from Leo Roth of the Democrat & Chronicle,

The role Eichel, the team’s brooding 20-year-old superstar, played in the firing of GM Tim Murray and coach Dan Bylsma will no doubt be overestimated — and underestimated — by the time the dust settles on this latest fooling-nobody try by drowning owners Terry and Kim Pegula to let everyone know they won’t stand for losing and got it all figured out.

But wherever the truth lies, Eichel has blood on his hands.

The Pegulas, who have acted very amateurish in their opinion-seeking from players they seem to moon over, had to have been influenced by media reports and firsthand knowledge that Eichel, the face of their sunken franchise, wasn’t enamored with Bylsma as coach.

But refuse to sign a contract extension this summer?

The money he’ll be getting could pave a road from Boston to L.A. and certainly smooth over his feelings about the head coach and his pedestrian tactics. And if the Sabres didn’t end their six-year playoff drought next year, Bylsma would be gone anyway.

None of that matters now but one thing remains: Eichel’s new reputation as a coach killer (with GMs as collateral damage).

As the “savior" of the franchise who undercut his coach, threw teammates under the bus and pouted before the media after missing a $2 million bonus by the smallest of percentage points for not finishing in the Top 10 of points-per-game scoring in the NHL, the only way Eichel lives this down is to deliver a Stanley Cup to the starving hockey masses of western New York.

more