Bruce Cassidy was candid when discussing the task in front of the Bruins on Sunday evening.
No longer the punching bag of the Atlantic Division, the Sabres stand as one of the top surprises in the NHL this season — and a big part of their resurgence lies in the play of their franchise center, Jack Eichel.
The North Chelmsford native will always be linked to the player picked just ahead of him in the 2015 NHL Draft in Connor McDavid. But in Cassidy’s eyes, the strategy when it comes to accounting for both star pivots doesn’t tend to differ too much.
“McDavid’s just fast. Eichel doesn’t look as fast, yet he’s going by everybody like [Mitch] Marner if that makes any sense," Cassidy explained pregame. "And you do have to make sure that you pick him up early, and if not, then you’ve got to find his wingers. When those guys find a little separation, you can’t have the whole team chase them.
“Then you’ve got to start saying, ‘Okay, where’s he going to move the puck to? … If it’s not going on net, it’s going to one of his guys going to the net, so let’s make sure we account for those guys, and I think when we’ve played McDavid well, we’ve done that. We’ve given him some shots from the outside, maybe cuts in, that’s kind of on the D, but at the end of the day if we took away, like [Leon] Draisaitl, [Milan] Lucic – whoever he’s playing with – then we could limit the damage. And that’s kind of the attack I think with Eichel."
Well, such strategy quickly fell to the wayside Sunday at TD Garden.
During a matchup in which Boston led in attempts (67-40), shots on goal (37-27) and overall scoring chances (32-16), pure talent overruled any positive statline in favor of the B’s.
In the middle of it was Eichel, with the BU product torching the B’s to the tune of two goals and two assists in Buffalo’s 4-2 road victory — a loss that dropped Boston to 3-5-0 in its last eight outings.
As a whole, Boston’s fourth line of Sean Kuraly, Noel Acciari and Chris Wagner managed to keep Eichel and his linemates — Jeff Skinner and Sam Reinhart — in check as their primary assignment. In the 8:48 5v5 TOI in which Eichel and Acciari were matched up at the pivot, Boston actually had the lead in shots for at 5-2.
A stick tap for the checking line, for sure. But whether it be Boston’s top pairing of Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk (two goals against) or the Bruins’ second line center in Colby Cave (0-for-5 in shots for, one goal against), Eichel picked apart the rest of the B’s roster in a standout showing.
Coupled on a night in which Boston’s top line notched one point and was split up midway through the second period — Cassidy did his best to sum up of his team’s fate following another frustrating loss.
“I didn’t think Krech’s line had anything early on,” Cassidy said. “Marchy’s under the weather so expected him to be a bit off, but it just didn’t look like was going to be a good matchup against Eichel. Turns out none of our match-ups were. His line clearly had their way, no matter who we put out there and it ended up being the difference in the game. So, that was the gist behind it, and at the end of the day their best players out played ours, from the goalies to the top line.”
Despite Cassidy’s warning of Eichel’s ability to get his wingers involved in a hurry, Boston was often left puck watching at times, with both of Eichel’s primary helpers coming off of feeds from behind the B’s net to Skinner out in front — with Cave facing the wrong way as the winger fired home the game winner against Tuukka Rask at 16:29 in the third.
Eichel to Skinner .. again ?#LetsGoBuffalo ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/kaWL6EXcNX
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) December 17, 2018
Jack Eichel makes it a 2-1 game. pic.twitter.com/iI8D236Je2
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) December 17, 2018
