Laine Brawl (sabres jets)

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Get a load of these beauties! The Buffalo Sabres players joined Zach Bogosoian to celebrate at his first ever Bogo Bunch charity event on Saturday night.

The theme of the event was classic 1920's fashion.

Get a load of Jake McCabe and Zemgus Girgensons. They look like legit gangsters with their battle scars.

I'm told that Bogosian raised a lot of money and awareness for his foundation.

Congrats to @zbogosian47 and @bbogosian on such a successful night for the @thebogobunch #casinoforacause

A photo posted by Jack Eichel (@jackeichel11) on

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Here is a video of Patrik Laine leaving the barn in Buffalo on Saturday afternoon.

Thankfully Laine let the building under his own power. Laine will be evaluated by doctors on Sunday.

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Patrik Laine's condition has not been updated by Paul Maurice nor the Winnipeg Jets.

Jets head coach Paul Maurice's take on the McCabe-Laine collision was as I expected. Maurice said it was a clean hit.

In the third period of Buffalo's come from behind win on Saturday, Laine, the second overall pick at the 2016 NHL Draft, was laid out by a devastating, clean open-ice hit by Sabres defender Jake McCabe.

You could feel the momentum swing dramatically in Buffalo's favor after they tied the game at 3-3. The McCabe his added more fuel to Buffalo's fire as they crowd erupted and gave the Sabres players a wave of emotion to ride to victory.

Buffalo battled back and erased the 3-1 deficit with three unanswered goals by Marcus Foligno, Zemgus Girgensons and Brian Gionta. Sabres fans havent't seen a third period comeback like the one they saw on Saturday since 2012-13/ Those damn tanking seasons suck the life right out of the fan base. Today, the players provided the passion, the fans provided the wave of emotion that fueled the victory.

Shame on the Jets for trying to milk a two goal third period lead. They clearly underestimated the Jack Eichel-inspired Sabres of 2017. Eichel chewed out his teammates on Friday for their collective laissez faire third period effort in Chicago on Thursday night. Eichel blasted his teammates for feeling satisfied with taking one point in Chicago when they deserved two points. Eichel wasn't happy that his team spanked the Rangers 4-1 Tuesday night then coughed up a third period lead and lost in OT to Chicago. Eichel won't tolerate losing. He despises it.

On Saturday afternoon, the Sabres fought their way off the floor and refused to tap out.

Eichel approved of the Buffalo third period. He said the game changed when he and his fellow forwards got pucks in behind the Jets and then turned up the heat on the forecheck.

The game ended with Sabres goalie Robin Lehner trying to break loose from a bear hug being applied to him by the linesman. Lehner wanted to punch Dustin Byfuglien and Mark Scheifele in the face after the Jets crashed his crease and were looking for a fight.

After the game, Lehner confirmed that he wanted to take a big chunk out of Byfuglien. I wish the linesmen would have let Lehner loose so that he could pop the big bully in the pie hole four or five times. If any NHLer could drop Byfuglien with a flurry to the face, it's Lehner the mixed martial arts goalie.

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NHL Rookie Of The Year Candidate Patrik Laine was injured when Buffalo's Jake McCabe dropped him with a clean, open ice hit in the third period.

The hit occurred moments after Zemgus Girgensons erased a two goal third period deficit to tie the game at 3-3.

Here's another angle.

After the hit, Jets forward Mark Scheifele jumped McCabe while Laine was down on the ice for a couple of minutes while he was being attended to by Jets' team trainers. Scheifele should have been given an instigator but only received a two minute minor for roughng.

Laine was assisted to his skates where he went directly to the quiet room for concussion evaluation.

Moments later, Sabres captain Bran Gionta gave the Sabres the 4-3 lead.

More to come...

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Greetings from press row in tropical Buffalo, NY.

Puck brunch will be served at 1pm EDT.

Your daily blue and gold plate special features the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Winnipeg Jets.

This brunch punch up features two .500 teams looking for a spark to get them moving in a winning way early in 2017. The Sabres are 3-4-3 in their last 10 games while the Jets are 6-4.

In their last game, the Sabres blew a third period lead and lost an OT heart breaker to the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday night. On Wednesday night, the Jets defeated the sinking Florida Panthers.

Jack Eichel certainly is not satisfied with his team's fold-job during the third period in Chicago on Thursday night. While Eichel has been raising his voice and calling out his teammates for their inconsistent, lethargic play, he has been producing his points and leading from the front.

