I like Jack Eichel. He's my first round pick on my fantasy hockey team. I've always liked him, in a Tyler Seguin sort of way.
Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News has a nice write-up that something is going on with Eichel right now:
Forget about an elephant in the room. This is an entire herd. Eichel is not the guy we've seen the last two years. He was invisible again for long stretches Saturday -- not getting a single shot on goal for more than 48 minutes.
Eichel has five goals in 20 games, tallying just once in his last 11. He's got a minus-9 rating for the season. Those are the numbers. Now let's move to things you can't measure.
Eichel's body language has been terrible much of season. It's a dirty little secret fans are finally figuring out that he floats off the ice far too much on the end of his shifts.
Just don't tell Housley that. The coach simply isn't dissing any of his players in public, let alone the face of the franchise. Fair enough. You can respect that. And Housley certainly knows what happened to Byslma seven months ago too.
On one second-period play, Eichel was easily stripped of the puck by Carolina's Sebastian Aho. It's the kind of lax play you've seen more from him in the first 20 games this season than in his first two years combined.
Eichel got his wish with the firing of Bylsma, and he wasn't alone in that desire either. He got his $80 million contract as well last month. He better start repaying this franchise even before he starts collecting those big bucks come July.
Best guess is Eichel winds up absolutely fine and this stretch is forgotten about. He plays again tomorrow evening, so we will be keeping an eye on his play.
