Jack Eichel could miss 6-8 weeks with injury

BUFFALO --Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel could miss 6-8 weeks because of an ankle injury sustained on Wednesday in the final practice before the start of the regular season, general manager Tim Murray said Thursday.
"Historically that's what they've been. I guess some guys have come back after four (weeks) or so, but we can't count on that and we can't sit here and wait for four weeks to come and think it's all going to get better," Murray said during the season opener against the Montreal Canadiens at KeyBank Center. "We have to prepare. You know me, glass half-empty, prepare long term, and anything that is better than that is a bonus."

It was particularly disappointing for the Sabres, given the hope they had heading into the season. Buffalo made offseason moves knowing it had taken steps toward challenging for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season after five consecutive years of missing them, but those chances lessen with every game Eichel misses.

"Very, because you make changes in the offseason and a lot of them are based on him and our young guys," Murray said. "You make a trade for Dmitry] Kulikov, for example, you give up a pretty good young player in [Mark
"We believe we're 23, 24, 25 are on our roster and we're a 25-man team. We have to approach it that way. It's next man up and we've got to go out there and do it with the injury situation we have, and that's not just with Jack. Kyle [is] not in there and Dmitry [is] not in there. Those are good players for our team. We're going to have to go out and play a good team game without them."