Brawndo

No

SAMSON

SHEAHAN

Samson

That was quick

Jack will be seeing specialists once the team gets back to Buffalo and a decision will be made about his timeline for return

From This Week’s 31 Thoughts What a cursed year for Jack Eichel and the Buffalo Sabres. All we know for certain as I write this is the captain will not play Tuesday night against Philadelphia. Since Monday morning, there’ve been rumours he could be out awhile. It appears as if both he and the Sabres are going to take a few days to gather all information and consider all options. They’re on the road. It might be better to wait until the team gets back after this game. It’s the right and responsible thing to do; I hope the rumours are wrong. Eichel showed up to camp injured from something that occurred during off-season training. He hurt his leg on Feb. 23 when getting tangled with Nico Hischier. He was clearly in pain on Sunday after a crosscheck from Casey Cizikas during a loss to the Islanders. It’s a microcosm for the team’s season — nothing can stay on track. Head coach Ralph Krueger did what he does — put the most positive spin on things — saying he’s “looking forward to seeing guys step up to the plate for the minutes that Jack is going to be missing here.” Dylan Cozens, a true bright spot, gets promoted to first-line centre between Taylor Hall and Sam Reinhart. This comes at a huge, huge time for the Sabres. GM Kevyn Adams did not mince words during his media availability last Friday, saying he was “angry.” “I’ve been empowered by (ownership) to fix this, and that's what I'm going to do,” he added. Other teams describe them as “wide open” for business, willing to listen on anything and everything. There’s a difference between “listening” and “doing,” of course — just because they’re asked about someone doesn’t mean that person needs to go to Amazon for luggage deals. Adams is working to determine the market value of his players, and from there will come the decisions. It’s hard to say how the Eichel news effects all of this, but one theory about what Buffalo is considering long-term is one plan with the captain, and one without him. Either way, the decisions involved are critical. I don’t believe for a second Adams is incapable, but I don’t think it would be a bad idea for the Sabres to add an experienced voice or two to this mix. Adams played in Carolina under Jim Rutherford. Could Rutherford be a hire here, even if the title was special assistant to the GM or consultant for the rest of 2020-21? The moves the Sabres are about to make will have long-term ramifications. Never hurts to have another opinion. 10. Looking at goaltending: Carolina, Colorado (but at more of a depth level — I think they were looking at Buffalo’s Jonas Johansson) and possibly Washington. Must have been great for the Capitals to see Ilya Samsonov with a 36-save win over Philadelphia on Sunday; he’s had a lengthy recovery from COVID and it created some uncertainty. Vitek Vanecek’s played well and really battled for them, earning respect from his teammates and the organization, but Samsonov’s performance will determine how the Capitals proceed at this position.

At this point, it’s hard to separate Adams from the Pegulas. With them giving Adams His Dream Job and with rumors of constant meddling it feels like a You will do what you are told situation.

No inside info on this, just a gut feeling

The other side of this was he chose to sign an eight year extension with a dysfunctional franchise, knowing there was an inherent risk that it would not get better. It’s a similar situation to the Sabres allowing Hasek to pick his new team and dictate what the return would be. My Prediction is He gets moved this summer and Adams gets a baptism by fire on the return.

They nuked the entire hockey Ops department and brought in Adams GM with no front office experience, No AGMs, No expansion of the analytics department, a Director of Scouting with two years experience as a scout, An Asst Director of Scouting who is also running the Analytics Department. A scouting department less than 10. Kept a HC, who is probably acting in the role of AGM, Two Asst Coaches from a team that kind of sucked last year. Brought in Rieder and Eakin for the PK, which was successful in improving from 31st to 20th, but has brought about the worse line in the NHL, which for some reason doesn’t get broken up This all under an ownership group who knows more than the average fan

The answer is not to remove the good players from the team so they can be successful elsewhere.

A better question is What does the organization need to do make sure it’s Franchise Center doesn’t want to leave in the next 5 years?

Colin Miller getting extra work with The Taxi Squad

Johansson in net

Cozens 1C

He has been.