Is the Golden Knights' problem Jack Eichel?

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Anyone seen John Eichel the goat ?

He was Colorado fan in fact.

 

[Chainshot]

Anyone seen John Eichel the goat ?

Professional anti-Sabre guy and full-time Avs fan? Haven't noticed what he changed his name to lately or if he got banned honestly.

 

[apocalypse]

Eichel is looking like the superstar they thought they stole from Buffalo. So it’s probably not Eichel. Although a selfish POS like Eichel could ruin team chemistry, it’s probably all the injuries that’s holding them back.

Why do you call him selfish? Because he wanted the proper surgery and Buffalo wouldn't do it?

 

[iCanada]

I always find it problematic when the highest paid, highest scoring guy isn't a leader on your team. It's a recipe for disaster. We can lie to ourselves and say he doesn't need to be a leader as long as he's scoring goals, but I imagine it takes it's toll on the locker room when you have a guy making big bucks skipping his defensive zone assignment, not blocking shots and coasting back to the bench on a line change who then skips talking to the media after a loss and still collects the biggest paycheck.

It's fine if he's scoring goals.

He's not really scoring goals though. His PPG is not good enough to be paid 10 million right now. He's getting outscored by average top 6 support players who make half that.

 

[iCanada]

COVID season he was. He would’ve been nominated for the Hart if he didn’t suffer a late-season injury.

???

Unless Eichel was going to score 11 points in 3 straight games...

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

???

View attachment 535881

Unless Eichel was going to score 11 points in 3 straight games...

Did you read the rest of the discussion in the thread? Your post is incredibly deceiving.

 

[Statto]

I don’t think it’s right to blame Eichel although I was very vocal about not wanting him in LA. In my view there were too many character red flags and wanted him no where near our young dressing room. However he’s not been there long enough to be THE reason they are struggling and to scapegoat him would be unfair.

However just blaming injuries is a cop out. The Golden Knights are better than LA on paper but the Kings have lost well over 325 man games due to injury (I’ve done a quick conservative count). That includes a once again Elite Doughty only playing 39 games and his season has been done for some time now. The strength of the dressing room and organisational depth has allowed the Kings to stay in the hunt and they’ve just found a way to win. We have used 15 d-men this season.

So to blame injuries is too simplistic. Things like depth, roster composition, coaching and leadership all play a part. Having everyone healthy isn’t the only thing that Vegas needs to be different next season. However, I’m not counting my chickens yet because until it’s 100% settled anything can happen.

 

[iCanada]

Did you read the rest of the discussion in the thread? Your post is incredibly deceiving.

How exactly does a guy 32 pointsbehind the leading scorer get a Hart Trophy nod aside from extreme homerism?

What's deceiving about it?

 

[Doohickie]

It’s the most notable difference with Tuck. Puck goes into the corner and Tuck is there making sure there’s no free breakout and the Sabres late season success is mostly built on that aggressive forecheck. Aggressive and Eichel were 2 things i never combined in a sentence. Austin Matthews with Brad Boyes aggression.

I think this was part of the problem with Eichel in Buffalo: He was clearly the best guy. There were younger guys such as Mittelstadt and Cozens, who would see Eichel as the example to emulate. When he's not trying hard, it ripples down the lineup. "Coach says to be tough along the boards but Eichel doesn't bother so why should I?" I don't think it's that simple, but since he's left, Mittelstadt in particular has become much better along the boards and in the corners.

 

[Doohickie]

He's known to be strong and a workout warrior. There is also a lot of swirl that he's not always the most professional with his preparation for games, including hanging out with guys who weren't known for taking the best care of themselves either in Kane and Bogosian. Maybe this year is enough to shake him into taking this as a profession instead of the thing he does around having a party lifestyle. Maybe not.

I actually wonder if his working out limits his flexibility (muscle bound) which contributes to injuries.

 

[John Strachan]

Sure they are. I look at depth in terms of how the team runs all their lines. So perhaps their scoring isnt totally spread out, but the whole team carries the load of minutes. Their 12th in ice time per game played in the playoffs last year was over 17 minutes still. That was rare

How deep are they going to be when they have to shed $12M of payroll to be cap compliant - especially if another team doesn’t help by taking over one of their overpriced veterans? And where will they find replacements with their current prospect pool?

 

[John Strachan]

In fairness, almost no team is making the playoffs when all of their top 3 forwards miss 40 or more games each.

Secondly the "Vegas was a lock to make the playoffs pre-Eichel" is misleading because I believe Edmonton was in that slump where they had tuned out Tippett and Calgary was in a losing streak around then too. LA has stubbornly stuck around in the race too ... so of those four teams (Edmonton, Calgary, LA, Vegas) ... Vegas has had by far the worst injury problems.

