Jack Eichel will not play for the Buffalo Sabres at the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, MSG-B, NHL.TV) because of an upper-body injury.
Carter Hart #79 of the Philadelphia Flyers and Jack Eichel #9 of the Buffalo Sabres
The center missed two games with a lower-body injury Feb. 25 and 27. His 18 points lead the Sabres but he has scored two goals in 21 games, the slowest start in his six-season NHL career.
“All I can tell you is he’s definitely not playing tonight and he’s being evaluated and we will inform you when we have more,” Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said.
The Sabres (6-14-3) have been outscored 28-11 over seven straight losses (0-6-1). Their .326 points percentage is last in the NHL.
Buffalo is 2-10-1 since Feb. 15, when it returned after having six games postponed due to NHL COVID-19 protocols.
“It doesn’t eat away at the morale because we focus on who is here, who’s healthy, what our lineup is and how we can get the best game out of this group,” Krueger said. “So, it’s a simple gameday process that happens here and the guys are all in. We had an excellent meeting this morning, very engaged group. We’re trying to find details that will make a difference for us to be consistent again in our game. We’re just not allowing those patterns into our minds.
“I mean, this is all about attitude right now. Since we’ve come back from COVID, we’ve had a lot of adversity to deal with. But we’re dealing with it in the same way we have with good times is we continue to push for growth, we continue to push for an attitude that moves us forward, and we continue to push for working on these solutions together as a group.”
With Eichel out, Dylan Cozens will play center for the first time this season in between forwards Taylor Hall and Sam Reinhart.
“Jack Eichel is not playing and we need to think about the options here today to give us the best chance to compete,” Krueger said. ” … We like the look of the synergy that Taylor Hall and Dylan Cozens have been having. They seem to be finding each other really well. I find that Sam also has the potential to take draws and play some center for us if necessary. So, we’ll see how it goes but at times like this we need to be flexible, and Dylan’s just such a smart player that we feel he’ll be able to do that.”
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