Jack Eichel forced to miss first day of Sabres’ training camp

There is no doubt that expectations are high for the Buffalo Sabres for the 2021 season. Despite a terrible showing at the end of the 2019-20 calendar, pushing them out of the Return to Play playoff picture, the Sabres impressed many fans this offseason with several moves to better their roster. General manager Kevyn Adams has done some serious business this offseason, adding star forward Taylor Hall in October, signing free agent forwards Cody Eakin and Tobias Rieder and defenseman Matt Irwin, and acquiring veteran centre Eric Staal from the Minnesota Wild in late-September.

This was done to make team captain Jack Eichel happy and motivated, and quiet down all the trade rumours surrounding the star forward. However now, it is different chatter being said about Eichel as we found out from the Sabres on Friday morning that he misses the first day of training camp due to an upper-body injury sustained in training. 

The team points out that Eichel is day to day with his injury, which means they are still hopeful he will be available to start the season on January 14, when the Sabres take on the Washington Capitals for their first game of the season. 

On top of that, the Sabres also announced that Linus Ullmark would miss today’s practice while he is quarantining due to an immigration issue. The team expects to have him on the ice in the coming days.

2021 is not starting off great for the Sabres at the moment...