The 2006-07 Ottawa Senators season is best remembered as the only time the team made it to the Stanley Cup Final. That year, they won the Eastern Conference Championship in five games against the Buffalo Sabres, with Daniel Alfredsson scoring the biggest goal in franchise history.
However, earlier that season, on this day in history (February 22), the same two teams managed to turn a routine regular season game into something unforgettable. Sens tough guy Chris Neil was at the center of it all, as he so often was.
With the Sabres leading 3-2 early in the second period, Buffalo’s Chris Drury stole the puck from Jason Spezza at the Senators’ blue line. Drury cut to the middle and attempted a pass toward the net, but delayed just long enough for Neil to catch up with him.
Drury was focused on his pass and had no idea Neil was closing in on him from behind. Neil delivered a shoulder check, and Drury’s head took most of the impact. The collision left Drury bloodied and dazed on the ice, prompting a furious response from the Sabres. Drew Stafford came to his linemate’s defense, but things didn’t go his way. He and Neil each received five-minute majors for fighting.
But the Buffalo crowd hadn’t seen anything yet.
After a lot of hollering from the Buffalo bench, Senators head coach Bryan Murray decided to calm things down by sending out his non-fighters.
“I put out three smaller players, thinking enough was enough,” Murray said on the Sabres’ YouTube channel. “Lindy and I have known each other a long time. We’ve worked together. I knew forgiving was hard. Maybe I made a mistake.”
Murray sent out a forward line of Jason Spezza, Dany Heatley, and Mike Comrie. As for Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, he didn’t care whether Neil’s hit was legal or not—he was planning an immediate response.
“If you’re going to do that to our guy, we have to get at it,” Ruff said.
As the home team with the last change, the Sabres deployed their tough fourth line: Andrew Peters, Adam Mair, and Patrick Kaleta. According to Peters, Mair was the one who made the line change, telling his linemates, “There is no puck.”
At the drop of the puck, the Sabres trio did exactly that—ignoring the puck and going after their opponents. Those three took 46 minutes in penalties, while the Senators forwards took none, mostly just tying guys up and trying to survive. They got some help from defensemen Anton Volchenkov and Chris Phillips, who weren’t natural fighters but they were big enough to help manage the chaos.
Enter Ray Emery.
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During the melee, Sabres goalie Martin Biron decided to accept a long-distance invitation to fight from Emery, the game’s toughest goalie. While some enforcers through the years would admit they didn’t enjoy fighting but did it to stay in the league, Emery wasn’t just good at it—he loved it.
With an excited grin, Emery easily took care of Biron, knocking the smaller goalie down and out. Emery could have done serious damage but chose to let him up. In return, Biron repaid Emery for his mercy by grabbing him by the leg, tripping him, and then standing over top of him like the hero—talk about poking the bear.
Emery got up, happily preparing for round two, when Peters stepped in like a tag-team wrestler. Probably winded from pounding on Biron seconds earlier, Emery now faced one of the NHL’s true heavyweights. Yet, throughout the fight, he was still smiling and laughing.
A man in his happy place.
At one point, a linesman appeared ready to intervene, but either he was waiting for backup or the combatants asked for him to hold off for a second.
Even Ruff and Murray got involved, shouting and pointing at each other from atop the boards in the bench areas. At one point, Ruff fell to ice level, and according to the mini-documentary, he tore his hamstring. But he didn’t let it show for one second.
The Senators had the last laugh that season, defeating the Sabres in five games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final. For both teams, those moments feel like the glory days. The Sabres have only made the playoffs twice since then and currently ride an NHL-record 13-year drought.
Meanwhile, the Senators have the third-longest active playoff drought at seven years.
This season, while both teams will be in tough to end those droughts (especially the Sabres), they each have an exciting young core that should be very good very soon.
As for Emery, as most fans know, the hockey world was shocked and saddened to learn that he had drowned in a swimming accident in Lake Ontario. Emery had just retired from the NHL a couple of years earlier and was only 35.
A few years ago, the Buffalo Sabres’ YouTube Channel released an excellent mini-documentary detailing Buffalo’s side of the story, interviewing Ruff, Biron, Peters, Mair, and Kaleta. You can view it here:
