The Sabres season is still young, but it may be time for some line changes
The Buffalo Sabres have opened up the season by dropping their first two games of the year, both against the Washington Capitals. Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger has sent out some interesting offensive line combinations in the first two games of the season. I know it is very early on in the year, but I feel like it may be time to switch these lines up going forward.
Coach Krueger has started the first two games with almost the same exact lines each game. Those lines have looked like this:
Hall – Eichel – Thompson
Oloffson – Staal – Reinhart
Reider – Eakin – Cozens
Skinner – Lazar/Sheahan – Sheahan/Lazar
After getting off to a 0-2-0 start, I don’t see why the Sabres shouldn’t look into some changes with these lines. There is at least a couple of things the team should be looking into changing before Buffalo takes the ice tomorrow night against the Flyers.
The biggest thing the team needs to change is where Jeff Skinner is placed. There is no reason why he should be a bottom-six forward. He has averaged under 15 minutes of ice time in both of the Sabres’ first two games. Skinner is someone who should be getting over 19 minutes a game on the ice. Having him on the ice for as little as he has been for the first two games is just a waste.
You would think the Sabres would be more willing to have him on the ice more due to Skinner’s massive contract. Skinner is currently in year two of his eight-year, $72 million contract. I am not sure why he wouldn’t be a lock as a top-six forward on your team. Especially with the addition of his former teammate in Eric Staal. It would make perfect sense to place him on the second line with his former Hurricane teammate, and we would probably see better production from him too.
Something else the Sabres should look into is the top line. Obviously, Taylor Hall and Jack Eichel aren’t going anywhere, but I think it is time to end the Tage Thompson experiment. I understand that he had a nice camp, and that shouldn’t go un-noticed. But having him jump to the top line is a bit much, especially when other players would fit so much better.
If it was up to me, I would add Sam Reinhart to the top line and send Thompson down to the third. We saw Coach Krueger change up the lines a bit midway through Friday night’s game against the Capitals, and one of the most noticeable changes he made was adding Reinhart to the top line with Hall and Eichel. This line immediately became the most effective offensive trio the Sabres had.
Eichel and Reinhart already have great chemistry together. Adding that familiarity between them to the top line that already has massive firepower with the Sabres captain and newly acquired star Taylor Hall would certainly have great production.
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In a normal-length season, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal to run some experimental lines to see if they can produce quality numbers. But in a shortened season, teams don’t have this luxury. I feel like it’s pretty obvious that there are a few changes that would improve the Sabres production, and hopefully Coach Krueger sees this too and re-evaluates his lines sooner rather than later.