Technically, there were fireworks in the Buffalo Sabres’ game against the Boston Bruins, to the tune of 11 total goals (thanks, Thomas Vanek).

But as far as the highly anticipated sideshow of violence goes, we were given an early first period fight between John Scott and Shawn Thornton and then no other fisticuffs.

That could have changed at the end of the game, when the Bruins had Lane MacDermid – all 4:12 of total ice time and 40 AHL fights in the last three seasons – on the ice with 14 seconds left in the game, following a Jason Pominville goal that made it 7-4.

The Sabres had Pominville, Jochen Hecht and Vanek out for the draw. Coach Lindy Ruff didn’t like MacDermid out with his skill guys. So he did something that, quite possibly, has never been done before: He called a timeout with 14 seconds left, with his team up by three goals.

This did not sit well with Brad Marchand of the Bruins after the game. Via NESN:

“Yeah, [Ruff] wants to be a big shot, and that’s not the best play to do,” Brad Marchand said. “That’s pretty disrespectful. If he wants to be like that, that’s fine. We just have to move on.”

Ruff sent John Scott back on the ice along with Marcus Foligno after the timeout. The game ended without incident.

“Well, when MacDermid was with one of our skill players, I didn’t want anything to happen. That’s really all it was about,” said Ruff.

Bruins Coach Claude Julien told NESN that Ruff “might have thought something was gonna happen, which wasn’t.”

Oh, yes, clearly nothing would have happened. He just wanted to give MacDermid a good 14-second look at the end of the game.