Coming into tonight’s game, the Sabres were on a three game losing streak with Jack Eichel and his Golden Knights coming to town for the second time since his trade a year ago. Jack heard the boos early but he got his revenge with a huge 7-4 Vegas win.
The Golden Knights got on the board first, pretty early in the first period with Chandler Stephenson lighting the lamp 5:44 into the game on a delayed penalty. The Sabres tied it up with 3:36 left in the first on a power play goal from Tage Thompson with Mark Stone in the box for interference. That lead didn’t last long though. Just 27 seconds later, Nicolas Hague answered back to make it 2-1 Vegas with 3:10 left in the period. The Sabres challenged it for offsides and after a pretty long review, it got taken off the board with video evidence determining that Vegas didn’t have what was considered possession to get into the zone. Still such a garbage rule. Fun period, going into the first intermission with a 1-1 tie game with Vegas outshooting the Sabres 15-11.
3:43 into the second period, Phil the thrill Kessel made it 2-1 Vegas once again and that one counted. The Sabres tied it up once again with a nice little move in front of the net for a beauty goal by Casey Mittelstadt on the power play to make it 2-2 with 6:07 left in the second period. With 2:52 left in the period, Vegas took the lead back on another beauty of a goal, this time from Paul Cotter to make it 3-2 Golden Knights going into the second intermission.
In the third period, Jack Eichel got his first point of his career against his former Sabres with the primary assist on Alex Pietrangelo’s goal to make it 4-2 Vegas 3:52 into the period. Then 2:21 later, Jack Eichel put the puck in the back of the net for what was one of the most meaningful goals for him in his career, making it 5-2 Knights. 9:40 into the period, the Sabres answered back with Tage Thompson’s second goal of the game to bring Buffalo back within two. Jack got his third point of the period with his second goal of the game with 5:23 left. With 4:07 left in the game, Rasmus Asplund it the Sabres back within two, shorthanded to make it 6-4. A handful of hats flew onto the ice as Jack Eichel made it a hat trick on a red line to red line empty net goal to finish the game 7-4
FINAL: Sabres 4, Golden Knights 7
Fun game, even in the loss. Pretty much what I expected out of this game. A healthy Eichel on the best team in the NHL to start the year was going to be determined to get his revenge against us, especially after last year’s game. And he’s talented enough to make it happen. It was actually a pretty good game for both teams and fun to watch from start to end.
Sucks to lose and that part of this game wasn’t fun to watch. But good for Jack. I still stand behind that Jack was completely right in his whole surgery disagreement and the Pegula’s were wrong in that. That was really the final straw though to a bad run of years in a horrible situation in Buffalo. But that being said, I’m still very happy with the trade that was always inevitable and really launched the Sabres into a new era as a team. It was gonna happen eventually and I’m glad we got a first round pick, a great prospect in Krebs and a player who was fantastic in Vegas in Tuch that dreamed of being a Buffalo Sabre his entire life. This team’s on the right trajectory now and its finally fun to watch Sabres hockey again. And it worked for Vegas too, Jack’s a fucking beast and leads that team.
Go Sabres.
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