Keefe criticizes the officiating following several questionable/missed calls in Game 2; fine incoming?
The officiating in last night's game in Toronto was atrocious to say the least. Seemingly every little thing was called against the Leafs while Tampa was able to do basically anything they wanted and not be penalized, with the rare, overly egregious exception. One of the non-calls that stood out was when Ryan McDonagh tackled Ilya Mikheyev into the net when the puck was along the boards. McDonagh had a hold of Mikheyev's stick and his shoulder right in front of the official yet no call was made. A call, however, that was made might rank as one of the worst hooking calls of all time. Ilya Lyubushkin was called for a hook as he went to lift Brandon Hagel's stick going into the corner. The "hook" lasted less than a second but sent Lyubushkin to the box.
After the Leaf's optional skate this morning, Keefe was asked about the officiating and said, "it's been a little bit of a surprise around the league with how the games have been called. There's been a lot of penalties a lot of interference and obstruction type things Things that you're not accustomed to seeing called so tightly at this time and it's created a different feel from what you anticipate going into a series.»
Keefe is bang on with his comments here, and it should be noted that he's not talking specifically about the Leafs/Bolts series, but across the league and playoffs in general. Not only do the coaches have no idea what's going to be called period to period or game to game, but more importantly the players have no idea. What was fine in game 1 was called in game 2 and what was called in Game 1 was let go in Game 2.
The officiating has been questionable across the league all season with no set standard and officials either being too involved or not involved enough in games. "Game management" has been more important to them as opposed to the rule book and that has cost teams games and points. Everyone knows that less is called in the playoffs, and more rough stuff is let go, but there are some blatant calls that happen right in front of the officials that should be called or not called all year 'round. It's something the league needs to take a serious look at in the off-season and enforce a standard that officials follow instead of "game management".
| POLL | ||
MAI 5 | 478 ANSWERS Keefe criticizes the officiating following several questionable/missed calls in Game 2; fine incoming? Will the league fine Sheldon Keefe for his comments? Or will they let it slide because of the way he did it? | ||
| They'll let it slide, because he was tactful | 298 | 62.3 % |
| He'll probably catch a fine | 180 | 37.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
