By: Dan Shulman<\/p>\n
At four-years old, a young Jack Eichel sat at TD Garden as his Boston Bruins fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs via a Mats Sundin overtime winner.<\/p>\n
A little over 15 years later, Eichel returned to the familiar setting of TD Garden, a place where he saw many classic games and played as a member of the Boston University Terriers hockey team. But this time, Eichel wouldn\u2019t be wearing a hometown jersey.<\/p>\n
For the first time in his young NHL career, Jack Eichel returned to Boston to play against his hometown team with Atlantic Division rival, the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is exciting for me,\u201d said Eichel. \u201cYou always dream playing in the garden and now I\u2019m going to get to do it for the first time against the Bruins and I\u2019m just really excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Eichel hails from North Chelmsford, Massachusetts and grew up watching the Boston Bruins. His hockey roots are engrained in New England, and when it came time for college, Eichel remained close to home at Boston University.<\/p>\n
In his lone season as a Terrier, Eichel racked up 71 points (26G, 45A) in just 40 games. He became the second freshman ever to win the Hobey Baker in April. In addition, he was named Hockey East Player of the Year, Hockey East Rookie of the Year, won the Tim Taylor Award for the nation\u2019s most outstanding freshman, and was the only unanimous first-team Hockey East All-Star selection.<\/p>\n
Eichel played at TD Garden six times last season with BU, including a 4-3 loss in the National Championship Game against Providence, the last time he set foot in TD Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a lot of good memories here,\u201d said Eichel. \u201cLast year I had some good ones, winning the Beanpot and the Hockey East Championship, so this building\u2019s been pretty good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, making the transition from college to professional hockey has definitely been difficult for Eichel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re playing a lot more every week,\u201d said Eichel. \u201cIt\u2019s a grind. There\u2019s a lot more games. Back-to-backs, traveling. Mentally and physically, that\u2019s the biggest difference between a college schedule and a pro schedule. I\u2019m really enjoying playing in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Eichel wasn\u2019t the only young star in Hockey East who chose to make the early exit to the NHL. On the opposite side of the ice, as he was for Eichel\u2019s first college shift, will be former UMass-Amherst and current Bruins player, Frank Vatrano.<\/p>\n
\u201cCollege really helped me transition into the NHL,\u201d said Vatrano. “It\u2019s scheduled a little bit differently though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vatrano and UMass-Amherst had a tough time containing Jack Eichel in two commanding losses to BU last season, as Eichel led the way for the Terriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, he\u2019s a really good player,\u201d said Vatrano. \u201cHe makes things happen when he\u2019s on the ice; makes plays, scores goals. Definitely someone you got to notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his rookie campaign, Eichel has scored nine times through 34 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to produce points,\u201d said Eichel. \u201cA lot of times there\u2019s things you can build off in the game that don\u2019t show up on the scoresheet. If you feel good about your game then you\u2019re probably playing pretty well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m getting back to where I want to be. I think this year I haven\u2019t really produced the points that I wanted to. There\u2019s been a lot of good things I\u2019ve done, and I kind of just want to build off the positive things. I\u2019m starting to get to where I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of Saturday\u2019s matchup with the Bruins, Boston Coach Claude Julien addressed the situation of facing Eichel for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen how good he was watching the World Juniors last year,\u201d said Julien. \u201cHe\u2019s a gifted player. He sees the ice well. He\u2019s one of those guys that\u2019s strong on the puck. For his age, I see his maturity level not just intellectually but physically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helping him make the adjustment to the NHL is teammate Matt Moulson. The 32-year-old forward has taken Eichel under his wing, and invited the rookie to live in his house with his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good kid,\u201d said Moulson. \u201cHe\u2019s fun to have around, good with the kids, my family loves him. It\u2019s been a lot of fun to have him in the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the time the two spend together on the ice, Moulson believes Eichel is really something special.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has phenomenal talent, skillset that only a few have,\u201d said Moulson. \u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous player. He can create stuff by himself because of his speed and the skills he has. He can turn a nothing opportunity into a grade-A scoring chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming off a Christmas break, Eichel returned to his own home for the holidays for the first time in a few years to spend time with his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great getting to go home, seeing a lot of family and friends. It was my first Christmas in Chelmsford in a few years so it\u2019s nice to wake up in your own house on Christmas. I didn\u2019t even have to fly in this morning, I just drove a half hour. It was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the game on Saturday, many of Jack Eichel\u2019s family and friends are expected to come out and support him as the Sabres take on the Bruins. Despite the special occasion, Eichel is approaching this game like usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cI imagine there will be some nerves but I usually get nerves before every game,\u201d said Eichel. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing different with what\u2019s happening on the ice, just a lot of people supporting me in the stands.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Dan Shulman At four-years old, a young Jack Eichel sat at TD Garden as his Boston Bruins fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs via a Mats Sundin overtime winner. A little over 15 years later, Eichel returned to the familiar setting of TD Garden, a place where he saw many classic games and played […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17194,"featured_media":6846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1026,1028],"tags":[1248],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6851"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}