Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Sabres were back on the ice Wednesday with 17 players in attendance. The nine players in the NHL's COVID-19 Protocols were still not there.
Ralph Krueger is still suffering from COVID-19, so Steve Smith ran practice once again. Assistant coach Don Granato is a high risk individual, so he was pulled off the ice and sat in the stands.
For the first time since the Sabres were put in quarantine on Feb. 1, we got a chance to speak with some of the players.
Watching Jack Eichel the past few days, I could tell he enjoyed being out of quarantine and back with his teammates. Eichel has been worried about his teammates since this all came about.
“The most important thing is everyone’s health. You can’t take that for granted," Eichel said after Wednesday's practice. "We’re in the middle of a global pandemic and I’m worried about the wellbeing of everyone.”
Any of the players had to be nervous wondering if they had caught the virus, and Eichel was no different.
“In the first few days of isolation, there was a little bit of nerves," Eichel said. "We’ve obviously had a few guys that have had it and our coach as well.”
Eichel has been in touch with teammates that have tested positive. He said he wants to do anything he can.
“I’ve offered any help to the guys that are dealing with COVID, things like dropping stuff off to their house like supplies or whatever they need to make things easier.”
Eichel also mentioned he has spoken with Krueger.
As far has how the team is doing Eichel believes the guys have handled it very well.
"I think the team's done a good job, and it is a bit frustrating to take two weeks off in the middle of your season.”
Eichel didn’t want to dive too far into if the NHL had done enough to protect against COVID.
“I’m not at all educated enough on the COVID virus and how it spreads, that’s not my expertise," Eichel said. "So its tough for me to comment on that situation, but the league’s trying to do all it can to keep us safe.”
Many are blaming the NHL or the New Jersey Devils for the Sabres' problems over the past 10 days.
“It’s hard. The league and the Devils are trying to pass the information on to everybody to be safe, and unfortunately the protocols in place and everybody followed them and did what they were supposed to do and the situation hadn’t arose yet," said Sabres forward Kyle Okposo. "The league didn’t know what to do, and now things are evolving, and the protocols are going to evolve to make us safer. But if you don’t have the information in hand, you just have to make the best decisions that you can, and I think the league is doing that and I think the Devils did that.”
Eichel has 11 points in 10 games this season. He said he’s used this time at home to analyze his game and what he can do to be better.
“I’ve taken this opportunity to get my body back to 100%. It’s given me a chance to start feeling good again.
“I just want to get back to attacking the game, so the last 10 days or so have given me the opportunity to go back to last year and watch some video of some of my games to see what I was doing then and see what was working and compare it to some things early in the season here. So I’m really excited to get the season going again. I think I’m going to start to take off. It was a slow start for me, I’m not really where I want to be, and I’ve taken these two weeks to prepare to have a successful 46 games.”
The players have really seemed to enjoy being out of isolation and back going again.
“It was nice to be back in the locker room and practicing in a relaxed environment so far," Eichel said. "It’s more or less being back with the guys and being back on the ice, because this is what we love to do, we love to come to the rink.”
The Sabres are going to have very little time to get the final 46 games in, but Eichel isn’t the least bit worried about it. In fact, he believes he’ll thrive with it.
“This is what you prepare all summer for, and I always feel better the more I’m playing," Eichel said. "The more games we play, it’s the more times on the ice and that’s when I start to do my best. I look at it as an awesome challenge, so it’s going to be great. The more games, the merrier.”
I’ll probably start referring to points percentage in the standings more than points, because of the discrepancy in games played.
In the East Division:
1.) Boston - .818
2.) Philadelphia - .692
3.) Washington - .625
4.) New Jersey - .556
5.) Islanders - .545
6.) Buffalo - .500
7.) Pittsburgh - .500
8.) Rangers - .455
The Sabres are tied for 22nd in the NHL with that .500 points percentage. They are still in the top-10 of the league in both power play and penalty killing. The Sabres are 19th in goal scoring, and 20th in goals-against.
