Things seemed to be going well for the Leafs through the first 20 minutes of Game 2, with the Buds carrying a 2-0 lead into the locker room. Well, when the 2nd period began, Matthew Knies was nowhere to be found on the Leafs' bench and shortly thereafter, it was announced by the Leafs' official PR team that he would not return to the game.
The play that is believed to have took Knies out was this very dirty play from Florida's Sam Bennett, who intercepts Knies as he's coming in to make a routine hit, slamming Knies' head into the glass before driving him into the ice with force.
I have a few thoughts about this one. First, this is NOT a hockey play - it's more of a wrestling move than anything else. Bennett knows exactly what he's doing here. He just wrapped his arms around a young player's neck, takes him hard into the glass and drives him down onto the ice long after the puck is already gone.
Bennett is a player who seems to often let his frustrations get the best of him. In a game that his team was losing, he was frustrated that things weren't going his way and unfortunately for Knies, he was the nearest body for Bennett to take his frustrations out on. Bennett also cross-checked Michael Bunting in the head in this one and then drove another cross-check down across his back when he was down on the ice. He was penalized for that one, but I'm shocked that he got absolutely nothing for the play on Knies, which had nothing to do with hockey and more to do with trying to actively hurt someone out there.
If the Department of Player Safety has any integrity whatsoever, Bennett will be suspended at some point tomorrow afternoon. This was downright embarrassing stuff from Bennett and while we don't yet know the extent of the damage done to Knies, Bennett could have very well taken the young winger out of the series.
