The message has been sent: mess with the Buffalo Sabres, any of the Sabres, and expect severe repercussions.

The electrifying game last Thursday night between the Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators was more than a just a contest of hockey, it was a display of qualities like loyalty, toughness, and resilience. The game had many different storylines, including the second period battle royale, the debut of a Buffalo native in a Sabres sweater, the stellar play of Rochester call-ups, another injury, and of course the shootout victory.

Yes, once again the Sabres came back from a two-goal deficit to win, but the result of the game has taken a back seat to the tumultuous events that started about five minutes into the second period when Senators winger, Chris Neil checked Sabres co-captain, Chris Drury to the ice. The hotly debated hit opened up a gash on Drury’s forehead that took 20 stitches to close, and caused a head injury that very likely could be the second concussion of Drury’s professional hockey career.

“My take on it is that it was a late hit, it was a dirty hit,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. “I don’t agree with the hit, it was late, he was vulnerable at the time, and it was a shot to the head.”

Senators coach Brian Murray disagreed saying, “It was a clean hit...Drury’s helmet looked like it wasn’t done up properly, and it came off when he hit the ice.”

Immediately after the play, Sabres winger, Drew Stafford, a recent call-up from Rochester, did something shocking and completely out of character: he grabbed Chris Neil and fought him. Stafford, the Sabres’ first-round pick in the 2004 draft, is a skilled player, definitely not known for brawling, and the way he defended his captain was a heart-warming sight.

To the Sabres, it didn’t really matter if the hit was dirty or not; Neil took a run at Drury. Sabres tough guy Andrew Peters said, “You take a run like that at anybody like that on our team, you’re going to be faced with some problems.”

After the melee between Stafford and Neil was over, Murray sent out the very talented line of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley and Mike Comrie. Ruff responded with bruisers Adam Mair, Andrew Peters, and Patrick Kaleta. After the puck was dropped all hell broke loose.

With all 18,690 people in the building, and every member of the press box on their feet, Peters went after Heatley, grabbing him by the face and throwing him around. Heatley showed his usual amount of toughness by just standing there and letting Peters come at him. At the same time Mair went after Spezza, dropping the gloves and landing repeated head shots while both Senators defenseman failed to pull him off.

After that came one of the rarest and most amusing events in the NHL: a goalie fight. Sabres goalie Marty Biron and Senators goalie Ray Emery, with a huge smile, dropped their sticks, gloves, blockers, and helmets, and met at center ice for a brawl. After some wrestling and punches that didn’t land much, the goalies broke apart. Biron said, “If you put him [Emery] in player’s gear he would probably be considered a heavyweight in the league, and I wouldn’t be. So I hung on for dear life.”

After Biron and Emery broke apart, Peters jumped in and hit Emery in the head a number of times while the Senators just watched their goalie get beat up. The fight was eventually broken up by the officials.

“You can’t respond any other way,” Ruff said about the fighting, “I was so proud of those guys.”

The Sabres showed the Senators why they always beat them in the playoffs: heart. The Senators proved once again why such a talented team rarely goes far in the post-season. It’s because they lack toughness, and some would even call them gutless.

“He sends out five guys and suckers a couple of the skill players,” Murray said about the fight, “And we have to address that at some point, whether the league will do it or we have to do it when we play Saturday in Ottawa.”

The brawl was capped off with a bench-to-bench shouting match between the two head coaches, highlighted by Ruff falling into the camera box between the benches.

When it was all said and done, the officials handed out an even 100 minutes of penalties, 63 for the Sabres and 37 for the Senators, and three ejections, Peters for getting into two fights and both goalies for leaving the crease during the fight.

Saturday morning, mere hours before the rematch of these two angry clubs, the NHL also issued a $10,000 fine against Ruff, for sending out his power hitters which the league believes led to the brawl. WGR550, the radio home of the Sabres, has mentioned plans to organize a fan drive to send in money to help Coach Ruff pay for this egregious, one-sided fine.

Kaleta, a Buffalo native (he is technically from Angola) got a 10 minute misconduct in his first NHL game. At the ripe old age of 20, Kaleta stepped on the ice to some very loud cheers, including close to 200 of his friends and family in attendance, and recorded his first NHL point on the assist of Clarke MacArthur’s first NHL goal. The hometown hero lived up to his reputation as a bruiser, hitting everything that moved and a few things that didn’t during the game. Most impressive was how he didn’t back down from a Heatley cross-check before the face-off that started the fight.

“Hopefully I can get this one on tape and watch it in a couple of years,” Kaleta said of his debut.

The game itself was an offensive slugfest between two talented hockey teams. The Senators jumped ahead with two first period goals. The Sabres answered with three straight goals, one by Drury in the first, and then a pair 39 seconds apart, by Thomas Vanek.

After all the craziness in the second, the Senators came out on a four minute power play with the Sabres being two men down for the first half. Heatley tied the game at three during the power play. Then MacArthur and Kalinin tallied for the Sabres, followed by Spezza and Fisher for the Senators, sending the game into overtime tied at five. A scoreless overtime led to a four round shootout, won on the only goal scored by first star of the game Drew Stafford.

The Sabres gained another two points in the standings, but more importantly they gained some respect, and showed some toughness. When Ruff was asked what he had on his mind when he sent out that his brawlers before the second period melee he said, “Go out and run ‘em.”