Skinner providing finishing touch for resurgent Sabres

BUFFALO -- The Buffalo Sabres trailed by two late in the third period at KeyBank Center on Saturday. They pulled their goalie. Then forward Jeff Skinner saw the puck ring around the boards and started to sneak from the right circle into the slot.

Skinner crept behind Vancouver Canucks center Elias Pettersson, found a soft spot and kept his stick blade low while goaltender Jacob Markstrom and defenseman Chris Tanev worried about center Sam Reinhart holding the puck behind the net.
Reinhart sent the puck past Tanev and onto Skinner's tape. In a flash, in tight, Skinner lifted the puck over Markstrom's right shoulder and into the upper left corner. It was 3-2 with 2:27 to go. Buffalo had life.
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"I think he gets to the net really well," center Jack Eichel said. "Obviously he has a knack for scoring goals. You see it there at the end of the game where he gets that one, puts it up top pretty quick. That's a great goal by him."
That's why the Sabres got him.
After acquiring Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes on Aug. 2, general manager Jason Botterill said the exciting thing was that the trade was not about futures. It would help the team immediately and excite the players.
The Sabres had finished last in the NHL for third time in five seasons, and as part of an offseason overhaul, they gave up a prospect (forward Cliff Pu) and three draft picks (a second-rounder in the 2019 NHL Draft, a third and a sixth in the 2020 NHL Draft) for a goal-scorer entering the last season of his contract.
The early returns are promising. Skinner's goal Saturday was his 11th in 10 games and sparked a comeback. The Sabres won 4-3 in a shootout. He scored his 12th in 11 games Tuesday in a 2-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who they trail by three points for first in the Atlantic Division. With 13 goals this season, Skinner is second in the NHL behind Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak (16).

"He's in the right spot, right time, gets rebounds that bounce to him, but that's having a knack for knowing where to go," forward Jason Pominville said. "He's good around the net. He probably knows where the puck's going to go and finds a way to get there. He's been fun to watch."
Skinner has scored 217 goals since entering the NHL in 2010-11, 16th in the League in that span. He has scored 170 at even strength, seventh in the NHL in that span.
The Sabres get a finisher, and Skinner gets to play with Eichel (four goals, 15 assists), who he called one of the best centers in the NHL. They have developed chemistry as linemates and are first and second on Buffalo in scoring (Skinner, 20 points; Eichel, 19).
Oh, and Skinner is plus-12. He was minus-27 last season and hasn't had a positive rating in a season since he was plus-3 in 2010-11, when he had 63 points (31 goals, 32 assists) and won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. He has been put in a position to succeed by often starting shifts in the offensive zone.
"Any time the team's playing well, I think individuals start to have success," Skinner said. "For me, I think the team's played well, the line's played well and I've been sort of on the right end of some of the plays."
Skinner knew he wasn't part of Carolina's long-term plans and waived his no-trade clause to come to Buffalo, which is relatively close to family in his hometown of Toronto.
"I didn't know exactly when [the trade] was going to happen," Skinner said. "I think there was a good feeling that it was going to happen. For me, fortunately Buffalo sort of gave me the opportunity. I'm pretty grateful for that."

The Sabres have been pleased with his energy in practice and how it has raised the level of competition, and with how, at 26, he has developed relationships with younger players like 18-year-old rookie defenseman Rasmus Dahlin and 19-year-old rookie forward Casey Mittelstadt.
"It's hard to look back," Skinner said. "There's so many variables and so many things going on. It's hard to play the sort of what-if scenarios, because there's an infinite amount of them. For me, I think the change of scenery happened, and so far, it's gone well."
Now he has to keep it up, and we have to see what happens with his contract. Skinner is shooting 21.7 percent, almost double his NHL career average of 11.0 percent. Odds are, he will cool off. But he knows.
"There's a long way to go," he said. "I think you work to keep getting better. I think it's the same if you get off to not a great start. You keep working, keep getting better, and realize it's a long season."