"I don't think it's about me," Eichel said. "I mean I think a lot of these guys have probably been winners their whole life. We're a group, we're one. We go through adversity as a team together and the highs when we win games, that's also together. I think I speak for the team in saying that we're all frustrated with where we're at and I don't think I'm the only person in the locker room that's not satisfied. I think everybody here is pretty pissed with themselves and the way things have went."
The Sabres have been bitten early and often by the injury bug this season, having already lost Eichel, Evander Kane, Tyler Ennis, Nicolas Deslauriers, Zach Bogosian and Dmitry Kulikov for double-digit games. Ryan O'Reilly will join those ranks assuming he doesn't play in New York on Tuesday - he's yet to return to practice after undergoing an appendectomy last weekend - and Johan Larsson is out for the long term after dislocating his wrist and elbow in Boston on Saturday.
Eichel made the point that the team has never been fully healthy during his two seasons in Buffalo, but he also wasn't willing to blame the Sabres' struggles on injuries. He spoke broadly when asked about what the team needs to improve going forward.
"Everything," he said. "The power play, I mean we have a 5-on-3, we don't score, that's not good enough. The penalty kill, we continue to put pucks on the other team's stick, that's not good enough. Five on five we don't score enough goals either so I think as a whole team, everyone needs to look in the mirror and we all need to get a lot better."
The two games against Boston are particularly disappointing given the stakes of those games - had the Sabres swept them in regulation, they'd currently be sitting just two points back from the third-place team in the Atlantic Division. But while their current 10-point deficit may seem like a steep climb, Dan Bylsma said his team's focus now has to be on the amount of time they still have to make up ground.
"We had opportunities both before the break and the two games against Boston and we let them slip away," the Sabres coach said. "At the same time you have 46 games left in the season, we know if we play how we can and we win hockey games at the rate we can it'll put us in the 90-point [range], that area where we think we're going to need to be in playoff contention. That's really got to be the focus for us here … We have to realize the situation we're in now and we've got win 60 percent of our points the rest of the way out for sure."
For all the frustration at a low point of the Sabres season, Eichel hasn't waived the white flag either.
"I don't think we've hit the halfway point yet," Eichel said. "I'm sure not giving up on this and I don't think anyone else is. Have we pissed away some good opportunities for ourselves to put ourselves in a good position? Yes.
"But there's still a lot of hockey to be played."
