Last night, the Leafs failed to come up clutch at home, losing their Round 2 series to the Florida Panthers, who skated away with the 3-2 OT win and 4-1 series win. Credit to the Panthers, who never let off the gas even once in the series, but this one was not without controversy.
No, I'm not talking about Morgan Rielly's disallowed 2nd period goal. No, I'm also not talking about Gudas taking out the feet of Jarnkrok, who was in position to defend Nick Cousins on the game-winning goal AND grabbing hold of his stick to prevent him from poking the puck away or knocking it down. I'm talking about Marc Staal's blatant elbow to the head of Mitch Marner in open ice in the final seconds of the 3rd period.
How this wasn't called is beyond me. Not only is elbowing one of the easiest penalties to call in the entire rulebook, but the puck was also long gone, so the official could have nabbed Staal for interference as well.
Had the appropriate call been made, the Leafs would have opened overtime with a power play - likely a 5-minute major - which would have certainly given them an edge in Game 5. Unfortunately, the officials played an important role in another Leafs loss by openly refusing to do their jobs. The worst part about this play is that it's a very similar play to the one that got Bunting suspended for 3 games in Round 1, but there's no way Player Safety suspends Staal even though he deserves it, because that would be admitting that the Leafs got jobbed and that the referees were incompetent. Extremely frustrating.
