Sheldon Keefe takes a shot at the Panthers over high volume of dirty hits in this Round 2 series
The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the Florida Panthers in power play opportunities by a pretty large margin in Round 2, receiving 7 power plays to Florida's 2 through the first 2 games of the series. If you were to ask Panthers head coach Paul Maurice why, I'm sure he'd tell you that the refs have it out for him. However, you'd get a very different answer from Sheldon Keefe.
On Saturday, following Leafs practice, Keefe was asked about the number of power play opportunities the Leafs have been awarded in the first 2 games of their 2nd round series against Florida. His answer was just about as blunt as it could possibly get, and he had no problem throwing some shade at the Panthers for their dirty play in Round 2 so far.
The Panthers have taken just about every opportunity they could find to deliver questionable hits to Leafs players, knowing that eventually the refs would simply stop calling penalties so as to not award the Leafs too many power plays in any one game. Once upon a time, the Panthers were a team who relied on speed, hockey IQ, vision and pure talent to win games. However, since Paul Maurice arrived in Florida, they seem to be taking a lot more liberties on the opposing players, very similar to how the Jets played under him in Winnipeg - Neal Pionk and Mark Scheifele in particular. Now, we're seeing it with Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett as well.
I don't know whether it's Paul Maurice outright telling his players to go out and hurt other players, or just the type of game he wants his teams to play, but a lot of opposing players seem to get hurt under his watch. Good on Keefe for calling out all of the head shots. Perhaps the officials will be more aware of these cheap shots and dangerous plays in Game 3 and perhaps we'll even see a Panthers player suspended yet in the series. I just hope it's not at the expense of another key injury to a Leafs player.
| POLL | ||
6 MAI | 106 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe takes a shot at the Panthers over high volume of dirty hits in this Round 2 series Is Paul Maurice coaching his players to injure opposing players? | ||
| Yes, we saw it in Winnipeg and now Florida | 74 | 69.8 % |
| No, that's a bit of a reach | 15 | 14.2 % |
| Not sure, but I'll be watching closer tomorrow | 17 | 16 % |
| List of polls | ||
