We all know guys who are long in book smart but short on street smarts, right?
You know the guy.
He's a 4.0 GPA and aces exams that require you to study for a month for just to get a C grade. Your bro gets A's without studying, however, he cannot boil water to make Ramen Noodles.
We all know that annoying, awkward dude, right?
Case in point, Ben Scrivens. Don't let his four year education at the hallowed halls of Cornell University fool you.
Scrivens is book smart all day long. Dumb as a rock as it pertains to his health and well being.
Here's your context:
Wednesday night, Scrivens and his Habs skated into Buffalo.
Sadly, the Sabres-Habs will not play again until next season.
Tied 1-1 late second period, Habs forwards Lars Eller and Mike McCarron thought it a great ideal to do a drive by on the salty, always ready to fight Lehner. Watch as Eller bumps Lehner and which cause the angry Swede to flip into punch-in-the-face mode. Lehner tosses the 6'6" 235 lb. McCarron like he was a sack of dirty hockey laundry. Watch the replay and marvel at Lehner's brute strength. Crazy, man. McCarron is no garden gnome. He's a big dude. Next season, Lehner is going to make McCarron pay for grabbing his make and throwing a punch at him. Ditto Scrivens who was a real hero by taunting Lehner from 125 feet away. Lehner will gladly oblige Scrivens in a punch up. Let's see if Scrivens will meet Lehner at center ice next season.
Matters not to Lehner. He doesn't care who you are or how big you are. He will fight you.
I have adored and admired Lehner since the first time I witnessed him lumber Jack chopping the ankles of an aggressive opponent. It was January 2011 at the IIHF World Junior Championships in the Buffalo-Niagara region. Lehner, the starting goalie for Team Sweden lost his you know what in a preliminary round game against the Czechs at Niagara University's Dwyer Arena. An enemy forward entered Lehner's crease, made contact with Rowdy Robin then paid the price for it.
That's how Lehner rolls. If you don't like it, too bad.
You touch him or his teammates and he will pulverize you.
Just ask Montreal's Michael McCarron.
So, it should surprise nobody that Lehner was looking for a couple of pounds of flesh from the Habs.
Zach Bogosian and his mates darted into retaliate on the Habs for their greasy post whistle tactics on Lehner.
Unimpressed, Lehner wanted to take the fracas to a higher level.
Fortunately for Scrivens, the refs and linesmen restored order before Lehner could skate down the ice and suplex Scrivens into submission.
Watch as the big, bad, brave Scrivens menacingly waves his catching mitt at Lehner. That's sign language for "Come down here so that I can punch you in the mouth". That's akin to the matador flailing the red cape in the brahma bull's face at the "Running Of The Bulls" at Pamplona.
Surprising response by Scrivens who has never won a pillow fight in his life let alone a good old fashioned hockey brawl with a 6'5" 255 lb. MMA fighting Son Of Anarchy like Lehner.
Thanks, Mike Straw
Someone should tell Scrivens that waving his over sized catching glove at a pissed off Lehner is the equivalent of shaking a raw, bloody NY strip steak in the face of a famished, maniacal grizzly bear.
Scrivens should consider himself fortunate to have ducked a face to face manversation with the biggest, toughest, meanest, most skilled fighting goalie in the NHL.
In the end, Marcus Foligno's shorty, his 10th goal of the season, tied the game at 2s late in regulation time.
In OT, Paul Byron got credit for the game winner that kissed in off Zach Bogosian's stick.
The Habs now have 72 points this season. What they needed to do was lose in OT in Buffalo.
Oh, well. The OT loss puts the Sabres one step closer to winning an NHL lottery pick. The Sabres will gladly accept a premium young player in Auston Matthews, Patrick Laine, Jesse Puljujarvi, Matthew Tkachuk or Jakob Chychrun.
After the game, Sportsnet's David Ameber spoke with Scrivens about his psychological warfare with Lehner, It turns out the two men know one another off the ice.
Scrivens called Lehner a "big boy and a bit of a psycho". Scrivens admitted that he was just shadow boxing with Lehner from a far distance because he knows what would have happened if he'd have been dumb enough to engage Lehner in a scrap.
Thanks, Sportsnet
For his part, Lehner was all business hen talking about Scrivens' act after the game.
**
Welcome back, Ryan O'Reilly.
After missing 11 games with a right foot injury, ROR returned to the Buffalo lineup on Wednesday night. He notched an assist. He now has 10 assists in his last 10game splayed dating back to February 3 against Montreal.
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