When he heard about the disaster that nearly befell the Buffalo Sabres at practice Monday in HarborCenter, former Sabres enforcer and current television host Andrew Peters was quick to point out on Twitter that it was National Bubble Wrap Day.

How appropriate. The Sabres probably could have used some bubbles to protect their ultra-fragile cargo as All-Stars Jeff Skinner and Jack Eichel returned to practice after their weekend in San Jose – and then were both lucky to emerge unhurt after an ugly-looking collision with each other during a drill.

The team had just switched from the smaller of HarborCenter's two rinks to a fresh sheet of ice on the feature rink when Skinner lost his balance and skidded at full speed into Eichel, hitting his center just below the knees as Eichel lunged forward to avoid him. Skinner quickly hopped to his feet and Eichel, who initially looked a little shaken up by the collision, slowly skated over to the boards to collect himself and then rejoined drills a couple minutes later.

"I didn't want to hurt Jack. I knew I was all right," Skinner said. "It wasn't a good feeling. You're falling on your pants there and you don't have much control of where you're going or how to stop. But he's got pretty good reflexes and got out of the way pretty quick, so he was all right."