Vicious line brawl breaks out in Buffalo and Brandon Hagel taunts the crowd

Just five minutes after puck drop in Buffalo, a vicious line brawl completely derailed the opening period. Both teams abandoned their game plans to settle the score right away.

This Atlantic Division clash had massive stakes attached to it from the start. The Lightning entered the night with an impressive 39-18-4 record and major momentum.

Buffalo matched that competitive fire with a 38-19-6 standing on their current homestand. Both squads are deadlocked at exactly 82 points in a tight division race.

Playoff intensity arrived two months early in upstate New York. The bad blood between these division rivals boiled over before anyone even broke a sweat.

Hagel found himself right in the middle of the heavy main event. He traded vicious right hands before the officials finally restored order on the ice.

The wildest part of the sequence was not the actual fight itself. It was the blatantly disrespectful aftermath that followed. Brandon Hagel is a beast, and he knows how to put on an absolute show.

As he skated directly to the penalty box, Hagel openly taunted the hostile KeyBank Center crowd. He aggressively shushed the furious Sabres fans while flashing a massive grin.

He was feeling himself entirely after landing the best shots. That specific kind of swagger is exactly what championship teams need during a gritty road trip.

You simply do not often see a visiting player shush an entire arena in the first period. The sheer audacity of the gesture is completely off the charts.

Over his NHL career, Hagel has developed a serious reputation for being an absolute pest. He perfectly combines solid execution with an incredibly frustrating physical edge.

Buffalo's top scoring unit was completely held scoreless during the ensuing 4-on-4 action. The Lightning relied on a relentless penalty kill to thoroughly control the momentum.

If these two talented rosters meet in the upcoming postseason, the transition game will be an absolute physical war. The violent tone for a seven-game series is permanently set.

Someone on the Sabres defensive unit went minus-3 in the pride department tonight. Hagel officially lives rent-free in their locker room for the foreseeable future.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture just got significantly more interesting. We are looking at a legitimate budding rivalry that hockey fans desperately needed to see.