While the team isn't going out of its way to take any substantial fines by crucifying the referees during their media availability, they certainly aren't shy to let the officials know what they think of them in game action.
A couple of weeks back, Sheldon Keefe went hard at veteran referee Wes McCauley over multiple brutal decisions and non calls. Keefe was fired up enough to cross a line in the league's eyes and it earned him a $25K fine. This time, it was Morgan Rielly who gave the officials a piece of his mind following a missed call last night against Nashville.
I'm not a professional lip-reader, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out what Morgan said to the official here. There were quite a few missed calls in the game, including a particularly bad hit by Nino Niederreiter on David Kampf. The Leafs may not be doing themselves any favours by going at the officials like this, but hey - the refs don't seem to be doing their jobs anyway, so why not speak your mind if you're Morgan Rielly?
POLL | ||
JANVIER 12 | 1380 ANSWERS Morgan Rielly blatantly insults referee to his face during Preds/Leafs game Do you agree with Rielly for calling the official a f***ing idiot last night? | ||
Yes, 100% | 1205 | 87.3 % |
No, he shouldn't be speaking to a ref like that | 175 | 12.7 % |
List of polls |