You mean because losing over half of your starting dmen and replacing them with rookies is an easier path to the playoffs?

Kings played a game where none of the blue liners from opening nite were able to play and have spent a large part of the season with a blue line with a total of 500 NHL games in experience.

I am sick of the pity party of the VGK fans for a team who spent money on a bunch of old veterans and continually complain about their injuries.

 

[loosemoose]

Jack Eichel doing his exposure tour in Vegas. Was never a top-10 center. Just lived off of draft hype and bad team excuse for long enough to earn big contract.

 

[LongWayDown37]

I think this was part of the problem with Eichel in Buffalo: He was clearly the best guy. There were younger guys such as Mittelstadt and Cozens, who would see Eichel as the example to emulate. When he's not trying hard, it ripples down the lineup. "Coach says to be tough along the boards but Eichel doesn't bother so why should I?" I don't think it's that simple, but since he's left, Mittelstadt in particular has become much better along the boards and in the corners.

Its a ridiculous idea to suggest Eichel wasn't 'trying hard.' He constantly retrieved pucks from the corners and I think he was underrated defensively. I don't like the guy. I'm glad he's in the tire fire of Vegas. But come on.

 

[shadow1]

Vegas was 28-17-3 without Eichel but are 14-14-3 with him. That's not all on him but it's not a good look, nor is the four game pointless streak he's currently on during crunch time.

 

[Doohickie]

Why do you call him selfish? Because he wanted the proper surgery and Buffalo wouldn't do it?

No, actually he is a pretty selfish player, doesn't elevate his teammates. You'll learn all that in due time.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

After reading DeBoer's comments on Lehner...this whole org is the problem.

 

[GrungeHockey]

Oh wow this is great,

Deadspin | Maybe Jack Eichel just isn’t that guy

Deadspin | Maybe Jack Eichel just isn’t that guy

deadspin.com

 

[pbgoalie]

I’m not a Knights “fan” but I e enjoyed the Knights since they started

But it has always felt like they just HAVE to have the biggest player available at all costs.

And the costs have been too much.

And I still cannot believe they hired and still have DeBoer

Calling an expansion team a with their successes a joke is pretty funny, especially given a short look at Seattle’s mistakes. But it does look like without an amazing turnaround in injury prone guys they will come away empty handed and face struggles for a while

 

[Artemi Panarin]

Jack Eichel - why he suck now?

 

[CupsOverCash]

I mean I'm not huge eichel fan but probably didn't expect much out of him when he came back from his surgery. If he isn't great next year then you can probably criticize him more.

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

Its a ridiculous idea to suggest Eichel wasn't 'trying hard.' He constantly retrieved pucks from the corners and I think he was underrated defensively. I don't like the guy. I'm glad he's in the tire fire of Vegas. But come on.

No, its more of Eichel playing hard isn't the type of player that finds the trailer on a back check even when he's the guy back to do it, hes not beating the guy to a puck even though hes bigger faster and stronger, he'd race out to block a shot but just stick his stick out

he'd try his backside off to strip the puck from him and create offense, just like hed power into the zone on a back check, but when it came time to make the difference and get gritty and physically take over a shift, those moments were far to rare for how easily he can do it

I'd still love to see him playing for granato

 

[Doohickie]

Its a ridiculous idea to suggest Eichel wasn't 'trying hard.' He constantly retrieved pucks from the corners and I think he was underrated defensively. I don't like the guy. I'm glad he's in the tire fire of Vegas. But come on.

He worked hard.... when he felt like it. It wasn't consistent.

 

[Vegas07]

For a while people kept saying the Knights needed to have a #1 center and a #1 Dman or the team was going to continue to fall short. That’s one reason the team spent the money it did. And if you can get Stone and have room for him that deal was a steal. Trading for Tatar and then trading him for Pacioretty while giving up some nice picks and a top prospect along the way was terrible.

Also in recent years when you compared the teams on paper, even in matchups the Knights were heavily favored, opposing fans seemed to always say “Hey we match up well with the Knights” and one reason was the Knights looked very weak at center.

With that said the front office still has done things arrogantly and hasn’t seemed to care about chemistry. And I don’t think the players are the only ones that have suffered from it; the fans have too.

If only the team was as eager to get a new power play coach as it is to get the next new shiny object.

 

[Panthaz89]

what I can't believe is that he only has 9 assists in 31 games even last season when Eichel was playing injured he had 16 in 21 games and was a monster on the PP and the Sabres PP unit got considerably worse after he left. Vegas coach just must be an idiot if he can't use Eichel properly or maybe the surgery was bad for him because he should still be opening space for other players. He's always been a playmaker first.