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On Saturday afternoon, about half an hour, you figured out exactly why the Buffalo Sabers needed to be more concerned with the present and stop looking forever into the future.
Play the worst scenarios in your head for a minute. What if Jeff Skinner did not act from Willis Reed and did not come back for the third period of the 5-2 win against the Washington Capitals?
Imagine if his ankle had been completely ejected by the strange collision with Carl Hagelin of Washington. Or maybe there were tears in the ACL of the knee, which Skinner seemed to grasp as he writhed and slid on the ice. Or if the tightening of the ankle tore a bunch of ligaments or led to a torn Achilles?
All these scenarios seemed possible, watching the macabre video and GIF files of the play. And it's not an exaggeration to play from there.
Skinner ankle injury pic.twitter.com/T0MKiq3ybq
– Ben Mathewson (@Ben_Mathewson) February 23, 2019
It could easily have been the season for Skinner and so for this team, even if it is close to reality anyway. General Manager Jason Botterill may have to switch to full selling mode by the trading deadline on Monday, as no Skinner would mean absolutely no hope for the future.
And what about the small problem of negotiating a long-term contract extension for Skinner of the order of $ 70 million? A serious injury like this would certainly have ended these discussions, at least temporarily, until the team had a better idea of Skinner's state of health.
Fortunately for all involved, it seems that Skinner appeared with a close call. Frankly, it was beautiful to see him on the ice in the third period. The crowd at KeyBank Center did not initially notice him during the first few seconds of his shift, but when he touched the puck in the Washington area, a roar sounded.
"When I saw him for the first time, I thought he had become very beefy," said Jack Eichel. "But when I got closer to him, I obviously realized that it was not a high stick, obviously you think worst when he is there and that he is suffering a lot, but it's a pleasure to see him come back and it's good to see that he's fine. "
Eichel should know. He suffered two serious serious cuts in his ankle. The first took place eight minutes after the end of the trials on the eve of the opening game of the 2016-17 season. That cost him 21 games and sounded the death knell of the Buffalo season before it started.
You never know in sports. Injuries arrive. Sometimes life comes in, as we've seen in the last two years with Kyle Okposo and Robin Lehner. Injuries, illnesses and problems outside of the ice are all part of the game. You can not plan for them but you can not act as if they were not possible either.
Skinner said that he had moments like you. The pain in his left leg was strange.
"There are a lot of things going through your mind," he says. "At first, I was just wondering what was wrong, and once you've gone beyond that, and you're coming back here, the line of communication is pretty open, they sort of explain what's going on, what they see when they test things.The tests ran smoothly and I was able to come back so that was a chance. "
The Sabers players said they saw Skinner wander around the locker room during the second intermission and knew everything would be fine. Then the fans got their point of view and the mood is cleared up again.
The Sabers have been great in the last two games. They found themselves face to face in a Tampa Bay shootout defeat, before moving on to the defending Stanley Cup champions on Saturday.
They just do not play like that. They were the first in the NHL at the end of November, but everyone in hockey knew it was a bit of crazy gold, with seven wins in overtime or shootout.
Botterill should have had more help from his team during the season. The thought that they were not ready to win was a crazy idea while they were already doing it.
Teams take the opportunity when it comes up. Columbus fell from a playoff spot for the first time in months on Thursday and a day later, the Blue Jackets traded against Ottawa for Matt Duchene.
Now the situation in Columbus is different in that they could be in an all or nothing scenario, with Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky potentially on the way to freedom. But it still shows how the Jackets are attacking their playoff situation. Ditto for Carolina who got Nino Niederreiter for Victor Rask and Boston to add Charlie Coyle.
Instead, Botterill said that he was going to trust his players. Most of them have not proven their trust steadily.
Sabers, Jeff Skinner avoids disaster and wins victory over defending champions
Saturday was one of those days of choice. How can the Sabers be so bad against New Jersey and Florida and good against Tampa Bay and the defending champions?
The defense was strong and the elimination penalty stopped both attempts by Caps. The power play scored a sensational goal from Rasmus Dahlin. Sam Reinhart continued his successful season with his third career hat trick. Danny O 'Regan seemed to have been standing since Rochester a few weeks ago and Scott Wilson explained why he had been missed all season.
And Carter Hutton's aggressive shots were visible early in the game, causing the key to stop when the Sabers needed it.
When this team plays hard, it looks good. When that is soft – word of Housley – it's one of the worst in the league. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. It would have been very different if Skinner had been seriously injured. This season will always feel like it should have been something more, but the Sabers sat down and did not do enough to worry about today.
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