During Game 1 of the Battle of Ontario between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, there were some questions raised about the officiating that took place. Naturally, the questions came from the mouth of the head coach of the losing team.
Senators head coach Travis Green said postgame that "there were a couple calls that (the Leafs) did a good job selling. It’s tough on the refs, but we can’t take that many penalties, for sure.” Maybe the slickest way to call out that the Leafs were diving all over the place to try and get calls, to then get their power play on the ice.
The Leafs got six power-play opportunities and ended up converting on three of them, and the Senators went 0-for-2 with their chances during the eventual 6-2 Game 1 win for Toronto.
Captain Auston Matthews heard this accusation come from Green and just had to respond to the question why exactly there were so many power plays for the Leafs.
What did Leafs do well to get six PPs?
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) April 21, 2025
Auston Matthews: "We were hanging onto pucks. They’re making calls based on what they feel are penalties. We’re playing hockey ... (smile) to answer your question, I guess, no, I don’t think we were doing anything special to draw penalties"
“We were hanging onto pucks, they’re making calls based on what they feel are penalties,” said Matthews. “We’re playing hockey … to answer your question, I guess, no, I don’t think we were doing anything special to draw penalties.”
The Leafs just plainly played a very strong game of hockey on and off the puck. Maybe there were a couple bad instances from the drop, but since Toronto were dominant physically and always appeared to have the upper hand both on offense and defense, the Senators must have taken so many penalties just to try and keep up.
Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton led the team with two penalties drawn a piece. A whole slew of players following them two -- Matthews, Brandon Carlo, Calle Jarnkrok, Chris Tanev, John Tavares, Max Domi, and several more -- registered one drawn penalty for some of the post-whistle activities.
Matthews finished the game with two primary assists, six total shots on goal, a team-leading 10 shot attempts, and registered two takeaways and delivered four hits. A very classic game from the best player on the ice in this series.
Now, the Leafs have a very deserving 1-0 series advantage heading into Game 2 on Tuesday night. Will we see the same complaint coming from Ottawa if the officiating is roughly the same? Oh, you bet. It can be the most well-officiated game we have ever seen as hockey fans, but if the Senators are heading back east down a couple of games already, there will be probably even more complaining than just a sly reference from the head coach.