WNY and Buffalo NY Hockey Coverage
February Edition
Tage Thompson also received star honors last week. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
A dynamic three-game stretch in which Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson scored four goals and eight points has earned him NHL Second Star honors for the second consecutive week.
Thompson, 25, continued his torrid production, recording multiple points in each outing as the Sabres went 3-0-0 during the week ending Sunday.
The American scored the game-winning goal in last Tuesday’s 6-0 win over the Los Angeles Kings and Saturday’s 5-2 road win against the Arizona ... Read the full article
Vegas’ Jack Eichel celebrates Thursday with goalie Logan Thompson. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Sabres fans didn’t even wait for Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel to touch the puck Thursday. As soon as his skates hit the ice, they began booing loudly. When he gained possession, the jeering intensified.
The season-high crowd of 15,757 fans at KeyBank Center booed when the ex-Sabres captain lost a faceoff and again when goalie Eric Comrie stymied him on two breakaways. When the video boards showed replays of the saves, ... Read the full article
Jack Eichel heard boos during his first visit March 10. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – For most of his six-minute pregame media availability, ex-Sabres captain Jack Eichel spoke blandly, offering cliché answers about facing his old team as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights.
But when the topic turned to the booing he endured March 10 throughout his return to KeyBank Center, Eichel, the face of the Sabres for six seasons, briefly opened up.
He felt the jeers and vitriol from the raucous crowd.
“It was ... Read the full article
Buffalo’s Casey Fitzgerald (right) fights Vegas’ Keegan Kolesar on March 10. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Instead of blocking out the noise and trying to treat it like any of the other 82 games this season, captain Kyle Okposo wants the Sabres to embrace the stiff challenge facing Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights presents.
Games as anticipated as tonight’s haven’t materialized often over the last decade.
Right now, having won eight straight contests, the Golden Knights rank first overall. Their leading scorer, Eichel, the ex-Sabres captain, has ... Read the full article
Henri Jokijarju has missed the last nine games. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Shortly before Wednesday’s practice, Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju was on the KeyBank Center ice skating in a gold jersey and tinted visor. When the session began, he stayed out, participating in a non-contact role.
Jokiharju’s first practice since suffering an upper-body injury Oct. 20 is simply a first step, Sabres coach Don Granato said. Right now, there’s no timetable for his return.
The Finn, 23, hasn’t played since a puck hit him in ... Read the full article
Peyton Krebs celebrates his first-period goal Thursday. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – After scoring a goal and helping spoil Jack Eichel’s return, Peyton Krebs gave his good friend, Alex Tuch, a hug to celebrate perhaps the Sabres’ most exciting victory in years.
Krebs and Tuch, having arrived from the Vegas Golden Knights in the blockbuster Eichel trade, will forever be linked together. The wingers have embraced the opportunities that materialized when they departed one of the NHL’s elite teams to join a rebuilding one.
So ... Read the full article
Casey Fitzgerald has played 21 NHL games. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – In Thursday’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights, five of the six defensemen the Sabres utilized were 25 or younger.
The graybeard of the group, Robert Hagg, 27, has played all of 282 NHL games.
The rest of the blue line consisted of neophytes. Only one other defenseman, Rasmus Dahlin, 21, has played more than 200 big league contests.
The Sabres dressed two rookies – Casey Fitzgerald, 25, and Mattias Samuelsson, who turns ... Read the full article
Mark Pysyk sat out one game last month. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju will return tonight from a lower-body injury that has sidelined him the last six games, coach Don Granato said.
To make room, Granato said the Sabres will scratch defenseman Mark Pysyk against the Vegas Golden Knights.
When the Sabres had a surfeit of defensemen last month, they began rotating one in and out each game. Right now, however, Granato wants the team’s young defenders keep playing.
Jack Eichel spent six seasons in Buffalo before being traded to Vegas on Nov. 4. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – The scene looked downright odd. There was ex-Sabres captain Jack Eichel, clad in his Golden Knights gear with the team’s backdrop behind him and a flag in front of him, talking about his new life in Vegas.
In the same spot in KeyBank Center where he often spoke to the local media, Eichel, 25, acknowledged on Wednesday it felt a little awkward walking in as a visitor.
For six seasons after the Sabres ... Read the full article
Henri Jokiharju has missed the last six games. ©2022, Micheline Veluvolu
BUFFALO – Defenseman Henri Jokiharju and some other injured Sabres could return for tonight’s home game against Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights, coach Don Granato said.
Jokiharju, out the last six games with a lower-body injury, practiced Wednesday in his regular spot beside defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Meanwhile, winger Zemgus Girgensons, out the last 16 games with a lower-body injury, skated on a line of extras with center Mark Jankowski and Anders Bjork inside ... Read the full article
