Auston Matthews Rocked by Tage Thompson, Morgan Rielly Steps in to Avenge His Fallen Captain

Last week, the Toronto Maple Leafs turned a losing effort against the Buffalo Sabres into a 5-3 win, coming all the way back from a 3-1 deficit to pick up 2 points against their Atlantic Division rival.

After that, you knew the Sabres would come into tonight's game with a collective chip on their shoulder.

During the first period, Sabres forward Tage Thompson put the Leafs on notice of what type of game it was going to be when he stepped up and leveled Leafs captain Auston Matthews with a heavy hit.

Matthews, who is confirmed to be battling through an injury right now, was sent crashing down to the ice, drawing a response from teammate Morgan Rielly, who baited Thompson into dropping the gloves for a tussle after the hit.

Rielly was careful to avoid taking an instigator penalty, which would have landed him 17 minutes in penalties and the officials would have ejected him from the game. Instead, he pursued Thompson and convinced him to drop the gloves, downgrading his extra penalty to a 2-minute roughing call.

Thankfully, the Leafs were able to kill off the penalty and take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

Kudos to Rielly for stepping up without a second thought and having Matthews' back the way he did. Those are the things you love to see from your teammates, and from a fan's perspective as well.