Tampa Bay Lightning reporter makes outlandish claim about Leafs players following series conclusion
The Toronto Maple Leafs exorcised their demons last night by not only defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning, but finally advancing past the first round. The 3-time defending Eastern Conference Champions didn't look to have the same type of energy level, skill, talent, or edge that they've shown over the last 3 years, but that's also because the Leafs matched them hit for hit in the series and wore them down.
Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider took to his podcast to dissect the series as a whole and brought about a pretty bold claim that the Maple Leafs went out of their way to try and injure the Lightning. It was a physical series, the hit totals were nearly identical, and by the end of the series many players were banged up. However, a claim like that just come across as sour grapes. Simply acknowledging and accepting the loss would be much more graceful.
"Obviously, [Cernak] got a concussion from that hit from Michael Bunting, and you know here's another thing about this series, you can't convince me that the Leafs weren't trying to injure guys. It's one thing to say you were finishing your checks, which you have to do in the playoffs and you have to try and physically wear teams down but it sure looked like the Leafs were trying to hit guys to injure them." - Erik Erlendsson
Of course the Bunting hit was not well received. It deserved the suspension and was very easily the worst hit of the series. I can even see how Lightning fans and some neutral fans could give the Morgan Rielly and Brayden Point collision in Game 2 a second thought - but even then, that was just a hockey play gone wrong. This much was confirmed by just about every credible hockey analyst in the business.
"It's a dirty play. Morgan Rielly knows what he's doing, he knows what he's doing, hockey players know what they're doing... and a massive response happens..." - Erik Erlendsson
After that the Leafs remained relatively calm, cool, and collected the rest of the way. You know, it's funny that Erlendsson made no mention of the fact that Pat Maroon drilled two Leafs defenseman from behind, right in the numbers in Games 3 and 5.
In Game 3, Maroon delivered a check from behind on an unsuspecting Jake McCabe in overtime. He saw the numbers and he didn't relent whatsoever. He finished him off with a shove of the arm, and McCabe's face was really close to smashing against the top of the boards. Credit to McCabe for getting up right away but it's hits like that that seemingly go unnoticed when the conversation arises about dirty hockey.
The second example was at the end of the second period of Game 5, when Maroon finished a check from behind against Mark Giordano in the Leafs zone. He saw the numbers, he finished the check with authority and while it was obviously a hit from behind, Maroon was just given a 2 minute roughing minor. At times, a referee will call a major penalty just so they can review the play over and actually make the right call but that was not the case this time around. Fortunately, Giordano was able to return for Game 6.
Picking and choosing when you want to talk about dirty hits in the series is not the way you want to walk off into the sunset, but as the Leafs finally advance to the second round and await their opponent, the Lightning get to enjoy an early off-season for the first time in 4 years.
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