Jack Achel didn’t hold back as he returned to Buffalo on Thursday evening. The Golden Knights center played his first game against the Sabres after being traded to Vegas on November 4, and lost a 3-1 decision.
Eichel, 25, was Buffalo’s second overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and captained the team from 2018-21. But the relationship soured last season, leading to a trade.
Eichel was on the Vegas starting lineup for Thursday’s game and every time he touched the puck he got a fair amount of booing from the fans. The Sabres also aired a tribute video in his honor during the first TV timeout, which drew more cheers and applause from the 12,437 viewers.
However, Eichel had the last word.
“This is the loudest place I have ever heard in this place. True,” Eichel said after the game. “It’s only been seven years and I left to let them come into the game. It was a nice tribute. There were a lot of people who supported me, and there were a lot of people who booed me. They must have just booed. me because they want me to still be here, I don’t know.”
Not only exclamations rained down on Eichel. As he patrolled the ice during Thursday’s warm-up, Eichel was greeted by a small number of signs along the boards at Keybank Center that ranged from the upbeat: “Welcome back, Jack!” to the dissatisfied: “Thank you for everything, Eichel.”
When the final signal sounded, a fan also threw an Eichel Sabers jersey onto the ice.
Another problem was that both players Buffalo acquired in the Eichel trade—Peyton Krebs and Alex Touch—scored in the Sabres’ victory. Eichel himself finished minus one with two shots on goal in 17:31.
In over 375 games for the Sabres, Eichel scored 139 goals and 355 points. He returned to Buffalo just 10 games after spending a few months with the Golden Knights after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in November. However, the center forward immediately got down to business, scoring three goals and seven points on Thursday.
Even if the result was not what Eichel had hoped for, he was glad to be rid of this homecoming.
“I am very glad that everything is over. Just move on,” he said. “In any case, it is not easy to play this game. I’m not going to stand here and say that it was so. It’s frustrating. We wanted to win here, but we couldn’t.”
Eichel said that all this time he tried to focus on the game itself. When his tribute video played, there was ample footage of Eichel’s various philanthropic endeavors, many of which involved urban youth.
“I tried not to watch it. I’ll look another time,” he said. “In a game situation, I didn’t want to get emotional, especially when you start getting some kids involved and some of the things I’ve done in the community, it gets to me. But I appreciate the tribute, and that’s nice. people here were rooting for me.”
Eichel in this video may never have guessed where his path with the Sabers would go.
Relations between the team and the player began to deteriorate in the middle of the sixth season of Eichel. He suffered a neck injury during a Buffalo game on March 7, 2021, and by April the team announced that Eichel ended the season due to a herniated disc.
Eichel’s preferred treatment was surgery, which had never been performed on an NHL player. But Eichel was the Sabres’ star player and barely reached the eight-year, $80 million contract he signed in 2018. The club did not allow him to undergo the procedure he wanted, instead favoring rest and rehab.
The impasse did not suit Eichel.
“I was a little upset about the way things have been since I was shot,” Eichel told reporters in May. “I would be lying if I said that everything went smoothly after my injury. I think there was something of a disconnect between the organization and me. It was hard at times.”
The relationship to the training camp proved to be irreparable. Sabers general manager Kevin Adams announced last September that Eichel was not only stripped of the captain’s armband, but also failed his physical and would not be able to start the season.
At the time, Adams did not rule out exchanging Eichel, but was in no hurry to close the deal. In exchange for sending Eichel to Vegas, Buffalo received Tach, Krebs, and first- and second-round draft picks.
A week after the deal, Eichel underwent spinal disc replacement surgery at the Rocky Mountain Spine Clinic in Denver. It debuted in Vegas on February 17th.