Leafs forward's father publicly slams the league, boycotts the Stanley Cup Final because of officiating, player safety
The Vegas Golden Knights have won a Stanley Cup in their 6th year as a franchise. Impressive to some, painful to Leafs Nation, as the Leafs have been trying to get the monkey off their backs since 1967. At any rate, the Golden Knights deserved this Cup with how well they had played throughout the playoffs, so congrats to them.
Following the Golden Knights' big win last night on home ice in Las Vegas, Brian O'Reilly, father of Leafs forward Ryan O'Reilly, took to social media to offer his congratulations to the Golden Knights, but also to torch the National Hockey League for how it handled the officiating and player safety throughout these playoffs.
Bullying, violence, not enforcing the rules of the game left some players with career affecting injuries. It's the only sport where the rules change in playoffs. The Love of violence is our deterioration!" - Brian O'Reilly on effectively boycotting these playoffs and losing interest after seeing how games were called and infractions were managed
Mr. O'Reilly was likely referring to the way the league handled Florida's Sam Bennett's wrestling slam on Leafs rookie Matthew Knies, which concussed the young winger and took him out of the series. Bennett didn't receive so much as a slap on the wrist for the play and the Leafs suffered with the loss of Knies.
In addition, Mr. O'Reilly didn't like all of the forced parity that the NHL officials seemed to provide as the playoffs wore on. The officials refused, on many occasions, to call the rulebook as it was written. We know that this has been a problem for some time, as folks complain about it each and every year. As they say, there's one set of rules for the regular season and another set entirely for the playoffs.
I know that some love the increased level of intensity that the playoffs provide, but even if the hits get harder, O'Reilly's father has a point about the rulebook changing on the whim of the officials. Nobody knows what does or does not constitute a penalty in the playoffs anymore. The NHL appears to be the only major league that has one set of rules for the regular season and another for the playoffs. Hell, we just saw a controversial end to a Super Bowl because of a consistent rulebook. Maybe it's time the NHL follows suit aims for consistency over game management.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 14 | 1030 ANSWERS Leafs forward's father publicly slams the league, boycotts the Stanley Cup Final because of officiating, player safety Do you agree with Brian O'Reilly about the league needing to take better care of their players and call the rulebook consistently? | ||
| Absolutely | 979 | 95 % |
| No, I love playoff hockey | 51 | 5 % |
| List of polls | ||
