Sometimes it's easy to forget about Jack Eichel.
The 23-year-old stars for the Buffalo Sabres, who started strong but have been struggling of late. As the story goes, both Eichel and the Sabres have been mired in an extended slump; the player has been limited to a single goal (two points) over five games headed into Saturday while his team had won just twice in the previous 10 contests.
That all changed against the Ottawa Senators, as Eichel put the struggling Sabres on his back to carry them to their first win in November.
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Eichel scored all four Sabres goals on Saturday, leading Buffalo to a much-needed 4-2 victory on the road.
Interestingly, all four markers came from wrist shots that snuck in underneath the crossbar. His first came less than 90 seconds into the second period as he wired a laser that zoomed over Senators goalie Craig Anderson's left shoulder to open the scoring. His second was a near carbon copy, except the starting point was the slot rather than the right faceoff circle.
Eichel completed his hat trick midway through the final period, this time unleashing from the left wing and finding the net behind Anderson's right arm. Then came the impressive cherry on top: an empty netter from the red line that went bar down.
The four goals on Saturday — a career-high single-game performance — gave Eichel his first multi-goal game since Oct. 22 and his first contest with three or more goals since Dec. 15, 2017. The North Chelmsford, Mass. native is now up to 12 goals and 23 points in 19 games this season.