Leafs GM Kyle Dubas going after NHL officials for being petty and unprofessional
The Toronto Maple Leafs were without several regulars in their eventual 5-2 defeat to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, after giving Mitch Marner, Mark Giordano and Jake McCabe the night off. It wasn't a pretty game by any means, the roster's depth was challenged, and Matt Murray exited the game due to concussion protocol. It was an unmitigated disaster for the most part.
Another important storyline from this game was that Michael Bunting found himself at the ire of the referees and it's starting to become an unpopular trend for player and team alike.
Late in the second period and with the Red Wings holding onto a 3-1 lead, Bunting laid out a clean body-check on defenseman, Jake Walman, along the boards. As Bunting received a pass, he quickly passed it back to a teammate, before he was cross-checked from behind by Walman. Walman gave him a second cross-check as he tried to get up, before pinning him to the ice with his stick on his back.
Out of all that mayhem, they both received coincidental minors, cross-checking for Walman and unsportsmanlike conduct for Bunting. At the end of the period, in a mass skirmish, Bunting came out of it with a 10-minute misconduct. Bunting finished the game with 12 PIMs, 5 shots, and 1 hit in 14:02 TOI.
At the end of the game, Sheldon Keefe was not surprised in the slightest with how the referees handled themselves and Bunting's situation:
"Surprised? I mean, based on the way that he's been officiated of late, no, I'm not surprised at all... Bunts has got to do his best to stay on the line and in terms of how he's been officiated, Kyle will deal with that with the league."
"He eats 3 cross-checks and he gets to the box with it. I don't know if he had 4 or 5 punches in the face in the scrum and he ends up with a misconduct so it's tough for him but he's got to find his way through that and Kyle will deal with the other stuff."
It's interesting that Keefe had indicated that Dubas would address the issue with the league directly. It leads me to believe that MLSE as a whole is not very pleased with the officiating, right from ownership down. I'd imagine that Dubas and Keefe had spoken about it prior to Keefe's media availability, otherwise Keefe may have just thrown Dubas under the bus here.
Keefe said as much as he could without ensuring a fine from the league, but it's quite obvious that he was very unhappy with how the referees treated Bunting tonight. Since it's not the first time that this has happened either, it's becoming a trend that the Leafs will have to pay close attention to with the playoffs right around the corner - hoping that no illegitimate calls get whistled on Bunting against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 3 | 1133 ANSWERS Leafs GM Kyle Dubas going after NHL officials for being petty and unprofessional Are the Leafs right to be upset with how the officials are calling their games? | ||
| Absolutely | 1089 | 96.1 % |
| No | 44 | 3.9 % |
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