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Jack Eichel ready for 'awkward' Buffalo Sabres reunion but hoping for warm welcome

Jack Eichel knows his return to Buffalo will be "awkward" and says he doesn't know how Sabres fans will react -- though he hopes they focus on some positives.

"I think about my time in Buffalo, it obviously ended a little bit messy," Eichel, the former Sabres captain, told ESPN ahead of his first game in Buffalo (7 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN+) since getting traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in November. "But I hope [fans] can look past some of the things that happened maybe in the last year and think about the previous five and a half, six years that I was there and everything that I tried to do for the community, everything that I feel like I put forth on the ice as a hockey player, and know I just tried to do as much as I could for the city.