Jack Eichel's seamless fit with Vegas Golden Knights has Stanley Cup in sight - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Labels can be dangerous. So can superlatives. This is why it is suggested that those who use them be careful, because there is no way of telling if the expectation itself can be too much to bear before it's too late.

Belief can create pressure, and pressure is something Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel has learned to manipulate in ways that work for him. He applied the right amount of it when he aggressively shadowed Ryan Suter when the veteran Stars defenseman had possession of the puck behind the Dallas net in Game 2 of the teams' Western Conference final series.

This led to the puck making its way to Vegas' Ivan Barbashev, who played it back to Eichel. With Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen draped over him, Eichel instantly fed a no-look, backhanded pass into the slot that Jonathan Marchessault converted for a 2-2 tie late in the third period. Vegas came away with a 3-2 overtime win to take a 2-0 series advantage. The series resumes tonight in Dallas (8 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN+).

«There's mistakes made, and they cashed in, and they made a real good play,» Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. «Jack Eichel makes a world-class pass.»

World class. It's a label DeBoer used to describe Eichel, a player he coached last season, not even an hour after the game ended. He's not the only one who used that phrase. Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo went as far as saying Eichel was a world-class player.

Describing a person or their actions as «world class» brings no guarantee they'll actually live up to that standard. But that was always the expectation with Eichel, who has been tagged with that superlative for some time.

Eichel is the type of talent executives and front offices long for. A No. 1 center. A franchise