Toronto Maple Leafs: The NHL Should Be Embarrassed By Game Two

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins last night.

In a surprise to no one, the Bruins came out fast and hard against a Toronto Maple Leafs team that destroyed them in game in game.

The Leafs did not play their best game, and they deserved to lose.

To be very clear, the contents of this article are not that the Leafs lost because the referees were bad.  The Leafs would have lost anyways.

But it’s one game, the two teams are evenly matched and it will be a long series. I’m not too concerned about the Leafs – although I think Jake Gardiner even feels sorry for the pathetic and nearly inhumane piling on William Nylander  is experiencing (ironically one of the only Leafs who showed up last night).

But back to the refs.

What in the $$$$$ Was That?

Last night’s effort by the NHL officials was pathetic.

The game was officiated by Brad Meier and Trevor Hanson.

They should not be doing another game this post-season.

The NHL has rules, right?  Like if you hit another player, say with your knee, you should get a penalty?   We know cross checks to the face are the line these guys chose to draw in the sand, but shouldn’t they have drawn one earlier?

The Knee on knee to Kadri should have given the Toronto Maple Leafs a five minute power play, and Debrusk shouldn’t have been in the game to snack on his teeth a period later.

Also, I am pretty sure at one point Kadri got a penalty for getting punched in the face.

To let players play increasingly violent without making a call, only further escalates the violence.  Overall, there were so many non-calls it was infuriating and also extremely confusing.

Like, what even is a penalty in the NHL anymore? They crack down, they uncrack, they call the game tight, they let everything go.  Players are confused. Fans are confused.  And the refs are clearly the most confused of all.

Nazem Kadri is going to get suspended for his hit late in the third, and he should be, but that hit never happens if Meier and Hanson do even the bare minimum their job requires.

Hopefully Kadri only gets one game, and an apology from the NHL for putting him in that situation.  DeBrusk could easily have forced Kadri to have reconstructive knee surgery and miss the rest of the playoffs.  That he didn’t is a complete and utter fluke.

Kadri has a history of borderline play, and that will get him a suspension. But DeBrusk’s play was dirtier.

At the end of the two games, the Leafs are tied at one, and that is a result every single Leafs fan would have been happy to get.   I know Leafs fans our completely overreacting to one loss, but who cares?

Boston won a game in which Marner, Tavares and Matthews were all but invisible.  Odds of all three ghosting any of the next five games? Probably zero.  So I’m fine with the results, elated actually.

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost, and they deserved to. But that does not excuse the absolutely pathetic job done by the NHL officials in this game.  The league needs to call penalties when they happen and not be concerned with “letting them play”  or “evening up the calls.”