Eichel has scored 3 goal sand 3 assists in his last 5 games. Eichels's streak is tied for the longest of his career (excluding the seven-game streak that spanned the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons).

Kyle Okposo is as steady and she goes scoring 3G, 2As last four games. Okposo has scored 12 points (5G, 7A) in his last 11 games against the Jets.

My eye will be focused on two Jets today. Patrik Laine and Jacob Trouba.

I have a ton of admiration for Laine. I spoke with him extensively at the NHL Combine in Buffalo last May and again at the NHL Draft in Buffalo in June. The kid called his shot when he looked me in the eyes and told me without hesitation that he deserved to be the first overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. It's scary how great this kid is today and how he is only going to continue to get better as he matures and develops his game entirely.

Laine leads all NHL rookies with 21 goals and 15 assists in 35 games played. Auston Matthews has accumulated 21 goals and 14 assists in 35 games.

Trouba, the highly regarded top four defenseman, missed 15 games at the beginning of the season after his agent made his trade request public during the off season. Trouba is playing well for the injured Tyler Myers. When Myers returns, I suspect that Trouba will be traded. Perhaps he will be reunited with his great friend Zach Bogosian in Buffalo.

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The Anaheim Ducks are presently the number one team in the Pacific Division with 21 wins and 50 points. The Ducks beat the Arizona Coyotes in OT on Friday night. The San Jose Sharks trail the Ducks by just two points. The Edmonton Oilers are right their with 47 points.

For the past three weeks or so, the Ducks have been sending their director of player personnel to Buffalo to scout the Sabres.

Today, the Ducks have sent their assistant general manager to watch the Sabres and Jets live.

So, why do the Ducks continue to aggressively scout the Buffalo Sabres live in person in Buffalo?

Answer: Because the Ducks want to add a scoring power forward to help them score more goals 5v5.

The Ducks enter Saturday's action ranked 16th in the NHL in the goals scored category. As a team, the Ducks have scored 110 goals this season, however, 30 of those goals have come with the man advantage.

Overall, the Ducks are scoring 2.68 goals per game. When you subtract their 30 PPGs, that leaves them with 80 goals slow in 41 games, or 1.95 GPG.

Enter the Sabres and Evander Kane, who is averaging 18:37 TOI per game. Kane has scored 9 goals and 5 assists in his 27 games played. Kane has one PPG and 2 GWG.

Tim Murray's desperate attempts to acquire a left shot, top four D to lock down games like Thursday night's third period mess inside the Madhouse On Madison.

No. Cam Fowler is NOT the player that the Ducks are considering trading. That ship sailed in October. Shea Theodore fits Tim Murray's bill. The 21 year old puck mover has played 40 NHL games for the Ducks, who continue to ship the kid back and forth to AHL San Diego. Theodore has a goal and six assists in 21 games with the Ducks this season where he is averaging a smidge under 18 minutes TOI. Theodore was sent to San Diego last week so that prospect D Brandon Montour (righty) could play his first few games in the NHL. The problem with the Ducks is that they have so many blue chip D studs on their back end in Anaheim featuring Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, and Josh Manson. Add to the mix veteran pillar Kevin Bieksa, and Theodore appears to be the sixth or odd man out. Thus, Bob Murray constantly shuttles Theodore (6'2, 198 lbs.) back and forth from San Diego to Anaheim.

The price for a scoring power forward was set last summer when Edmonton traded Taylor Hall to New Jersey for defenseman Adam Larsson.

The Sabres need a fast puck mover to inject pace and purpose into their second pair. McCabe and Ristolainen are fast defenders who can turn, sprint to pucks, turn them then hit their streaking forwards with darts. Outside of the top pair D, Bylsma';s blue line is sadly lacking for fast defenders. Zach Bogosian, Josh Gorges, Cody Franson and Justin Falk are continually being beaten to loose pucks and dumps ins by faster, high octane forwards.

Tim Murray would be wise to trade Evander Kane for Shea Theodore. Adding a high end defender, puck distributor like Theodore will allow the Sabres to counter attack at a higher rate of speed.

Why would I trade Evander Kane for when he is finally playing so well for Buffalo? The expansion draft. That's why. Will Tim Murray be protecting Kane or exposing Kane to Las Vegas? I predict that Kane will be unprotected, that is why Murray needs to leverage the asset and get a great return for Kane now. Murray has Alex Nylander, Justin Bailey and Nick Baptiste waiting in the wings to replace Kane. I would trade Kane now.

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