Golden Knights fall 3-1 to Sabres in Eichel’s return to Buffalo

By Danny Webster

Published Thursday, March 10, 2022 | 10:15 p.m.

Updated Thursday, March 10, 2022 | 11:46 p.m.

BUFFALO – Every time he touched the puck, they booed. Each time he hopped over the boards, they booed. Even in his tribute video where a cancer center and kids were featured, they booed.

The only thing running through Jack Eichel’s mind: What took so long?

“It’s about the loudest I’ve heard this place,” he said. “It took only seven years and me leaving for them to get into the game.”

While the Buffalo crowd wasted no time expressing how they felt about its former captain returning to face his former team for the first time, it took longer for the Golden Knights to get into the game. The Golden Knights were held to just one goal for the second straight game in a 3-1 loss to the Sabres in Eichel’s return trip to Buffalo.

Eichel played 17:50 and finished with just two shots in the first matchup against the team that drafted him No. 2 overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. But it was an emotionally-charged night from a crowd that was nowhere close to full capacity, but it was Buffalo’s closest moment to LeBron James returning to Cleveland for the first time, or John Tavares in his first game back on Long Island.

“They must be just booing me because they wish I was still here. I don’t know,” Eichel said. “It is what it is. I’m not the first kid to deal with it.”

The moment Eichel took the ice for warmups, signs were plastered around the Golden Knights’ side of the rink, pinned against the glass at the ready. Some were heartfelt, saying, “Thank you, Jack. Best of luck in Vegas. Others were more subdued with, “Hey, Jack. We tried.”

Others were more suited for the theme of the night. “Thanks for nothing, Eichel,” one sign said. “Hey, Eichel. I’m not mad. Just disappointed,” read another that was caught on a TV camera.

At the end of warmups, Eichel was last to leave the ice and skated off to a chorus of boos. That was just the appetizer.

Just his mere presence was enough to make Buffalo fans rage. Whether he had the puck or just skated at all, the fans let Eichel hear it. When he cross-checked Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju 20 seconds into the game, they erupted as if Eichel was to be tried for a felony.

But it wasn’t a complete festival of boos. Some in the stands still donned royal blue No. 9 sweaters. Some had the navy blue Eichel sweaters when he wore No. 15 at the time he was drafted. The video tribute he received in the first period, accompanied by messages from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Centers – one of Eichel’s notable causes – was received with a mixed ensemble of cheers and jeers.

“I was trying not to watch it,” Eichel said. “I think I’ll take a look at it another time. In a game situation, I didn’t want to get emotional, especially when you involve some of the kids and the things I did in the community. That hits home for me.”

Coming off a nine-shot game in Philadelphia on Tuesday, an effort coach Pete DeBoer said was his best game yet, Eichel couldn’t get comfortable when he took the puck. The crowd may have played a factor in it, but Buffalo’s collective defense swarmed Eichel for most of the night.

That energy translated well for the Sabres in the first period. The Golden Knights didn’t register a shot on goal until 9:19 into the frame. By then, Buffalo tilted the ice and had the first five shots on target. The narrative only strengthened in one of those five shots when Peyton Krebs redirected a shot past Laurent Brossoit nearly eight minutes in to open the scoring.

Krebs, the Golden Knights’ first-round pick from 2019, was one of the integral pieces involved in the deal to get Eichel.

“The first 20 minutes, they owned the emotion and the energy,” DeBoer said. “I think you had a crowd, a team, a city that was emotionally invested in this game.”

Vegas responded in the second period with a 15-3 edge in shots but couldn’t solve veteran goalie Craig Anderson. The Golden Knights tried to light a spark twice after fights from defenseman Ben Hutton and forward Keegan Kolesar, but it didn’t result in a change in the scoreboard.

That was until midway through the third when Hutton fired a puck from the point and beat a screened Anderson to tie the game.

“I thought they came out pretty strong. I thought we had a good pushback,” Hutton said. “We know what we’re capable of.”

That gave the Golden Knights the momentum in the late stages, but it was given back to Buffalo when Jonathan Marchessault was penalized for slashing in retaliation to getting drilled in the boards by Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson. With time ticking down on the Buffalo power play, Victor Olofsson’s wrist shot beat Brossoit top left corner for the 2-1 lead.

The Sabres, in poetic fashion, ended the night with Alex Tuch – one of the original Golden Knights and the other part in the Eichel trade – scoring into an empty net with less than a minute to go.

For the third straight game, an opposing goalie saw plenty of shots, but only a combined four have found the back of the net. Vegas had four power plays, but dropped back to its struggles on the man advantage after scoring a power-play goal in consecutive games.

It doesn’t help that the laundry list of injuries and absences got longer Thursday with Reilly Smith missing the game due to undisclosed reasons, and goalie Robin Lehner returning to Las Vegas to get further testing done on a lower-body injury. The Golden Knights play the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, and Logan Thompson was recalled from Henderson to serve as the backup.

“We’re struggling to score goals, for sure,” Eichel said. “We’ve got to find a way. Three games left in the road trip. No one’s going to dig us out of this but ourselves.”

Thursday was the culmination in the story of the biggest trade the NHL will have this season. It wasn’t the ending Vegas or Eichel wanted, nor has the epic progressed the way the Golden Knights hoped.

Eichel can officially move on with his new team, which right now is facing a slump similar to his Buffalo days. What comes of that in the days ahead is dependent on those who are available, including Eichel.

“I think I maybe underestimated the way I’d feel. It’s not an easy thing to do by any means,” Eichel said. “That doesn’t take away from the fact they competed hard and outworked us tonight and we weren’t able to find a way to win.”

Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.