Buffalo Sabres to honor team USA gold medal heroes in emotional homecoming ceremony

The Buffalo Sabres will celebrate Olympic success on Tuesday evening, and the spotlight will shine on a unique surprise reunion. Before their game against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Buffalo Sabres will honor forward Tage Thompson and Team USA teammates on their Olympic gold medal success. This is the first home game for the Sabres after the break.

The ceremony has a surprise element: former Sabres captain Jack Eichel will participate in the ceremony in the arena where his tenure ended in controversy. Defenseman Noah Hanifin will also participate in the ceremony along with other gold medalists.

Buffalo’s recent run since the Olympic break has altered the outlook significantly, however, and the Sabres now find themselves sitting in the second spot in the Atlantic Division, 35-19-6, and poised to be a buyer at the trade deadline rather than a seller.

For Tage Thompson, the recognition ceremony is a matter of the group effort rather than a nod of individual accomplishment, and he spoke to the media, via Rachel Lenzi of The Buffalo News, about the value of the group effort.

“Jack and Noah will be part of that. Because, as Hughes said, it’s about the team; it is not about one individual. You don’t get to accomplish what we did by just one person. It takes everybody. Not only the players, but also the staff included,” Thompson said.

The return of Eichel brings a degree of emotional complexity, however, as the player was drafted by the Sabres with the second-overall pick in 2015 and played for the franchise for six years before a messy split in 2021, during which he had a series of very public disagreements with the team’s management and medical staff. In his first game back in 2022, he famously jabbed the Sabres fans for waiting so long to get into the game.

But Tage Thompson, who played three seasons with Eichel after being traded to Buffalo in 2018 from the St. Louis Blues, is focused on making amends. While playing 69 games together in Buffalo, not once during their time with the Sabres did Eichel assist on a Thompson tally—until the Olympic game.

But now, with Buffalo seeking their first postseason appearance in over a decade, the ceremony signifies more than simply winning on the world stage. It signifies growth and new hope—and maybe even closure.

The faceoff against Vegas is scheduled for 7:00 PM ET on Wednesday evening, with a fanbase ready to celebrate their gold—and a team that now believes their own window to a championship could be on the horizon.