NHL announces officials from Leafs/Bolts Game 4 have been removed from the playoffs
The Leafs and Lightning played in one of the toughest series this year. By tough we mean, battling officials and bad calls more than each other. The Bolts came out on the victorious end after the Leafs had more bad calls and non calls go against them - none worse than the interference call on Holl in Game 7, but the officials who reffed Game 4 are the ones that got cut.
The referee pairing of Kevin Pollock and T.J. Luxmore have not advanced to calling any games in round 2 and beyond. They handled Bruins/Canes Game 1, Caps/Panthers Game 2 and Leafs/Bolts Game 4.
In Game 4, the Leafs was forced to deploy their penalty killers 8 times, while Tampa only had to do so 3 times in the contest. It was the most lopsided game in terms of penalties in the series - possibly the entire first round.
Unfortunately, any of the refs cut that worked the Leafs/Bolts series is coming a little too late given that the series was the most penalized one out of all first round matchups. The Leafs, the 15th most penalized team in the league was magically shorthanded 50+ minutes more than Tampa was in the series. For context, Tampa was the third most penalized team in the regular season.
Let's hope officiating doesn't have as much of a role in the second round and beyond, because if it does, the playoffs are about to become an absolute gong show.
| POLL | ||
MAI 16 | 5053 ANSWERS NHL announces officials from Leafs/Bolts Game 4 have been removed from the playoffs Should NHL officials be susceptible to fines as well? | ||
| Absolutely | 4692 | 92.9 % |
| No | 361 | 7.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
