Mike Harrington: How will Sabres react to all the eyes on them the next two games?

But the next two games figure to be quite a referendum on how things are going. And a lot of eyes will be watching.

The vagaries of the schedule have suddenly thrust the Sabres into the center of the hockey world, and it's an experience they should revel in.

Eichelfest is here Thursday night versus the Vegas Golden Knights. And then comes the Heritage Classic outdoors in Hamilton on Sunday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, in front of 40,000 at Tim Horton's Field and national television audiences on both sides of the border. 

Don't shy away from it, boys. Show us what you've got.

"It's great for us to have the added pressure of that, because we have to learn to deal with it," coach Don Granato said after practice Wednesday. "We're not going into the playoffs, but we all know the playoffs is handling pressure and elevating your compete. And those are two major ingredients to playoff success. So for us to be thrown in that is really a bonus for us. We want that."

Winger Alex Tuch – the key piece acquired for Jack Eichel – played 66 playoff games for Vegas the last four years, including three trips to a conference final and the run to the 2018 Stanley Cup final. He quickly learned what it is like to live in the postseason fishbowl, and wants his inexperienced teammates to start living that, as well.

"These are games that are going to have a lot of eyes on," Tuch said. "So I hope that guys feel a little bit of the pressure, but I hope that they learn from it. They've also got to know that once the puck is dropped, you've got to just focus on the game. It doesn't matter if there's a million people in the building or zero, or a million viewers or zero viewers, you got to come in and play the same way each and every day because it is our job.

"We're paid a lot of money to come in and put this jersey on, and we have to show pride in the city of Buffalo and the crest on the front of our chests."

An aside: Do you not love hearing that?

Thursday night's game is an exclusive national streaming production on ESPN+ and Hulu. Now, that's not the same as the WorldWide Leader on your TV, but it's a big venture that will have John Buccigross and Ray Ferraro in the broadcast booth and Emily Kaplan between the benches.

The network is heavily promoting the game on its TV and Internet platforms, and released an exclusive Kaplan interview with Eichel just before the Golden Knights started practice here Wednesday.

The game also figures to be played in front of the largest and surliest crowd of the season here. While this view is that it would be classier for fans to give Eichel props for his time here, it seems pretty certain that he's going to get crushed with boos much of the night.

TNT has the Heritage Classic on Sunday afternoon and announced on Wednesday that Wayne Gretzky will migrate from the studio in Atlanta to the booth in Hamilton to work with Kenny Albert, Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones. TV star power there.

What version of the Sabres will everyone see in these two games? You hope it's the one that blew the doors off the Leafs last week in Toronto and then simply wouldn't give in to adversity two nights later against Minnesota.

We really need to not see the version that sleepwalked through the second period during Monday's ghastly 6-1 loss to Florida, a super team that has outscored the Sabres 13-2 over the last five periods between the clubs this season.

Let's see how Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt, two players who thrived in the spotlight of the World Junior Championships, react on their biggest NHL stages. Let's see if the Sabres band together to help 40-year-old goalie Craig Anderson make history and get his 300th win.

How will the Sabres do at defending Eichel for the first time? Can't give him time and space. We know what he does with it.

Cozens has a more personal stake in this one, too. He will spend at least some time matching up against Eichel. When Cozens joined the club from the World Juniors last year, his locker was strategically positioned with Eichel on one side and Eric Staal on the other.

"I was very grateful to sit next to him last year. He was great to me, a great guy, great teammate," Cozens said of Eichel. "I got to learn a lot from him. He's one of the best players in the league. So to be able to sit next to him and see what he does on a daily basis and learn from him, he was great in helping me with his advice."

Eichel's 14-minute meeting with the media here Wednesday was a good show. He handled questions, both soft and hard, very well. But let's not forget he first asked out after the 2019-20 season, not in May, and the ESPN interview went off the rails some when he crabbed the Sabres took away his captaincy. There was no reason for him to keep it. He had asked out, was being traded and was hurt anyway. ESPN let him slide on the point.

That said, Eichel hit plenty of good notes here Wednesday. He admitted it was disappointing the Sabres never found the team success he found personally while he was here. He gave it up to the community, even made sure to salute retiring Rick Jeanneret. 

It was interesting that Vegas coach Pete DeBoer has some concerns how Eichel will mentally handle Thursday night's circus.

"It's tough, this is not an easy situation," DeBoer said. "... When those guys are the face of the franchise, they're all-in, they're invested. And he was invested in Buffalo, in this team and this franchise and these fans, so that's not easy. I know it's something that is weighing on him, and we've got to work through it together here."

The Sabres have some things weighing on them, too, the next few days. But this is good pressure. Fascinating to see how they will handle it.