Panthers get away with egregious hook in overtime against John Tavares before putting the game away
The Leafs appreared to have a firm grip on Tuesday's game in Florida, owning a 5-1 win in the second period thanks to a pair of goals by Mitch Marner, who is now up to a career high 31 goals on the season, followed by tallies from Colin Blackwell and Jake Muzzin.
What followed was pure chaos as the Panthers scored 5 consecutive goals to take a 6-5 third period lead on the Leafs, who were in jeopardy of letting another one slip away. Thankfully, with approximately 4 minutes remaining in the 3rd frame, Leafs captain John Tavares buried the game-tying goal to force overtime, where he almost sealed the deal as well. Almost.
The overtime period between the Panthers and Leafs was both exciting and agonizing as the two sides traded grade A chance after grade A chance. Probably the best chance came off the stick of John Tavares, who didn't get any steam on a backhand attempt all alone in front of Spencer Knight, due to a very clear hook from behind that was not called.
While there's no guarantee that Tavares would have converted on the attempt if he was not hooked, at the very least, the Leafs would have had a chance to end it on the power play after converting three times earlier in the game.
In a game where 15 penalties were called, it's infuriating to have an egregious missed call impact the outcome of such an important game. Sure, the Leafs got a point out of it, and a total of 3 out of a possible 4 points in Florida, but they should have had 4, in my opinion.
The officiating may not chance this season, but I think the GM's need to sit down with the league and discuss some options in the offseason. It's not just the Leafs who have been robbed by non-calls and awful officiating this season. I'm sure there are 31 other teams with gripes of their own.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 6 | 377 ANSWERS Panthers get away with egregious hook in overtime against John Tavares before putting the game away Should the hook on Tavares resulted in a penalty call against the Panthers in OT? | ||
| Absolutely | 273 | 72.4 % |
| No, it wasn't that bad | 21 | 5.6 % |
| I'm just tired of bad officiating | 83 | 22 % |
| List of polls | ||
