Server welcome message breaks connection ("Error: Unexpected packet before version")

[JPustkuchen]

Thank you very much for this great project!

In one of our projects we experienced an issue where a connection to a clients server wasn't possible due to the hosting providers welcome motd message (see https://ownyourbits.com/2017/04/05/customize-your-motd-login-message-in-debian-and-ubuntu for example):

 if [ -f /etc/motd ];then
 	cat /etc/motd | sed "s#LOGIN#${USER##*-}#g"
 fi

This lead to connection error:

Error: Unexpected packet before version

from the gulp tool which uses ssh2-streams: gulp-sftp https://github.com/gtg092x/gulp-sftp/

[19:33:33] Error: Unexpected packet before version
    at SFTPStream._transform (/xx/node_modules/ssh2-streams/lib/sftp.js:306:27)
    at SFTPStream.Transform._read (internal/streams/transform.js:205:10)
    at SFTPStream._read (/xx/node_modules/ssh2-streams/lib/sftp.js:183:15)
    at SFTPStream.Transform._write (internal/streams/transform.js:193:12)
    at writeOrBuffer (internal/streams/writable.js:358:12)
    at SFTPStream.Writable.write (internal/streams/writable.js:303:10)
    at Channel.ondata (internal/streams/readable.js:726:22)
    at Channel.emit (events.js:400:28)
    at Channel.emit (domain.js:532:15)
    at Channel.Readable.read (internal/streams/readable.js:500:10)

As we can't control what hosting providers do, is there a way to handle such welcome messages before version better?

Thank you!