Penalty scaling heavily benefitting Tampa in Bolts/Leafs series; Leafs lead playoffs in penalty minutes
The Leafs came out of Tampa having split Games 3 and 4 against the defending Champs, taking back home ice advantage in the series. Regardless of how Game 4 unfolded, it's hard to look at the fact that, now, the Leafs/Bolts are playing a best of three series, with two of those games taking place at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
With the series knotted at 2, the margin for error is smaller now than it's ever been for the Leafs. They cannot afford to take a game off now - or even a shift off for that matter - without risking swaying the series in Tampa's favour.
One of the craziest storylines to follow in these playoffs has been the officiating and the penalty scaling. It's almost seemed to do a 180-degree turn, but not in the way that it normally does, where there whistles go away in the playoffs. This year, the officials are calling more penalties than ever in the postseason. Who leads the way? Of course, the Leafs do.
Look. There are infractions that need to be called regardless. We know that. But, when a team who wasn't exactly churning out penalties during the regular season suddenly leads the field in the postseason, something's not quite right.
It just seems odd to me that a team who went over 120 games without giving up 7 powerplays in a game has suddenly done enough to warrant that happening twice in a 3-game span? NHL officiating has been such a hot topic this season, and I don't think the topic is going away with this sort of game management going on. Call all the penalties you want. Or call none at all... but do it CONSISTENTLY. That's all we're asking.
| POLL | ||
MAI 9 | 639 ANSWERS Penalty scaling heavily benefitting Tampa in Bolts/Leafs series; Leafs lead playoffs in penalty minutes Do you agree that the Leafs have deserved more penalties than any team in the playoffs this year? | ||
| No - this is game/series management | 190 | 29.7 % |
| The officials have some explaining to do | 401 | 62.8 % |
| The Leafs have been playing dirty | 48 | 7.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
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