. Huh? Sure – if by “it could have been worse” you meant “good thing their practice facility didn’t explode, killing everyone inside.” Because outside of that, no, it could not have been worse. Losing your leading goal scorer, most marketable young player, and the face of your franchise for years to come just 8 minutes before practice ended, the day before your season opener? That is THE worst case scenario. I hate it, you hate it – we all hate what happened and wish Jack Eichel a speedy recovery. But let’s not try to make it sound like a team that finished 23rd in the NHL last season, and is starting this season in the bottom 10 of most of the power rankings I have read, has the depth to overcome Eichel’s absence. This team is going to miss his presence, and there’s no sugar-coating that painful truth.