BUFFALO, NY – The Buffalo Sabers will be without Captain Jack Eichel for what coach Ralph Krueger called “the foreseeable future” by once again giving a team in the middle of a nine-game skating.
The injury is not considered the end of the season, although on Saturday Krueger was unable to provide a fixed schedule on how long Eichel will miss.
“An injury of this nature needs more assessment and more time to understand it,” he said. “We just know it will take some time here from shorter to what you already mentioned [season-ending], but it ‘s somewhere in between. “
The update came after Eichel traveled to see a specialist over the past two days to determine the severity of the injury. Under NHL 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 Casey Cizikas checked him on the final boards in the final minutes of the 5-2 loss on Sundays to the New York Islanders. Eichel went to the bench, where he was seen making a sore throat as he flexed his neck.
The Sabers, who host Pittsburgh penguins on Saturday night, are in free fall. Buffalo (6-15-4) ranks last in the league in wins and a 0-7-2 skate, putting the team in danger of extending the playoff drought to the tenth season. of the NHL.
Eichel’s latest injury is independent of the previous two which have severely hampered his production this season.
He missed the first week of training camp after suffering an upper body injury during a pre-field training on ice at the Sabers practice facilities. A person with direct knowledge of what happened told The Associated Press on Saturday that Eichel suffered a rib injury during a workout with Matt Ellis, the team’s player development director.
Eichel also missed two games last month with an injury to his lower body.
A year after scoring the top 36 goals in a career in 68 games, this five times more than 20 goals has been limited to two goals and 16 assists in 21 games this year. He had not scored in 13 games before being injured.
Eichel’s scoring problems reflect that of the Sabers, who are ranked 30th in the league of 31 teams with an average of 2.24 goals per game, and the last to have scored 34 times in five against five situations.
His prolonged absence represents the last setback for a team that went from one crisis to another during the first two months of the season and provoked questions about Krueger’s job security in the two years of his job.
Buffalo’s schedule was paused for two weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak attacked the team in early February, during which seven players and Krueger were affected. The break caused the Sabers to face a restricted schedule in which they tightened in their last 46 games for 83 days.
Injuries have become a problem.
Starting goalkeeper Linus Ullmark still has weeks to recover from an injury to his lower body last month. And the Sabers also lack two key defenders, including Jake McCabe, who suffered a knee injury at the end of the season last month.
Rookie center Dylan Cozens is the latest to be abandoned. Krueger said Cozens will not play on Saturday and appears on a daily basis with an upper body injury.
Cozens was injured when he crashed into the boards after a dwarf check by Pittsburgh’s Zach Anton-Reese 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 as he hit the boards.
Cozens has three goals and two assists in 20 games and had been elevated to play on the Buffalo front line instead of Eichel.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.