Sabres captain looking forward to a potentially compressed schedule
The Buffalo Sabres are currently on a COVID pause with nine players plus head coach Ralph Krueger presently in the NHL’s health and safety protocol. Due to this, the Sabres have had to reschedule numerous games so far.
Buffalo has not played in a game since January 31st vs. the New Jersey Devils. The Sabres were supposed to have a game this upcoming Thursday, but after adding two more players to the league’s health and safety protocol list, Buffalo is now looking at returning to play on Monday, February 15th, against the New York Islanders.
The Sabres have played in ten games so far this season. They sit in seventh place in the East Division. So Buffalo has 46 games remaining if they are able to play their entire 56 game season. The final day of the regular season is scheduled for May 8th.
With 46 games left that need to be played before May 8th, this will lead to a very compressed schedule for the Sabres for the season’s remainder. But according to Buffalo’s captain Jack Eichel, this can be seen as an opportunity to gain some rhythm and momentum.
Hearing Eichel having such a positive outlook on the remainder of the schedule is very welcoming to hear for the team and their fans. Buffalo has gotten off to a pretty slow start, only scoring 2.8 goals per game. Eichel has not been the goal-scoring machine that we have grown accustomed to seeing to start the season either.
The Sabres will need Eichel to start to play at his best if they want to make any sort of a push for the playoffs. With Buffalo playing around four games per week through the remainder of the season, the team will have to lean on their stars. With so many games in such a little amount of time, it gives the Sabres very little room for error.