Eichel ready for a ‘foreseeable future’

BUFFALO, NY (AP) – Buffalo Sabers will be without captain Jack Eichel for what coach Ralph Krueger called “the foreseeable future” by delivering yet another blow to a team in the midst of a nine-game skid.

The injury is not considered the end of the season, although Krueger on Saturday was unable to provide a fixed timetable for how much time Eichel will lose.

“An injury of this nature needs more evaluation and more time to understand it,” he said. “We just know that it will take some time, from the shortest to what you already mentioned (end of season), but it is somewhere in between.”

The update came after Eichel traveled to see a specialist in the past two days to determine the severity of the injury. According to the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol rules, Eichel is required to spend seven days in quarantine as a result of the trip, which means he will miss at least the next four Buffalo games.

He has already lost two games since he was checked on the final boards by Casey Cizikas in the final minutes of a 5-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday. Eichel went to the bench, where he was caught wincing in pain as he flexed his neck.

The Sabers, which host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night, are in free fall. Buffalo (6-15-4) is the last in the league in wins and a 0-7-2 slippage, putting the team at risk of extending its playoff drought to a tenth season equal to the NHL record.

Eichel’s last injury is separate from the previous two, which seriously damaged his production this season.

He missed the first week of the training camp after suffering an upper body injury during a pre-camp training on the ice at the Sabers training facility.

A person with direct knowledge of what happened told the Associated Press on Saturday that Eichel suffered a rib injury during training with Matt Ellis, the team’s director of player development.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity, as the nature and cause of the injury were not disclosed by the team.

Eichel also lost two games last month due to an injury to his lower body.

A year after scoring the best of his career, 36 goals in 68 games, the five-time top scorer with more than 20 goals was limited to two goals and 16 assists in 21 games this year. He didn’t score in 13 games before getting injured.

Eichel’s scoring problems reflect that of the Sabers, who are in 30th place in the league of 31 teams with an average of 2.24 goals per game, and last in having scored 34 times in five against five.

His prolonged absence represents the latest setback for a team that staggered from one crisis to another during the first two months of the season, and led to questions about Krueger’s job security. two years in your work.

Buffalo’s schedule was put on hold for two weeks after an outbreak of COVID-19 hit the team in early February, during which seven players and Krueger were affected. The break caused the Sabers to face a tight schedule, in which they are squeezing their 46 final games over 83 days.

Injuries have become a problem.

Initial goalkeeper Linus Ullmark is still weeks from recovering from an injury to his lower body last month. And the Sabers are also losing two key defenders, including Jake McCabe, who suffered a knee injury at the end of the season last month.

Newcomer Dylan Cozens is the last to be left out. Krueger said that Cozens will not play on Saturday and has an upper body injury every day.

Cozens was injured by hitting the boards after a check in the middle of the ice by Zach Anton-Reese from Pittsburgh early in the third period of a 5-2 loss to the Penguins On thursday. Cozens had just released the record and seemed to hit his head while hitting the boards.

Cozens has three goals and two assists in 20 games and was promoted to the front line of Buffalo in place of Eichel.

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