Near the end of the Buffalo Sabres' 3-1 win at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night, Buffalo center Paul Gaustad started running his mouth near the Habs bench.

His target was Montreal's Max Pacioretty, and Gaustad went right for the jugular — or, at the very least, the neck

According to Mathieu Darche of the Canadiens (via CJAD), Gaustad and Pacioretty were arguing when the Sabres forward asked "Where's Chara? Where's Chara?"; a reference to that horrific scene in which Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara rode Pacioretty into the stanchion last season and onto a stretcher.

"I don't think it's right to talk about an incident where a guy broke his neck. I thought it was classless," said Darche after the game.

Said Montreal goalie Carey Price: "He's got a big mouth, and that's about it. He's got a big mouth and he likes to run it. Can't worry about what he's gotta say because he doesn't do much out there."

(Well, save for scoring the game-winning goal against the Habs and assisting on two others for a plus-3 … no, he's completely an afterthought.)

According to The Gazette, the Montreal bench got its own shots in on Gaustad:

The Canadiens got in a few verbal barbs of their own when they asked why Gaustad didn't stand up earlier this year when Boston's Milan Lucic ran over Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller.

We're sure the language was a little more colorful than that. Gaustad's version of the events, via the AP:

Gaustad was singled out among Sabres players on the ice at the time for not coming to Miller's defense. "They asked me where Lucic was and I asked them where they were with (Zdeno) Chara, so it's the same thing," Gaustad said.

These lovebirds meet again in Buffalo on Feb. 17.