Leafs fall victim to horrendous officiating... again

As a Leafs fan for the last 30 years, I'll admit to a degree of bias, but when the evidence is right in front of you it's hard to ignore. Take, for instance, Monday night's contest against the New York Islanders. While carrying the puck through the neutral zone, Denis Malgin was flipped on his head by a sliding Casey Cizikas. Accidental? Sure, but that's never been a viable excuse for tripping someone. An accidental trip is still a trip. It's a rule infraction and it needs to be called.

Compare the play above with this one by Timothy Liljegren last season. In both cases, the puck carrier is tripped up by an opponent who's fallen down and is sliding across the ice. Both incidents are clearly complete accidents. Liljegren was called for tripping on the play. Cizikas? Nothing.

It's difficult to watch these plays and still see the NHL's officiating as fair and balanced. I've even gone without mentioning the blatant knee on Auston Matthews for which Oliver Wahlstrom had to answer to Rasmus Sandin until now. The Leafs did receive a power play after that incident, but it was actually a too many men call and the knee itself went uncalled, despite it also being a very clear infraction.

At some point, Sheldon Keefe is going to have to take a fine and call out the officiating. It's plain as day that as soon as the Leafs have the lead, their powerplay opportunities dry up. The NHL denies the very clear mandate they've set: Keep games close, by whatever means necessary. For a possession-heavy team like the Leafs, this means that they'll have to skate through every hook, hold, trip and slash thrown their way every time they have the lead. We might as well get used to it, because it isn't changing any time soon.