“Had a phenomenal time here” – Jack Eichel set for first return to Buffalo Sabres with Golden Knights


“Had a phenomenal time here” – Jack Eichel set for first return to Buffalo Sabres with Golden Knights

Jack Eichel

American ice hockey center Jack Eichel knows his return to Buffalo Sabres will be nothing less than an “awkward” one. The 25-year-old further reckoned that he doesn’t know how the team’s fans will react, but he hopes they focus on some positives.

I think about my time in Buffalo, it obviously ended a little bit messy,” Eichel, the former Sabres skipper, told ESPN ahead of his first game on Thursday in Buffalo since getting traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in November last year.

But I hope [fans] can look past some of the things that happened maybe in the last year and think about the previous 5½, 6 years that I was there and everything that I tried to do for the community, everything that I feel like I put forth on the ice as a hockey player, and know I just tried to do as much as I could for the city.”

FS Video

“I was frustrated” – Eichel on his captaincy strip off

Jack Eichel
Jack Eichel

Earlier, the Sabres had stripped Eichel of his captaincy and facilitated a trade to the Golden Knights in November. This allowed him to undergo an artificial disk replacement surgery. The Massachusetts native mentioned that he was sitting in his driveway when Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams called and delivered the news about his captaincy.

“I was frustrated,” Eichel said. “If you think about the reason why you took the captaincy away from me, it was because I didn’t agree with you medically. Then you basically told me not to come around for training camp. At that point, it just felt like they were toying with me. So I was just, I was pretty over it.”

Also Read | “Just tried to take the shot that was there” – Connor McDavid spoils Backstrom milestone with OT goal