Controversial penalty call against the Leafs proves costly; Sheldon Keefe has no choice but to hold his tongue
Just over 5 minutes into the second period of the game against Arizona last night the refs called a hooking penalty on the Leafs' Pontus Holmberg. The game then went to a commercial break and upon returning from that break, the penalty had been changed from hooking on Holmberg to tripping on Mitch Marner, much to the surprise and bewilderment of the broadcast team on Sportsnet.
Not only did the officials get the initial call wrong, but they also got the penalty wrong on Marner as Shayne Gostisbehere simply tripped over his own two feet when he was trying to weave past Holmberg and clipping his own skate off of Marner's as he went to stop up at the line. The fact that the refs changed the call and player completely, but were unable to review it is absolutely ridiculous. Sheldon Keefe, who was fined $25K the other day for his actions during the game against St. Louis because of terrible officiating, had to sit on his wallet and bite his tongue after the penalty call last night. Had he snapped on the officials the same way in a second straight game, he would have been tossed from the game. That's something that he was not going to risk.
All Keefe could do was smile, shrug and shake his head, as the call baffled him and everyone around him. The penalty, of course, led to a quick power play goal for the Coyotes courtesy of Jakob Chychrun that evened the game at two and seemingly changed the momentum of the game from there on out. For anyone that has said the Leafs get preferential treatment from officials, the last two games, if any of the previous ones haven't shown it already, should make it very clear that the Leafs are always battling with officials and have more non-calls, missed calls or bad calls go against them than in favour of them.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 30 | 178 ANSWERS Controversial penalty call against the Leafs proves costly; Sheldon Keefe has no choice but to hold his tongue Did you think the officials made the right call? | ||
| No | 107 | 60.1 % |
| Yes | 19 | 10.7 % |
| How the situation was handled was ridiculous | 52 | 29.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
