Maple Leafs will end up on the wrong end of Sabres brawl

When Buffalo Sabres John Scott lineup up for a faceoff in the neutral zone beside Toronto Maple Leafs sniper Phil Kessel, nobody had any idea what would happen next would have such a major impact on Toronto’s season.

Scott allegedly told Kessel that he was going to jump him off the draw and proceeded to do just that. Kessel responded with a couple of two-handed whacks to Scott’s ankles as he tried to get away from Buffalo’s 6-foot-8 enforcer. But that was just the beginning of the fun.

The rest of the Leafs jumped Scott to protect Kessel and everybody squared off. Kessel ended up bloodying Brian Flynn’s nose in one bout and Leafs goaltender Jonathan Bernier gave Ryan Miller a bunch of good shots after skating the length of the ice to dance. In the end, nobody was really hurt and you have to love the intensity, but this whole mess is going to leave the Leafs behind the eight ball.

David Clarkson jumped off the bench to try to protect Kessel from Scott, so he’s almost certainly facing a 10-game suspension. That in itself is a major loss to a Leafs club that is looking to bounce back after their Game 7 collapse against the Boston Bruins. There’s also a good chance Kessel could get a couple of games at least. He delivered a couple good chops to Scott and came back with a bit of a spear later in the altercation. That’s not even to get into the salary cap issues the team will have to deal with during these suspension(s).

“I think Clarkson will get 10 games for that,” Miller told reporters. “Are we going to see Clarkson our first game against these guys? I don’t have my schedule. So probably not the brightest move by him. But I guess they figured they needed two guys to take down John (Scott).”

Miller gets to the root of the issue here. This sort of thing is frowned upon among the NHL’s executives, so don’t be surprised if Brendan Shanahan comes down hard on all the participants involved. Shanahan has two other incidents to look at in Vancouver’s last game (Dale Weise and Zack Kassian could be banned) and just suspended Paul Bissonnette 10 games for leaving the bench last week. It’s terrible timing to get into a brawl like this, especially with the league beginning to enforce penalties to players who remove their helmets before fights.

The Leafs could now be missing some key pieces to begin the regular season. With the NHL’s new division alignment and playoff format, Toronto is going to need all the points it can get. Sunday’s fracas might bring the dressing room together, but it does nothing to get them any closer to the playoffs (-167 at Sports Interaction).