Sheldon Keefe rightfully upset about Stamkos attacking Matthews; Keefe accuses Lightning of manipulating the officials
Early in the third period, five minutes in to be exact, just after Morgan Rielly sent an off-balance Brayden Point into the boards awkwardly, chaos ensued. While Point was down catching his breath and being tended to by a trainer, there was a massive scrum that led to Steven Stamkos jumping Auston Matthews and Ryan O'Reilly fighting Nikita Kucherov. Following the game, Sheldon Keefe was asked what he thought of Matthews fighting and the scrum in general, to which he delivered a long-winded answer, publicly accusing Tampa of manipulating officials.
"The fight itself, that's a classic example of a veteran championship team like Tampa Bay manipulating the officials and taking advantage of a situation, right? I mean they know that we're basically already going on the power play because of the Kucherov situation so it's a free-for-all. They can do whatever they want and they just know that the way the games get called they're not going to get another penalty. I mean you watch that sequence back and say that we shouldn't get a 5-on-3. The officials literally holding Steven Stamkos with one arm and his other hand with no glove on is punching Auston Matthews. Not the linesman, the referee who calls the penalty was holding Stamkos while this was happening. Credit to Tampa for recognizing that situation, it's a free pass to do what you want. Not only do they get out of it unscathed, but they take Matthews and O'Reilly with them to the box. Brilliant play by the Lightning there." - Sheldon Keefe on officials messing up the penalty scaling after line brawl
What Keefe essentially said is that Tampa knew they were going to be short-handed and decided to try and successfully take another Leaf with them to the box. Keefe also said that they should have had a 5-on-3 as Stamkos should have been given two for instigating the fight with Matthews which would have also led to him being thrown out of the game. If it was the regular season, you can bet it would have been called that way, but it's the playoffs so there's a new rulebook officials use.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 23 | 431 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe rightfully upset about Stamkos attacking Matthews; Keefe accuses Lightning of manipulating the officials Do you agree with Sheldon Keefe about officiating in Game 3? | ||
| Yes | 409 | 94.9 % |
| No | 22 | 5.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
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