Sharpen Up: November 30, 2016

Wel, well, well. How's your morning going so far? Still riding the good vibes from last night? Want to live them all over again?
Jack Eichel made his season debut against the Senators yesterday, he put up a goal and an assist, and the Sabres won 5-4 in Ottawa. Not too shabby.
Here's what you need to know.

The Sabres power-play sprung to life with three goals in the game. Consisting of Eichel, Kyle Okposo, Sam Reinhart, Ryan O'Reilly and Rasmus Ristolainen, it was the first unit that did the damage.
Okposo opened the scoring and O'Reilly scored twice, too.

"I think pretty much every one of our goals was one of those good feeling goals about guys getting puck to go into the back of the net," Dan Bylsma said. "I don't know who actually scored, if it was Sam or Evander, but it felt good for Evander to shoot the puck and have it go in the back of the net."
Eichel ended up playing 17:08 with eight shot attempts (five on goal). His impact on the game went beyond the scoresheet.

"That's the kind of the spark we were looking for when we need a little bit more offense," Reinhart said. "I think it elevated a bunch of guys' games, it just kind of gave us that little more confidence out there that we can play with the puck and make plays."

"It's a momentum thing," O'Reilly said. "You go out there watching his line, they're possessing. He's making plays, they're creating. Coming on right after that, it's the same thing you kind of just feed off of it … It shows how good of a player he is."
How did Eichel feel afterwards?

"I'm a little bit tired," Eichel said, laughing. "I'm just happy to back in the swing of things. The ankle felt really good so I think that's a plus. We've got another big test at home [on Thursday] and I'm excited to play in front of the fans in Buffalo."

Medical report

Robin Lehner left the game with 2:12 remaining in the first period with a hip injury. He was replaced in net by Anders Nilsson, who stopped 26 of 29 shots to pick up the win.
After the game, Dan Bylsma declared Lehner day to day. We'll have an update later as the Sabres are scheduled to practice at KeyBank Center this afternoon.

Beyond Blue and Gold

If you somehow missed it yesterday, we debuted a new episode of Beyond Blue and Gold presented by New Era. Personally, it's one of my favorite episodes we've ever done.

We look at the maturation of Marcus Foligno as he trained in his hometown of Sudbury, Ontario over the summer. We all know about the hockey ties in his family, but with this BBG, you can get a sense of how close he and his family really are (and his sisters don't even get mentioned!).

Hit the road

Yesterday we announced that our first Sabres Road Crew presented by Delta tour stop will be in Nashville on Jan. 23 at Tin Roof Broadway. Tickets are $10 each, with all proceeds benefiting the Buffalo Sabres Foundation.
Road Crew events are always a blast and Nashville is one of the best road cities to visit, so if you're thinking about taking a few days off work to catch a Sabres game, this sure seems like a perfect opportunity. And if you're a Nashville native, what's your excuse? We'll see you there.
Speaking of the road, Kyle Okposo shared his thoughts with us in the first installment of the CTMS Travel Blog on what his first Thanksgiving in Buffalo was like. It was probably a little weird because the team traveled for a Black Friday game in Washington.

My One Buffalo

The complete My One Buffalo Mobile App is now available for download. Individual features of My One Buffalo have previously been available through both the Bills and Sabres apps, and are now accessible in one location.
The My One Buffalo app is a central source for everything Bills, Sabres, Bandits and HarborCenter, allowing fans to easily stay connected to all entities at all times. The app gives fans a central location to manage both Bills and Sabres tickets, along with the My One Buffalo Status Program, which places fans into tiers with different benefits based on how often they interact with their teams.
Click here for more details.
Download from the App Store
Download from Google Play

On tap today

We'll have full practice coverage today. Jourdon LaBarber and Brian Duff will be there to fill you in on everything that's happening.
And stay on the lookout for a new edition of Duffer's #Duffalo as well today. He's got some great stories to share - and photo evidence to back some of them up.