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Before tonight, when playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo Sabres enforcer John Scott was known as the ruffian who challenged Phil Kessel to a fight in a preseason game and called Dion Phaneuf “princess.” Henceforth, when Scott plays the Maple Leafs, the team from Toronto will be known as one of the two clubs Scott has scored a goal against in a real, live NHL game.
This is about as bad as it gets for Toronto right here.
The goal came in the first period less than a minute after Matt Moulson scored. Matt Ellis harmlessly flipped the puck on net. Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier couldn’t handle it for some reason and it bounced right to Scott’s stick. All he had to do was put it in the open net and since Scott was good enough to at least make it to the NHL, he put it in.
Scott laughed as he passed the Maple Leafs bench because, well, even he doesn’t expect to score goals.
It was Scott’s first goal since Nov. 19, 2009 against the Carolina Hurricanes and just the second of his career. On top of it all, Friday night’s contest was Scott’s 200th career game in the NHL.
A note to HBO’s 24/7 producers, if you guys want to spend 10 whole minutes on this very goal for Saturday’s show, it’ll be worth it. Scott scoring a goal is essentially the equivalent of a confirmed sasquatch sighting. We need to relive every dramatic detail.