"I'd like to play as quickly as I can," Eichel said. "It's more about how I feel and how my ankle reacts to practice today and how it feels tomorrow, how I feel physically. Mentally you're back already. Whenever you're out that long and you miss that much time, you wish you were playing a few weeks ago. But in the essence of things, you want to take care of things and make sure you're healthy enough to make an impact. So we're just going to take it day by day here."
The Sabres (22-35-12), who host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, TSN4, NHL.TV) are in last place in the Eastern Conference, 22 points behind the New Jersey Devils for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I still don't want to put a timetable on it," Housley said. "He just had a tough practice with some contact and we'll see how he reacts after today and re-evaluate it tomorrow and just take it day to day."
Eichel participated in a full practice and skated on a line with Zemgus Girgensons and Jason Pominville. He also worked on the first power-play unit.
"I was excited to be back with the team," Eichel said. "The toughest thing being injured is not being on the ice with them every day and not spending that quality time you enjoy so much. You really enjoy being back out there practicing and the battling and that compete, that's the stuff you miss when you're injured. It was good to be back out there today.
"I'm trying to get the conditioning level back, it's been five weeks. It doesn't come back over night, it's a bit of a process, but I'm pretty happy with where I am right now and how I feel, wind-wise, and I think the conditioning level comes back pretty quick, but I don't think I lost too much."
Eichel sustained a high-ankle sprain in his left ankle last season the day before the season began. That injury caused him to miss the first 21 games.
"What I did specifically to my ankle was a little bit different, so I think I was able to use last years' experience to [my] benefit, figure out what went well, and the other thing is I knew what to expect with it," Eichel said. "Going through last year's injury, you know you're going to tweak it, you know there's going to be days it feels great and days where it doesn't feel as great so you just try and manage it as well as you can."
