Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel (9) skates during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, March 1, 2022.
Thursday, March 10, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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BUFFALO — The three jerseys are easily spotted when walking into Sidelines Sports Bar and Grill.
On the left is the sweater of Buffalo Sabres All-Star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. On the right, Sabres forward Jeff Skinner’s No. 53 is on display.
But in the center is a John Tavares jersey. Not the Tavares who captains the Toronto Maple Leafs, but of the National Lacrosse League’s all-time leading scorer who played 23 years with the Buffalo Bandits. That jersey has lived on that area of the wall since Nov. 4 — the day the Sabres traded their superstar center and former captain Jack Eichel to the Golden Knights.
A lacrosse jersey now rests in the area where a Sabres sweater with No. 9 and ‘Eichel’ stitched on the back hung front and center for years.
“The day he was traded,” said Mark Cedero, the bar’s manager. “I took it down.”
The decision to take down Eichel’s sweater wasn’t out of anger or disdain toward the player. Rather, it marked the end of an era that was a long time coming for hockey fans in Western New York, knowing that the 25-year-old star that was expected to save the Sabres was gone.
Eichel will make his return trip to Buffalo tonight when the Golden Knights visit the Sabres at KeyBank Center (4 p.m. PST; ESPN+). On the surface, it’s another game where Vegas needs a crucial two points after losing 2-1 Tuesday to the Philadelphia Flyers on their first stop on a five-game road trip.
But in the soap opera world that is hockey, the biggest trade of the NHL season comes full circle. Eichel, who was drafted No. 2 overall by the Sabres in 2015, played 375 games with Buffalo. The last time was just over a year ago — March 7, 2021 — before Eichel was shut down for the rest of the season due to a neck injury.
That started a long-running standoff between Eichel and the Sabres organization over what type of neck surgery he should get. Buffalo preferred a traditional fusion surgery, while Eichel did his insisted research on receiving artificial disk replacement. After an impasse that resulted in Eichel being stripped of his captaincy, Buffalo traded Eichel to the Golden Knights.
He had the disk replacement done a week later, and after a three-month recovery period, joined the Vegas lineup last month.
Cedero will be at the arena for what could host the largest crowd for a Sabres game in more than a decade, the last time they were in the playoffs.
How Eichel will be perceived by the Buffalo fanbase is anyone’s guess.
“I’m actually mixed,” Cedero said. “I wish him all the best as a player because he’s a great player. And I hope he does well out there. But I’m sure coming back here, he probably wants to score every single goal here. The Sabres just can’t seem to get it together as an organization.”
Mixed feelings are the general consensus when talking to hockey fans around the city. Some hope Eichel will stick it to his former team and prove how badly the Sabres’ front office botched this situation.
“Sometimes, I feel like (the Sabres) deserve it,” said Aaron Jamison, a Sabres fan of almost 30 years. “Jack was the best thing to happen to us in a long time. Seeing what he’s doing in Vegas is great, but it also hurts.”
And there are those ready to boo him the minute he touches the ice.
“I don’t know what it is,” Buffalo resident Sarah James said. “But he always rubbed me the wrong way. He was just too cocky and I was happy when he was moved.”
While there was much negative discourse in the waning months between Eichel and the Sabres, his ire was never directed at the fans or the city.
Eichel said Wednesday that there was no bitterness toward the Sabres for how everything unfolded.
His accomplishments and numbers speak for themselves, but the three-time All-Star is more proud of working extensively with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo. Whether it was spending time with kids dealing with cancer, or donating hundreds of bouquets of flowers to the center’s nurses, Eichel always led the community charge, an initiative he felt was important from Day One.
“When you have that ability to make an impact on people, it’s almost your duty to do so, and I thought that was mine,” Eichel said. “I remember shortly after getting drafted and having the opportunity to go to Roswell for the first time, I thought I made a connection there. You want to give back, and I felt like that was something I always wanted to do. I remember when I was a young kid and the impact my role models had made on me, and I just wanted to do that.”
There will be a tribute video to commemorate Eichel’s time in Buffalo, and that might be the time where he’ll be appreciated for what he tried to accomplish. He entered the NHL as an 18-year-old tasked with revitalizing one of the league’s most unlucky franchises.
The jersey of John Tavares, the National Lacrosse League’s all-time leading scorer who played 23 years with the Buffalo Bandits, now occupies the space where Jack Eichel’s No. 9 Buffalo Sabres jersey once hung in Buffalo’s Sidelines Sports Bar and Grill.
He left Buffalo as a 25-year-old man considered to be the missing piece to Vegas’ Stanley Cup puzzle.
Eichel has slowly shown signs of his old Buffalo self with seven points in 10 games with his new team. For someone who didn’t feel much pressure in Buffalo, he’ll return one more time – under duress or not — with a chance to close this chapter.
“I’m excited to see him. I hope he lights it up,” Cedero said. “Because it’ll just be another coulda, shoulda, woulda with the Buffalo Sabres.”
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
