Thompson takes justice into own hands to settle old beef

Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson took justice into his own hands months after his teammates failed to stand up for him.

During the Sabres’ tilt with the New Jersey Devils on Friday night, Thompson wasted little time settling an old beef with Stefan Noesen.

Noesen, as you may recall, leveled Thompson with an elbow to the head during the Sabres’ last meeting with the Devils on February 2. Noesen caught Thompson unawares, leaving him shaken up on the ice.

Noesen got the heave-ho for the incident, but had no further discipline from the NHL. Following the gruesome hit, one Thompson was lucky to escape relatively unscathed, none of the Sabres on the ice retaliated. Instead, they looked on as Thompson got medical assistance from the training staff.

Following the game, Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin made his thoughts known on the lack of response, stating, according to Brian Koziol of WGR550, "that cannot happen again."

Well, the lack of response is likely the reason why Thompson couldn’t let the incident go. He immediately went after Noesen the first chance he got, laying the wood to Noesen.

Here’s a look at the heavyweight title fight:

So, it would appear Thompson settled the score with his fists. Unfortunately, the Sabres could not follow up the spark from Thompson with a win on the scoreboard. Buffalo peppered Jake Allen with 42 shots, but none got through.

The final score, a 5-0 shellacking, was a disappointing ending to what could have been a huge payback game. The beatdown by Thompson on Noesen, followed by a big home win by the Sabres, could have put the issue to bed.

It was a nice bit of retribution to get back a Noesen, even if it was nine months later. But the lopsided loss pretty much vaporized any spark that could have come from Thompson’s title fight.