Eichel Reinhart Skinner

[R_Dudley]

4 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

Do people think Reinhart is good defensively? 

Actually since I have been watching him closer, yes I do think he is better this year.

Its weird because he looks clumsy and awkward doing it. His does not employ a typical direct fore check style and that had me feeling like he doesn't finish checks. He appears slow and like he's avoiding but he does engage and get tangled up with the opposing player and although he's never knocking anyone over he also is rarely knocked over himself. Through that all he often comes away with the puck or is able to make a pass through the entanglement.  

Upon further review and watching his wall play and defensive zone play i have new appreciation for his defensive effectiveness.

Ugly but effective i'll call it.    

[North Buffalo]

Yeh that is what I see, he use to get knocked over and now it doesnt happen.  However he is pulling it off a long the wall it does work.  Now if he can improve his shot suppression even if in a Sam sort of way... that’ll be great!

[dudacek]

Going way back here, but I think I found my favourite comparison:

The elite talent able to enforce his will on the game as a playmaker, or as a scorer; the slippery, pesky sniper, absolutely deadly from the circles in; the subtly skilled thinker, making all the little plays that allow the other two to excel.

Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart?

Or Lafleur, Shutt, Lemaire?

[TrueBlueGED]

17 hours ago, dudacek said:

Right now pacing for the 4th best statistical season in Sabre history: 108 points

Skinner pacing for 58 goals and 84 points. Reinhart 77 points.

In this era! I wonder what his rank would be properly adjusted. 

Above the numbers, he's just freaking fun to watch. Every time he's on the ice I expect a goal. 

[WildCard]

5 minutes ago, TrueBlueGED said:

In this era! I wonder what his rank would be properly adjusted. 

Above the numbers, he's just freaking fun to watch. Every time he's on the ice I expect a goal. 

Who? Skinner?

[TrueBlueGED]

Just now, WildCard said:

Who? Skinner?

Have you gone mad? I'm not going to say something so nice about Skinner. I was talking about Eichel. 

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Have you gone mad? I'm not going to say something so nice about Skinner. I was talking about Eichel. 

One of these days you're gonna slip

[Thorner]

It's the best line in hockey right now. 

[TrueBlueGED]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

It's the best line in hockey right now. 

Has it been out-producing Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen? I'm not complaining if it's not, I'm okay with the second best line in all of hockey and best in the conference ?

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Has it been out-producing Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen? I'm not complaining if it's not, I'm okay with the second best line in all of hockey and best in the conference ?

I thought I read it's been the most productive line in the last couple weeks. I could be wrong. 

Edit - Or it was mentioned in a graphic during a recent Sabres game, I think.

Edited December 17, 2018 by Thorny

[TrueBlueGED]

3 minutes ago, Thorny said:

I thought I read it's been the most productive line in the last couple weeks. I could be wrong. 

Edit - Or it was mentioned in a graphic during a recent Sabres game, I think.

Yea I honestly don't know. But me being me, more production for a couple of weeks would mean more hottest line than best line. And I still wouldn't complain ❤️

11 minutes ago, WildCard said:

One of these days you're gonna slip

I'll close the Bunker before I'm nice to Skinner. 

[Thorner]

1 minute ago, TrueBlueGED said:

Yea I honestly don't know. But me being me, more production for a couple of weeks would mean more hottest line than best line. And I still wouldn't complain ❤️

I'll close the Bunker before I'm nice to Skinner. 

That's certainly fair. 

Did a quick search of just the last 5 games. The Avs trio has 29 points, the Sabres trio 25 points.

Those numbers are insane.

[dudacek]

13 minutes ago, Thorny said:

It's the best line in hockey right now. 

Pretty hard to argue against the Rocky Mountain Landslide right now [TM]. 

But it makes me think of a good argument for loading up the top line.

Marchand and Pastrnak without Bergeron got dominated by our three. Unless you’ve got sick depth, you can’t afford having your top line as a minus.

Edited December 17, 2018 by dudacek

[Thorner]

Just now, dudacek said:

Pretty hard to argue against the Rocky Mountain Landslide right now [TM]. 

But it makes me think of a good argument for loading up the line.

Marchand and Pastrnak without Bergeron got dominated by our three. Unless you’ve got sick depth, you can’t afford having your top line as a minus

True. They are producing at an even higher..SKINNER EICHEL REINHART IS THE BEST LINE IN HOCKEY. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

15 minutes ago, Thorny said:

It's the best line in hockey right now. 

It's in the top 3 or 4.  MacKinnon's group in Col, and Schiefele's guys in Wpg have to at or near the top.

 

[Thorner]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It's in the top 3 or 4.  MacKinnon's group in Col, and Schiefele's guys in Wpg have to at or near the top.

 

I was reading on twitter some analyst talking about how he thought more GMs would take Scheifele over Eichel than vice versa. 

I know we are biased here, but that can't be true can it? At the same age as Jack is now,  in his 4th NHL season, Scheifele had 49 points in 82 games. Jack has 45 already in 34. 

They are very close now, with Scheifele having more help in WInnipeg. Gotta think with upside considered, Eichel wins this going away. 

