Sabres begin back-to-back against Toronto tonight, plus other notes (Anders Nilsson, Nick Baptiste)

Published by hockeybuzz.com--9-29-2016


It's been just over three years, and a whole lot of losing in between, since the infamous John Scott/Phil Kessel incident at Air Canada Center in Toronto. After Toronto's Jamie Devane pummeled Buffalo's Corey Tropp in a scrap, the two teams lined up for a faceoff at center ice and the 6'8" Scott found himself next to 6' Kessel with the Sabres in retribution-mode. Words were exchanged, the puck was dropped, Scott went after Kessel and Kessel started hacking at Scott's ankles with his stick.

Since then Kessel was traded by Toronto to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2015 and won the Stanley Cup with his new team a year later. Scott bounced from the Sabres to the San Jose Sharks, to the Arizona Coyotes. Scott won the NHL All-Star fan vote and seemingly at the behest of the league was shipped by the 'Yotes to the Montreal Canadiens where they sent him to the minors so he couldn't be a part of the All-Star Game. Scott would not only play in the game but was named MVP and had the pleasure of receiving a check from the league (to it's embarrassment.) He went home with a new Honda Pilot, $90,000 as being part of the winning team and was with his wife when she gave birth to twins less than a week later.

As for the teams, the Sabres were a mess during that 2013-14 season and plummeted to the bottom of the league two years running for a complete rebuild. The Leafs would follow suit two years later punctuated by the trade of Kessel. Now both teams are armed with a bevy of youngsters and are about to make their climb up the standings.