SUNRISE, Fla. --Jack Eichel is dreaming. All day. Every day.
"Oh, for sure," the Vegas Golden Knights center said. "It's just human nature."
Eichel is one win away from living the dream, from winning the Stanley Cup, from planning his own Cup day, likely in his hometown of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
We're, of course, only assuming North Chelmsford, which is about 40 minutes northwest of Boston, is where Eichel will take the Stanley Cup if the Golden Knights win it. That's not a question you ask a player, or his family, during the series. Superstitions and stuff.
But Eichel has been thinking about it pretty much all the time since Vegas reached the Stanley Cup Final with a 6-0 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final on May 29.
It'll be impossible for him not to think about it in the time before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Vegas leads the best-of-7 series 3-1 after holding on for a 3-2 win in Game 4 at FLA Live Arena on Saturday.
Teams that hold a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 Cup Final are 36-1 winning the series.
"You'd be lying if you're a hockey player and you're in this situation and you said you weren't," Eichel said. "It's tough to get your mind off of it."
It was almost four years ago when Eichel, then with the Buffalo Sabres, was in the stands at TD Garden with his father, Bob, watching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues.
That was June 12, 2019. Alex Pietrangelo and Ivan Barbashev were playing for the Blues. Bruce Cassidy was coaching the Bruins. Now, like Eichel, they're Golden Knights.
Eichel wondered then, as he watched the Blues win the Stanley Cup with a 4-1 victory, about the experience he's going through now.
"I think when you're sitting there watching as a player, you want to be in that situation," Eichel said. "You have a lot of questions in your head when you're sitting there watching it. What it would be like to be there?"
So far, the experience has blown him away.
Eichel is playing well. He is second on the Golden Knights with 23 points (six goals, 17 assists) in 21 postseason games, including five assists in four games against the Panthers.
Even better, he is sharing the experience with his parents, Bob and Anne. They were in Las Vegas. Bob got to Florida in time for Game 3. Anne was in the building for Game 4.
"It's been great," Eichel said. "It's one of the best parts about it, having them be able to enjoy the whole experience. They've been through it all with me too. They want to see their son happy and where he wants to be. They know all the stuff you go through as a player and nobody is closer than your parents. They've been with you since you started playing hockey. The ultimate goal is to be playing it the postseason and Stanley Cup Final. I think they're just happy for me."
Eichel said he's limited his interactions outside of the team to mostly his parents, his girlfriend, her family and a few of their closest friends.
"Honestly, people have been very respectful," Eichel said. "I get a lot of texts after games and you get a lot of texts between rounds, but for the most part people are pretty good. I try to keep my circle pretty tight."
This is Eichel's first run through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He played six seasons with the Sabres after they made him the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft after Connor McDavid went No. 1 to the Edmonton Oilers.
Eichel played for three coaches and three general managers before the Sabres traded him to the Golden Knights on Nov. 4, 2021.
He was the Sabres' captain from 2018-21, which made him the face of their failures, however unfair that might have been considering Eichel was also Buffalo's leading scorer with 355 points (139 goals, 216 assists) in 375 games from 2015-21.
"Listen, when I was in Buffalo I was still living my dream, I was playing in the NHL," Eichel said. "I don't have a whole lot to complain about. You're just not having as much success. You want to be doing what we're doing now."
He wouldn't trade the Buffalo years because without them Eichel wouldn't have the perspective he has now. He might not have the appreciation he has either.
"I think your perspective changes a bit as you get older and you start to value certain things differently," the 26-year-old said. "The way you look at things changes. It comes with experience, time and adversity. That's probably why I feel I have a different mindset now than I did years ago.
"I couldn't be happier and more fortunate to have landed here."
