17-Year Anniversary of Famous Buffalo Sabres “Brawl” Game

The Buffalo Sabres won last night, 3-2 vs. the Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres special teams for once, was the difference.

Jeff Skinner scored a power play goal, while Alex Tuch added a shorthanded goal, which was the game-winner.

The Sabres are likely to miss the playoffs for a 13th straight season, however, as they still sit 10 points out of the final wild card spot (with one more game played than the Detroit Red Wings). There's only 26 games left in the season.

Sometimes, Sabres fans look back on when the team was not only good but one of the best teams in the NHL. The 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 teams were just that.

The Sabres won the President's trophy in 2007 (most points in the league) and made it to the Eastern Conference Final, where they lost in five games to the Ottawa Senators; whom the Sabres defeated in the second round a year prior (also in five games).

However, other than the Chris Drury tying goal against the New York Rangers in the 2007 playoffs, the most memorable game from that season was February 22nd, 2007.

The Sabres hosted the Senators at what was then called HSBC Arena. Buffalo went on to win the game 6-5 in a shootout, but what took place during the second period is what lived on forever.

After two quick Thomas Vanek goals in the second period to give Buffalo a 3-2 lead, Senators forward Chris Neil took a blindside cheap shot hit at Sabres captain Chris Drury. The hit was with the shoulder, but Neil was late and it was from the side, plus it was directly aimed at the head.

In today's game, that's a major penalty and a probably suspension. Back then, it was easier to get away with but the intent from Neil was evident, especially after the Sabres regained momentum.

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Drury would later return but left the ice, bleeding from a cut above the eye. Sabres rookie forward Drew Stafford fought Neil and both went to the box for five minutes.

That's when all hell broke loose.

Senators head coach Bryan Murray, unaware of what would happen, sent his top line of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Mike Comrie onto the ice. That's when Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff sent his 4th line of Adam Mair, Andrew Peters and Buffalo native Patrick Kaleta, who was playing in his first career NHL game.

The message from Lindy was to retaliate. It's something you saw plenty of times in the '70s, 80's and even the '90s, but even in 2007, this stuff typically did not escalate to the extent this did.

After the puck was dropped, Mair punched Spezza a few times, and there was a dogpile at center ice. Kaleta went after Comrie then Chris Phillips, while Peters went after Heatley. Then goaltenders Marty Biron and Ray Emery fought.

Peters then fought Emery and no Senators player tried to stop Peters from doing that. Neil wanted to get back onto the ice but was inside the penalty box.

Then, Lindy and Murray started screaming at once another as Sabres and Senators players looked on. The image of Heatley staring at Lindy saying, "don't go after our f*****g captain" will forever live in my mind.

The game made national news and was featured on SportsCenter in the U.S. and TSN in Canada.

Watch the recap of the game here.

The two teams met two nights later in Ottawa and there was a fight between Senators tough guy Brian McGratton and Peters. There were also multiple unsportsmanlike penalties.

The energy in the crowd that night was amazing. The one thing that did not happen was Neil and Ottawa did not do anything like that hit again the rest of the season vs. Buffalo and the years after.

What are your memories of the Sabres-Sens brawl game?