Golden Knights: Jack Eichel’s return to Buffalo went as well as it could
The Vegas Golden Knights are on a heater right now. They are first in the NHL standings with a record of 13-2-0 and 26 standings points. After missing the playoffs last year by just a few points for a variety of reasons, they seem to be back on track.
Part of the reason that they missed last year was that they acquired Jack Eichel in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres before he got his surgery. He eventually came back but it took him a little while to be comfortable in Vegas’s system and just be his old pre-surgery self.
On Thursday, Vegas earned that 13th win as they paid a visit to Buffalo to take on the Sabres. To say that Eichel’s return went well would be an understatement based on the performance that he put on in front of his old fans.
To start the game, it was a competitive one between Buffalo and Vegas. They were tied for most of the first two periods until Paul Cotter made it 3-2 Golden Knights at 17:08 of the second period. From there, Vegas took over.
Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights returned to Buffalo and dominated.
Specifically, Jack Eichel took over. At 3:52 of the third period, Eichel set up Alex Pietrangelo to make it 4-2 in favor of the Golden Knights. Following that, Eichel scored his 7th, 8th, and 9th goals of the season in the period to earn a hat trick against his old team.
It was a remarkable performance for him in a game where he probably wanted to dominate. He now has 19 points in 15 games for Vegas, so he is once again amongst the league leaders in scoring. We all knew he was an elite player but he needed to get healthy. He is now.
Buffalo has been a pretty good team so far to start the year but they are starting to come back down to earth a little bit.
Tage Thompson had two in this one and his play has really developed into elite status as well, but it might be another year or two before they are really Stanley Cup contenders.
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Having Eichel would have changed everything for them, but now he gets to be the best player on one of the best teams in the NHL, which isn’t a bad gig at all. His return to play against his old team went really well, and you’d have to think that it was a night that he’ll never forget.