It may only be the preseason, but things between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres really got heated when the two teams engaged in an all-out brawl Saturday night that ended with both teams' goalies throwing punches at each other.
The Leafs eventually beat the Sabres 5-3 in the exhibition game, but not before fists were flying. Phil Kessel, who scored twice for Toronto in the contest, got involved with Buffalo enforcer John Scott midway through the third period. After a fight between Leafs' forward Jamie Devane and Sabres' winger Corey Tropp, Kessel backed away from Scott and swung his stick at him twice.
Some of Kessel's teammates jumped in and a brawl between both sides broke out with the referees attempting to restore order.
Kessel recalled the actions that led up to the fight after the game, saying that Scott was looking to jump him.
"I don't know. It was pretty stupid, right?" Kessel told NHL.com. "[Scott] said he was gonna jump me. I just backed up. What are you gonna do, you know? He's a big boy so if he's coming after me, what am I gonna do, right?"
All three line mates on the ice for each side entered the fray as the brawl began to get out of hand with the referees unable to stop it. Toronto right wing David Clarkson even jumped off of his teams' bench and onto the ice to get involved, which resulted in him receiving a 10-minute misconduct penalty in accordance with league rules for leaving the bench.
The fight culminated in a brawl between Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller and Leafs' new net minder Jonathan Bernier.
"I just saw everyone fighting and I wanted to defend my teammate, I guess," Bernier said per NHL.com.
Miller wasn't too happy after the game.
"I think Clarkson will get 10 games for that," Miller said, according to NHL.com. "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]."
During the game, 239 penalty minutes were handed out due to all the fighting major penalties and the misconduct penalties, and the brawl upset Toronto head coach Randy Carlyle, who was upset with Clarkson's decision to leave the bench.
"We're not proud or happy with what went on," Carlyle told reporters after the game, according to NHL.com. "I think David Clarkson made a mistake and now we pay for it."
Trevor Smith, Josh Leivo and Jake Gardiner each lit the lamp for Toronto while Nikita Zadorov, Jamie McBain and Tropp scored for Buffalo.
These two teams don't meet again until Nov. 15 in Buffalo, but it will be interesting to see if the bad blood spills over to that opening meeting in the regular season. Buffalo opens up its season Oct. 2 against the Red Wings in Detroit while the Leafs travel to Montreal Oct. 1 to do battle with the Canadiens.
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