Lawless: Sunday Conversations
"I stunk. I just didn't play well enough," stated Eichel on Sunday morning when asked about his team's performance the night before.
The question was posed in a general manner, "what happened last night?" Eichel could have shrugged his shoulders and said it was just one of those nights. He could have answered the question referring to his team's performance. Instead, he took ownership of his own play and shared his self-reflection.
"That's two Saturday nights in a row. I have to be better. I have to compete harder, and I have to move my feet better," said Eichel, who has 15 goals and 33 points in 31 games this season. "It's just not good enough."
On Saturday night it was evident Eichel was struggling. He finished the game minus-three and didn't generate any shots on goal. Not a typical stat line for one of the NHL's best players.
Eichel didn't hide his frustration during the game, slamming the door on his team's bench as well as his stick. At one point after a frustrating shift, he slumped on the end of the bench and hung his head.
Eichel recently went through an injury which cost him 13 games. Since returning, he's totaled two goals and two assists in four games. Vegas has gone 2-2 including Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers and last Saturday night's defeat to the LA Kings.
The game against the Oilers was the first full match without captain Mark Stone.
"I don't feel any extra weight because of that," said Eichel. "I always feel weight. I put pressure on myself to perform. That's the job, right? Yeah, we're banged up and a lot of us need to step up a bit. But that's normal. As a team, we have to rely on the guys playing. That's the NHL."
Eichel says he's got to find a way to change course when it's not going his way.
"I have to figure that out. Getting mad and down on myself just wastes energy," said the 26-year-old Eichel. "It doesn't help me or the team."
To iPad or not to iPad: Flyers coach John Tortorella made some noise earlier this week when he banned the use of iPads on his team's bench.
"We took the video on the bench off the bench because we want them to just worry about their next shift," Tortorella said. "I think it's a major problem with us, understanding momentums of the game. You can't understand momentums of the game if you're looking at the iPad all the time. We took them off and aren't even going to use them, so that they watch the game and see what's next."
Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy was asked on Sunday about the value of iPads on his team's bench and he leaned in a similar direction as Tortorella.
"We discussed this last week, it's funny that Tortorella comes out, and now I'm the second guy," said Cassidy. "I've said to Ryan Craig, 'I think we should put them away and only have them out in timeouts.' My reasoning is you can learn a lot by watching the next shift. You have a shift that doesn't go your way, or whatever happens. You watch the next couple shifts, OK, their defensemen are pinching every shift, every shift, every shift, that should help you. OK, I need to support, get ahold of the puck quickly, and play behind. You can learn a lot just by watching."
"So, I think that's what they miss, being a student of the game, and while they're looking at what happened to them, individually, in that particular line rush. As opposed to a fluid game that could completely change. I agree with an iPad during a powerplay, or a penalty kill because that's a structure, it's like a huddle in football it's just different, it's not on the move. I think the second part to that, you could be a good teammate, if you're not on the iPad, you're cheering on the next guy. The hit in front of our bench, Paul Cotter in Chicago, we did yell, but there's an opportunity to say 'hey, heads up.' You're in the game, there's stuff going on. Maybe there's a hit that you don't like, OK take a number type of mentality-old school. You just miss a lot of what's going on in the game, the feel, and the energy of the game by having that out all the time."
Cassidy says he and his staff are going to make a concerted effort to wean Golden Knights players off iPad use on the bench.
"I've coached players that are very structured, and they look at it every shift, and I think it's ingrained in them. I think as coaches we have to try to break that down a little bit, without changing their mental routine. And hopefully over time, they only use it for situational things and not every shift as a reminder of what just took place. What am I going to do about it? We are in the process of evaluating the appropriate amount of time for that right now."
