SABRES, SKINNER APPEAR HEADED FOR UGLY DIVORCE

High-paid sniper suddenly can't score and coach won't even put him in the lineup

The clock is ticking.

A day after Jeff Skinner was made a healthy scratch for the third consecutive game, sources have indicated the beleaguered forward has given the Buffalo Sabres two weeks to correct a situation that has been ongoing since Ralph Krueger was hired as the team's head coach.

Either put Skinner back in the lineup and back in a position to succeed. Or find him a new home.

It's that simple. And yet, neither option is going to be easy to pull off for someone who has gone a year without scoring and who has six more seasons remaining on a cap hit that ranks among the top 25 in the league.

In other words, how do you solve a Us$9-million problem?

Skinner's agent, Don Meehan, confirmed to Postmedia News on Friday that he had spoken privately with Sabres GM Kevyn Adams on Wednesday. Meehan wouldn't discuss what was said, but it's believed both sides are going to give this situation a little bit more time to resolve itself.

When asked on Friday if he wanted to be traded, Skinner said: “That answer is simple. No.”

Krueger then commended Skinner's professionalism during a difficult period in the hockey player's career, and made it clear that him being a healthy scratch is nothing more than a hockey decision based on “accountability” and having “to earn your place” in the lineup.

But something is missing here. Something seems to have gone wrong between coach and player. Something that's beyond a 14-game slump.

Two years ago, Skinner scored 40 goals while playing on a line with Jack Eichel and was rewarded with an eight-year contract that carries a Us$9-million cap hit. But that was when Phil Housley was the head coach and Jason Botterill was the GM. Both are gone. And it's clear their successors don't value the 28-yearold winger in the same way.

Last season, when Skinner scored 14 goals in 59 games, he barely played with Eichel. Since Taylor Hall joined the team, Skinner and Eichel have seen even less of each other.

Instead, Buffalo's second-highest paid forward has been averaging the 10th-fewest minutes on the team. When he happens to be in the lineup, of course. With no goals and one assist in 14 games, Skinner recently went from playing on the fourth line to not playing at all.

On Thursday, not even an injury to Eichel could get him out of what Krueger was refusing to call his “doghouse.”

“I don't have a doghouse,” said the head coach.

Whatever you want to call it, this has been a fall from grace like no other. And it's gotten the attention of the entire hockey world, many of whom are asking not only why a player with Skinner's goal-scoring ability suddenly can't score — but also why he's unable to crack the lineup of a last-place team whose No. 1 problem is scoring goals.

Skinner isn't alone in falling short of expectations. And yet, it's only Skinner — who ranks fifth on the team with 31 shots and whose minus-2 rating looks a lot better than the minus-10 that Hall and Sam Reinhart are each dragging around these days — who's being punished.

While a trade would represent the best possible solution for both Skinner and the Sabres, it's not going to be easy when matching salaries is every bit as important to a trade as finding a player with a comparable skill set.

“(Skinner) could be one of those guys who had a tough time with a one-week training camp and got behind a little bit and then struggled with the confidence. And confidence is such a big thing,” said Jim Rutherford, who as the GM of the Carolina Hurricanes drafted Skinner with the seventh overall pick in 2010.

“But based on this player, I don't see a player who doesn't have a lot to give. He's 28. He still has lots to give.”

Skinner now has two weeks to prove it. That is, if he can get back in the lineup.