Published by hockeybuzz.com, 3-4-2019
Had we been shown the scheduled date of tonight's matchup between the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres four years ago, we' have perceived it in a different light. Two franchise centers were atop the 2015 NHL Draft that season and it set off a mad scramble between two teams to finish in last place to secure at least one of them as lottery system guaranteed that the last place team could drop no further than one spot.
The Sabres did finish in last place but were jumped by the Oilers via the draft lottery. Edmonton selected a transformative player in Connor McDavid with the first pick in the draft while Buffalo walked away with the "consolation prize" of franchise center Jack Eichel, who was taken second-overall. The two players will be forever linked far beyond the "McEichel" moniker placed upon that draft and are still linked in that both their organizations have floundered since selecting them.
McDavid and Eichel have lived up to their hype, although the latter has taken a little longer to find his groove and credit to Edmonton for making it to the playoffs and coming to within one win of the conference finals. However, that playoff run has been the only success either franchise has tasted since the famous "McEichel" draft. The Oilers continue to be the Oilers despite McDavid and and additional three consecutive first overall picks, a third-overall, fourth-overall, seventh overall and 10th overall in the last eight years. They are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons.
The Sabres had some tough luck in the draft lottery losing out in 2014 (Sam Reinhart second-overall) and 2015 (Eichel) but after a surprising last place finish in 2017-18 won the lottery and selected defenseman Rasmus Dahlin with the first pick in 2018. They've added three eighth-overall picks to that haul over the past six years but are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season and should the Carolina Hurricanes continue their surge to the playoffs, the Sabres will be left with the longest current playoff drought in the NHL.
After four years of McDavid and Eichel, both franchises should have been well along in the respective builds, but both have messed them up. We in Sabreland, unfortunately, have had a front row seat to the debacle unfolding in front of us. It began with a general manager emptying his cupboard to finish last then trying to rush a rebuild and throwing around draft picks for "young-vets." When it came time to rebuild around Eichel, the pieces he acquired didn't mesh, the supporting cast wasn't there and the team he put together was ill-equipped to play the style of play the coach wanted. After two years the coach and GM were fired and after three years, the young-vets acquired, along with the capital used to get them were all gone and the new GM had to do it all over again.
That said, both teams have some very promising pieces and if the front offices can ever get it together, they could turn into legit playoff teams. In addition to McDavid the Oilers have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1st-overall, 2011,) Oskar Klefbom (19th-overall, 2011) and the league's four-leading goal scorer, Leon Draisatl, who was drafted one pick after the Sabres selected Reinhart. The Sabres have Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin and for the rest of the season, at least, forward Jeff Skinner, whom Buffalo GM Jason Botterill traded for over the summer.
In looking forward from 2015, one would have thought that these two teams would be much farther along than 11th place in their respective conferences, but they're not. Although neither team is mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, the Sabres are nine points out of the second wild card spot in the East while the Oilers are eight points out in the West. Any glimmer of hope for either of these teams to make the playoffs could effectively be stamped out with a regulation loss tonight so at least they have something to play for other than pride. As of today, Moneypuck.com has the Oilers with a 4.46% chance of making the playoffs and the Sabres at 2.24%.
The two teams met in January at Edmonton and the Oilers steamrolled Buffalo 7-2 in a game that may have been even uglier than the final score would indicate. The Sabres had dropped out of a wild card spot in December but were still within reach at four points out, but the Oilers game ended a brutal three game stretch where they lost two in a row to conference foes before getting smoked by Edmonton, a team that was two points out of a wild card spot in the West at the time.
Eichel and the Sabres have fared rather well vs. McDavid and the Oilers since the two were drafted in 2015. The teams have met seven times since with both players missing one game each in the series. Buffalo is 4-2-1 vs. Edmonton in the "McEichel" era.
Individually, McDavid hit the scoresheet with a goal and an assist in the January meeting while Eichel was held off of the scoresheet. The totals between the two players in their careers vs. each other:
Eichel--6 games, 3 goals, 4 assists
McDavid--6 games, 3 goals, 3 assists
*****
From those at the rink for today's morning skate, here are Buffalo's lines and pairings:
Skinner-Eichel-Reinhart
Sheary-Rodrigues-Okposo
Wilson-Mittelstadt-Pominville
Girgensons-Larsson-Thompson
Dahlin-Bogosian
Scandella-Ristolainen
Hunwick-Montour
Sabres bench boss Phil Housley looks to have made one tweak up front as he dropped winger Tage Thompson to the fourth line. Thirty-six year old Jason Pominville gets moved up to play beside 20 yr. old rookie Casey Mittelstadt.
Housley's defense took a hit as it's been reported that Jake McCabe is out five to six weeks, or pretty much the rest of the season, with an upper body injury sustained in the Toronto game Saturday night. With McCabe out, Marco Scanella moves up a notch and Matt Hunwick moves from the press box to the third pairing.
Also from the rink, it looks as if goalie Linus Ullmark will get the nod tonight. This will be the third time this season Ullmark will have started three games in a row. The first set ran from Dec. 4-11 and the Sabres went 1-1-1 while the second set was Feb. 5-9 with the team going 2-0-1. Ullmark and the Sabres defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in overtime last Friday night then dropped a 5-2 decision in Toronto the next night leaving Ullmark 1-1 in this set.
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