Sportsnet

‘No matter how Herculean his efforts, Eichel’s task has been Sisyphean. The boulder rolls back down the hill. Listen below. This is feeling like rock bottom, or darn close.’

‘“I’ve already started preparing for next season now,” Eichel said. “I’m already doing things to try and better myself for the start of next season whenever that is. (But) I’d be lying if I said I’m not getting frustrated with the way things are going.”’

‘“Every time he steps out there he seems like he’s just got another gear over everyone else,” he wrote. “To do that night in and night out? That’s impressive.”’

‘“His demeanour, the way that he handles himself in the locker room in front of everyone everyday,” Eichel said. “He’s somebody that I look up to a lot as a role model for leadership. There’s such a great respect there and I think that it’s mutual between the two of us.”’

‘“The hospital (Boston Medical Center) is in a lot of distress right now, and it’s a tough position,” the 23-year-old captain of the Buffalo Sabres said Monday. “She’s actually been at home for the last few weeks, which somehow is really lucky. Wouldn’t want her going in. It’s such a high risk.”’

‘“His skating was really coming along, he had a real natural high hockey IQ – he was seeing the ice very well and understood the game,” said Lawrie. “He was ahead of the other players that were playing very often. So that’s probably when you started hearing whispers around town and around the rink that there’s a young guy that might go a long way in this sport.”’

‘This is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you gleefully dive head first into a rebuild you assume will turn out rosy after making a few high draft picks.’

‘He is willing Buffalo back into a game it didn’t show up for, and giving, as always, hope for hockey in Western New York. “Jack scores a big goal there,” teammate Kyle Okposo says. “Then we start to believe.”’

‘This is undeniably the Eichel show, though. And in a season where the Sabres are honouring their past, nobody is providing more hope for a happy immediate future.’

‘Today he is the captain of Djurgardens in the SHL and playing for less than a tenth of what he would have been earning in Buffalo. But he’s in a much better place overall. “I don’t know how much money you need to be happy, but I’m good,” said Berglund.’