Red-hot Eichel fueling Sabres out west

Over the past few seasons, we’ve seen Jack Eichel’s determination to win. It’s evident in the way he speaks and reacts after games, and his actions on the ice only solidify his words.

While the team continues to struggle, the Sabres’ generational talent is focused on improving. His four-point effort against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night kept his impressive streak going.

“It’s big. We come in on a back-to-back against a team that is probably energized, they had a few days [off], we had an emotional win [over Calgary] last night, so we want to come and play a good road first and obviously to get a power play goal early, to get yourself feeling good, it’s important.” – Eichel

Eichel recorded his first-career hat trick on December 15th, and since then, he is tied for the NHL lead in points (25) with Nathan MacKinnon.

In the 16 games since then, Eichel has scored 12 goals and added 13 assists for 25 points, putting him over a point-per-game pace.

Eichel has 49 points in 48 games, and is on pace to set new career-highs in goals, assists and points, all while the team is still rebuilding. Imagine what he’d be able to do with a little more help.

Eichel has also taken responsibility for the team’s performance on multiple occasions, and has a great amount of determination to win.

This is why he’s un-tradeable, and part of the reason he’ll likely earn the captaincy in the near future.

If you’re interested in the forever ongoing comparison of Eichel and Connor McDavid, the Sabres forward is quickly catching up this season.

McDavid has 53 points in 47 games, and Eichel is now just four behind him with one more game played.

It’ll be interesting to see if Jack can maintain this pace and finish with over 82 points on the year.

General manager Jason Botterill has his work cut out for him as the Trade Deadline is a few weeks away. If he can help bring in some players to aid this rebuild, the Sabres could have some big years ahead of them, with Eichel leading the way.