Buffalo Sabres Players: Jack Eichel Needs To Shoot More

Jack Eichel finds himself centering one of the hottest lines in the NHL right now, but the line could be that much more dangerous if he shot the puck more.

I cannot be the only Buffalo Sabres fan thinking something like this. When coach Phil Housley broke up the original top line of Eichel-Reinhart-Sheary, I was skeptical because he was taking apart the one line that was producing. Little did the rest of Sabres fans know that this move would be a stroke of genius as Eichel was put between struggling forwards Jason Pominville and Jeff Skinner.

Since their union, this line has been one of the hottest in the NHL besides the Colorado Avalanche line of Nathan MacKinnon– Gabriel Landeskog–Mikko Rantanen. When you compare these two lines, there are a couple similarities that stand out, but one stands out above the rest for me. Nathan MacKinnon makes the line elite. He is the player that can and will do everything that his other line mates aren’t doing, and that mostly includes scoring goals. While MacKinnon has made a name for himself as a complete player, Jack Eichel seems to be focussed on his playmaking ability, but I think he can be much more.

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Jack Eichel has 4 goals and 13 assists for a total of 17 points in 15 games. While that production is something that is expected of a player of his caliber, I find myself wanting more out of him.

In his younger years before the NHL draft, Eichel was being hailed as an eventual elite offensive forward with 40+ goal potential without even trying. I remember hearing comparisons drawn to the scoring ability of Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, and when you study the way he shoots the puck, it is obvious why.

Eichel has put his lethal goal scoring skills on display for Buffalo Sabres fans for the past couple of years, and he recently did it again with his goal against the Calgary Flames. He shows his ability to keep the puck on his stick and create a scoring chance, then he can shoot the puck to a pinpointed location and beat a goaltender in a spot he didn’t think was open.

I will never forget the first time that I saw this skill put on display. My jaw practically went through the floor with the perfection of the shot. I’m talking about his second career goal when he made Vezina trophy finalist Sergei Bobrovsky look like a deflated balloon. Here’s just a quick reminder of what that goal looked like:

That wasn’t the last time that Eichel would put on a shooting display for the fans, but it makes me wonder why he isn’t doing it nearly as much these days.

Sure Eichel now has Jeff Skinner to feed goals to left and right, and Pominville to tap in goals in front of the net, but the fact still remains that he has the best shot of the three (though Skinner has an elite release, don’t get me wrong there). While Eichel can spend his time feeding pucks to the other two and racking up assists, it would do him, and the team much better if he decided to shoot the puck and score more.

I’ve only seen this skill in a handful of players in the modern NHL, but it is one that separates the best offensive players from the rest of the league. This is the ability to just “decide” to score; that one player who can just will his way to the net and fire the puck in past a helpless goaltender. The players that do it the best in today’s NHL are Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Auston Matthews, and Alex Ovechkin, but I have seen shades of this ability come out in Eichel’s game from time to time.

The most notable of these instances was when he scored his first career hat trick against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Buffalo Sabres were trailing for pretty much the entirety of that game, when Jack Eichel suddenly stepped up and decided he was going to tie the game. It was brilliant and powerful to watch… so let’s watch it again:

This guy walked past 4 players and made goaltender Cam Ward look like a rag doll to score his third goal of that game. It was a magnificent display of raw talent and scoring touch. I want more of it. I need to see more of it, and I can’t imagine I am the only Buffalo Sabres fan who feels that way.

How do other fans feel about the offensive play of Jack Eichel? Do you agree he should shoot more, or should he pave his way into the company of the elite playmakers in the League?