Tage Thompson drops the gloves after Joel Edmundson goes after Peyton Krebs

Tage Thompson dropped the gloves for Peyton Krebs after Joel Edmundson went after him, and the Sabres beat the Kings 3-2 in Los Angeles.

Buffalo walked out of Crypto.com Arena with the win on Saturday, but the moment fans keep replaying is Edmundson looking to level Krebs and Thompson stepping in immediately.

That's what a top-line winger does when a teammate gets targeted. Thompson already has 8 goals and 15 points on the season, so he's carrying the Sabres offensively and now he's carrying the room too.

Krebs is the one who took the attention. The Sabres center has 7 assists and no goals this season, a quiet scoring line that hasn't stopped him from being a nuisance for opponents, with 9 penalty minutes on his sheet.

Edmundson is no stranger to this side of the game. The Kings defenseman is listed at 6'5 and 220 pounds, and he has 515 penalty minutes over 697 NHL regular-season games.

Gino Hard noted that Edmundson tried to blow up Krebs and that Thompson wasted no time dropping the gloves to defend his teammate.

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What the Edmundson and Thompson scrap means for Sabres and Kings

Going after a 190-pound center with a 220-pound frame is a choice, and in a one-goal game it's a choice that handed the Sabres a little extra juice. Thompson stands 6'6, so the answer was never going to be small.

The Sabres came in at 6-4-3 before puck drop, having won 7-6 at Anaheim on Thursday. Beating Los Angeles adds to that run and keeps Lindy Ruff's group moving in the right direction after a goal differential of -6.

The Kings are the team that needed this one more. They sat at 4-6-2 with a -9 goal differential before Saturday, and they had just beaten Ottawa 6-5 in overtime on Thursday.

Edmundson has been a steadying presence in the plus-minus column at +3, which makes the attempted hit on Krebs a gamble that didn't pay off for Peter Laviolette's team.

Both clubs are back in action Wednesday, November 4. Los Angeles hosts San Jose, while Buffalo hosts Ottawa, and the question of whether Thompson and Krebs draw extra attention from the opposition is now on the table.

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