Jack Eichel Has Officially Won The Breakup, Will Get To Play In The Playoffs For The First Time In His Career
Ethan Miller. Getty Images.Jack Eichel was drafted in 2015. Think about how much different the world was back then. Harambe was still alive. Vine was still a thing. Barstool was still headquartered out of the Milton office. Fetty Wap was making music.
Life was good in 2015. Shit has changed drastically since then. But the one thing that has remained a constant is the fact that Jack Eichel has never played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He spent his first 6 seasons in Buffalo and didn't even get a chance to sniff the playoffs. Then last year he ended up getting traded to Vegas, but that ended up as a wash as the Golden Knights season went to shit and they failed to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
The timing couldn't have been any more conspicuous for old Jacky Ice Hockey. This was an expansion team that advanced to the Stanley Cup Final their first year in existence. Had been to the playoffs every season since. Then they trade for Jack Eichel, and all of a sudden they're a bunch of losers? It was starting to look like there might be an Eichel Curse. But you can throw all those conspiracies away because after 8 grueling years, Jack Eichel is finally headed to the 'yoffs.
Meanwhile it looks like yet another year for the Buffalo Sabres that will end after 82 games played.
They're not completely out of the picture yet. But you can go ahead and call it a season for the Sabres. They're 3-4-3 in their last 10 games during the most important stretch of the season. They'd need a colossal meltdown from multiple teams to jump into that 2nd wild card spot. It's over for them. And this will be the 12th consecutive year that Buffalo hasn't made the playoffs. It'll be the 16th year since they last won a playoff series in 2007. We're almost at the point now where kids will be old enough to get drafted, but not old enough to ever witness the Sabres win a playoff series.
This is breakup is now looking like the ol' "it's not you, it's me", but when everybody in the world knows that it's actually you. Buffalo has definitely been taking this time apart to work on themselves. They've shown signs of growth for sure. But they just can't give Eichel that satisfaction he was looking for, and they may never be able to. He's moved on, won the breakup, and now it's just time for Buffalo to try to find some love elsewhere. I know it can get lonely at times, but just keep your chin up. Plenty more fish in the sea, champ.