I think the officiating was meh going into the 1st intermission. The McCabe highstick is clear as day, and the Brodie call was a hold to the letter of the law. That said, it was a very marginal hold and one that we saw countless times in that game alone go uncalled. It was a weird time to start making that call IMO, but nevertheless it was a hold and I can live with it regardless of the inconsistency that proceeded it.
where the officiating gets really suspect is when the game went 3-2. Below is a summary of how the final 8 minutes of the 2nd went down.
1. Leafs finally have jump after the Willy goal, the crowd is finally awake. McCabe throws a big and
clean hit in neutral ice. He is subsequently taken out of the play by multiple Lightning players trying to challenge him to a fight. The whistle is not blown, no calls were made, and the play continues down into the Leafs end with their best defender still being hounded at the lightning bench. In an attempt to get back in the play and cover for McCabe, Kampf takes a penalty that is also a very soft call. There was not slash on the hands, and i'd argue that isn't even aggressive enough to warrant a stick on stick slash. Just horrible call really. It was very obvious that they felt a need to have a makeup call for the McCabe hit, that was not a penalty, as the Lightning bench erupted. This was the 1st of 2 lightning reactions that caused a game altering decision by the officiating crew
2. Brayden Point scores on the ensuing powerplay. The score is now 4-2
3. Michael Bunting then takes a frustration penalty that just cannot happen. It's 100% a penalty, but I am still not convinced it is a match + game. The fact that Cernak got hurt on the play was the ultimate reason he got the 5 and a game. I can get behind that decision. He took out their 3rd best defensmen on a needless play, and he should serve the time as a result.
5. Corey Perry scores?? I have still not seen a camera angle that
conclusively shows the puck all the way over the goaline. Yet Wes McCauley seemingly saw the puck cross the line from this angle (see below)
View attachment 691738
Keep in mind Wes' hand is already pointing goal at this point but begins his motion for a good goal 0.5 second earlier, when he is 2 paces further away from the crease. Ya there's no f***ing way you saw that puck go in Wes. But because the call on the ice was a good goal, we somehow didn't have the conclusive evidence to overturn it....I am not suggesting the puck did not fully go over the line, I have just not seen 1 camera angle that
definitively proves that it did. But Wes did, with his X-ray vision 10 feet away from the goaline. He motions for a goal based on the lightning reaction, plain and simple. No other way to chalk that up. Bush league.
6. We then challenge for goaltender interference, which TBH is kind of fair given that Sammy's pad clearly goes in with the puck. It's not goalie interference in the sense that he was interfered with in making the save, but the only way for that puck to cross the line, would be for Sammy's pad to go with it. Last I checked you are not allowed to do that. But again, that seemed fine after review.
7.We get a delay of game for failed challenge. On a goal that we don't even know went in, and even if it did go in it would have been pushed across the line along with Sammy's pad. They then score again on the ensuing 5 on 3 making the score 6-2
did we lose the game because of officiating? Absolutely not. We lost that game because we sucked. We were undisciplined. We gave the refs an opportunity to call that game however they wanted and we didn't show up on the PK when those calls didn't go our way. We lost, and we deserved to lose.
That doesn't take away from the clear and obvious poor officiating in that 2nd period. To say it didn't have an impact in the game is completely false. The game was 3-2 when this run of poor officiating started, and in a matter of 8 minutes of game play the game was completely out of reach. I am hardly the one to stir up the controversy when it comes to officiating, but the Leafs being 0-8 in the playoffs since 2016-17 when Wes is the Ref seems very convenient. You add the history between him and Keefe, and it really is something the League needs to look into IMO. Even if it is an unconscious bias from Wes' standpoint, and not intentional match fixing, there is clearly a history here.
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