If we're reading the tea leaves on social media and around town, it seems as if the knee-jerk approach of the paying customers Thursday night in KeyBank Center will be to let Jack Eichel have it at every opportunity they can.
The sound might be the same when he's introduced in the starting lineup, every time he touches the puck (as we saw with Daniel Briere and Chris Drury in 2007), announced for a goal or an assist and maybe even when his video tribute is played at the first TV timeout of the first period.
The boos will make for a churlish atmosphere for the Buffalo Sabres' much-anticipated game against the Vegas Golden Knights. And that's a shame.
While on the subject of video tributes, there will be one for Eichel. Right, Sabres?
Here's hoping Terry and/or Kim Pegula don't get spiteful and send out an ill-advised order to the game-presentation staff to give Eichel the silent treatment. There's precedent here.
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Darcy Regier did it toward Jason Pominville in 2013 when the former GM nixed a video the game presentation staff had ready for Pominville's return with Minnesota, leaving no official welcome back for one of the franchise's most popular players.
It obviously didn't end well here for Eichel, and it's well-known around the building that the Pegulas, and especially Terry, were furious with Eichel over the last year for the kerfuffle over his neck surgery.
After all, the Pegulas had sold the organizational soul to get him by tanking (albeit with the intention of nabbing Connor McDavid). But once Eichel got here, they were all in for him, too. Often to a fault.
Eichel was given too much pull far too soon in his career to influence the firing of coach Dan Bylsma, was handed an $80 million contract at age 20 and the captaincy at 21. Fans clearly feel they didn't get enough payback, and the owners probably do, too.
There were pros and cons to the latter two decisions, but ownership took the plunge and understandably felt betrayed when their star began to look for the exit in 2020. Of course, Eichel had his own feelings about the disastrous team-building attempts of the Pegulas and former GMs Tim Murray and Jason Botterill during his time here as well.
Eichel crabbed the team needed more veteran depth when the 2020 season was canceled and was told they would move to win again quickly. That led to the acquisitions of Taylor Hall and Eric Staal. Good tries. Didn't work.
Then Eichel got hurt – the fateful neck injury in Nassau Coliseum that ended his Buffalo career was a year ago Monday – and the surgery fiasco started. It's always been this view that he was gone after the shortened 2021 season, whether he was healthy or not.
So if you want to boo, you should be booing the Pegulas. Ineffective, distant ownership and bad management have rendered this franchise a shell of itself, leaving GM Kevyn Adams and coach Don Granato a massive lift to get things turned around.
Eichel gave us a lot of great moments. He's the franchise's all-time leader in overtime goals, and he's badly missed at 3-on-3 this season. He was eighth in the Hart Trophy balloting just two years ago – ahead of names such as Nikita Kucherov, Auston Matthews and Alex Ovechkin – and it seemed as though he was getting to the superstar level everyone hoped for at the 2015 draft.
He wanted to win here, but it never seemed like he was embraced. Within the organization, there were always some diva rumblings surrounding his interactions with staff. But with the media, he was always available, accountable and insightful.
Many a night when that locker room was empty after another terrible loss, Eichel would be in there alone – often still in most of his equipment – waiting for reporters who asked him to dissect the damage.
As for Adams and Granato, they are trying mightily to move on through a difficult season. Adams did well on the Eichel trade by getting Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and two draft picks. Even if the franchise's morality took a beating nationally by the length of time it took to get a deal done while Eichel twisted in the wind with no surgery and no hockey career.
As for paying tribute to Eichel, you never can tell with this organization. League-wide headshaking about the Sabres stiffing Pominville was so fierce that teams all over the place made sure to welcome back returning players ad nauseum from that point forward.
Ryan Miller got a huge and well-deserved salute his first time back here with Vancouver in 2015. Of course, these things are normally reserved for players who accomplish a lot in their careers and/or win a lot, like Miller did.
It's a dicier proposition when more recent players hit town.
When Rasmus Ristolainen came back with Philadelphia on Jan. 22, there was nothing but a quick welcome-back announcement over the PA during a faceoff. That felt classless toward a guy who played eight years and 542 games here. Still, what did Ristolainen ever win?
When the Sabres went to Vegas on Feb. 1, the Golden Knights put together a classy triple video to welcome back Alex Tuch, Cody Eakin and Peyton Krebs. While Tuch was the most popular of the three, Eakin also had an important role on the 2018 Stanley Cup finalists and Krebs was a prime prospect.
Seemingly off that cue, the Sabres put together a quick triple of their own for Monday night's game against Florida to honor Sam Reinhart, Brandon Montour and Jonas Johansson. But that felt bogus and goofy.
Reinhart was a former No. 2 overall pick who played 454 games for the Sabres and had perhaps his best season in 2021 when the franchise was at some of its lowest moments. He deserved to get the applause on his own.
So the team didn't honor Ristolainen, but it did honor Montour, who played 112 games here, and Johansson – who went 1-8-2 in goal in 13 career games in Buffalo.
Now, Eichel is coming to town and he's likely to get blasted for all the failings of the franchise that took place while he was here. Many of which weren't his fault.
There's just not a lot of sense to it. But when it comes to the Sabres, we've come to expect that feeling.
