BUFFALO, N.Y. — Thursday night after the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues demolished the Sabres 5-1, Blues head coach Craig Berube had high praise for the Sabres lone goal scorer, Jack Eichel. Berube said "he's one of the best in the league for sure. He's hard to handle. He's every bit as hard to handle as Mckinnon and McDavid I think. That's my opinion, he's a great player."
Friday afternoon EIchel and his Sabres teammates were back on the practice ice at the KeyBank Center. Zemgus Girgensons was given a maintenance day. Defenseman Jake McCabe practiced with his teammates. Head coach Ralph Krueger said after the session that both were on track to play against the Canucks Saturday afternoon. McCabe missed the game, he didn't even make the trip to St. Louis with an upper body issue.
The Sabres have really been struggling, with just three wins in their last 11 games. In the standings they are now behind the teams that currently occupy the wild card spots, Carolina and Philadelphia. The Sabres have 45 points, seven behind the Hurricanes and Flyers. The Sabres are also behind the Panthers, Columbus and New York Rangers.
The team is well aware that the teams above them in the standings continue to win. Kyle Okposo said "We have to take care of business ourselves or we're not going to be in the race."
While Jack Eichel has done his part to keep the Sabres in the race the team continues to lack secondary scoring. At practice Friday Jimmy Vesey was on a line with Sam Reinhart and Eichel. Vesey said "I think its time, or an opportunity to step up. We've been looking for scoring and it can't keep coming from the same guys."
The Sabres are home Saturday afternoon against Vancouver and at Detroit Sunday evening.