Edited December 17, 2018 by Thorny

[mjd1001]

20 hours ago, TheCerebral1 said:

Why break up something that is working.  This is the logic that baffles me.  If your top line is working (see Colorado), don't mess with it.  Eichel finally has a finisher to go with the wall distributor and down in the block ricochet scorer.  I guess, I just don't understand "don't fix what isn't broke", mentality here.  If you ask me, I'd rather see Sobotka with Okposo and a line of Sheary, Mittelstadt, Thompson working together.  A little bit of size and three guys that can skate reasonably well together.  Then you add ______-Sobotka-Okposo which makes sense to me as a third line.  Yes this doesn't really fit a great marriage to Pominville, but at this point it makes more sense to me. 

Here is the reason to break up something that is working.  The Eichel-Skinner line also worked when you had Pominville on it.  If Reinhart is truly playing better then see if he can give you a lift on a different line. Also, it would be better now to make a move like that to 'try out' some line combos and  see how things work.  The more time you have to try out different combos, the better the chance you have of finding something.  

[North Buffalo]

7 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Here is the reason to break up something that is working.  The Eichel-Skinner line also worked when you had Pominville on it.  If Reinhart is truly playing better then see if he can give you a lift on a different line. Also, it would be better now to make a move like that to 'try out' some line combos and  see how things work.  The more time you have to try out different combos, the better the chance you have of finding something.  

Pommer worked till he got tired, doesnt have the legs anymore and Sam is a better passer.

Pommer imo is better in the corners but cant get there fast enough.

[dudacek]

3 hours ago, Thorny said:

I was reading on twitter some analyst talking about how he thought more GMs would take Scheifele over Eichel than vice versa. 

I know we are biased here, but that can't be true can it? At the same age as Jack is now,  in his 4th NHL season, Scheifele had 49 points in 82 games. Jack has 45 already in 34. 

They are very close now, with Scheifele having more help in WInnipeg. Gotta think with upside considered, Eichel wins this going away. 

 

Winnipeg fans rightly think Schiefele doesn’t get enough attention. And they might be very close at the moment. But even not withstanding the age difference, Eichel is simply more skilled and more dynamic. Given the maturity he’s added to his game this year, I can’t see any GM picking really anyone other than Matthews, McDavid or MacKinnon over Jack.

 

2 hours ago, mjd1001 said:

Here is the reason to break up something that is working.  The Eichel-Skinner line also worked when you had Pominville on it.  If Reinhart is truly playing better then see if he can give you a lift on a different line. Also, it would be better now to make a move like that to 'try out' some line combos and  see how things work.  The more time you have to try out different combos, the better the chance you have of finding something.  

 

While I agree with the basic premise of this, there are two factors you have to consider:

1) The Pominville Eichel line worked, but it doesn’t work as well. The reason Jack is scoring goals now instead of just creating them is the fact that Sam can set him up in a way that Jason can’t. Neither of his goals happen last night with Pominville on his line. Jason just doesn’t make the plays that Sam did.

2) The Sabres have a better record since Sam moved onto the line than they did before they made the switch.

Edited December 18, 2018 by dudacek

[Thorner]

In a world where M's are outlawed, Eichel could be the best player in the NHL.

[Taro T]

38 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

Here is the reason to break up something that is working.  The Eichel-Skinner line also worked when you had Pominville on it.  If Reinhart is truly playing better then see if he can give you a lift on a different line. Also, it would be better now to make a move like that to 'try out' some line combos and  see how things work.  The more time you have to try out different combos, the better the chance you have of finding something.  

The Skinner-Eichel-Pominville line was not scoring at the clip that the Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart line was scoring at.  Additionally, Pominville was falling off the face of the earth when he came off that line.  His last 3 games saw him contribute an assist.  He has exactly 1 goal and 3 assists (1&1 comingin his brief stint on that line against his former team which got him reinstated on that line for those last 3 games) since that awesome 2-9 Otter game, that's total output of his since then.

The S-E-R line has been improving.  Rather than breaking them up, keep them together & see how much better they can get.

Really don't see where breaking the top line up ends up a net positive for Buffalo.  Eichel plays a MUCH MORE conservative game when Jason is his winger.  Why not maximize what he, Jeff, & Sam can be rather than maximize say Pominville, & enhance Sheary and Mittelstadt while downgrading the other 3?

IF there was reason to expect S-E-P could do whatit did their 1st 5 or so games, maybe could see making that switch.  Don't have any reason to believe that's what we'd get.  And Pominville's play last season reinforces the idea that he won't be the guy we saw the 1st 15 or so games again this season.

And taking the 3-3-6 Pominville has in 3 VERY emotionally charged games out of his stats, he's a very pedestrian 0-2-2 in his other last 6 games playing on that top line.   (Fully agree it isn't fully fair to pull those 3 special games out, but he has shown extremely little since that game.)

[Beer]

Continuing to roll vs. Florida

[Assquatch]

3 hours ago, Beer said:

Continuing to roll vs. Florida

This has not aged well.