Zuccarello's gutless trip on Kerfoot needs to be looked at by the League
The Leafs skated away with a hard-fought 3-1 win over the always dangerous Minnesota Wild on Thursday night to move to 33-14-4 on the season. With the win, the Buds sit just 2 points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning and 5 points back of the Florida Panthers.
There were some strange calls throughout the course of the game, such as this soft one on Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin for "interference".
Perhaps the worst call was the one that was never made. At the end of the 3rd period, with Alexander Kerfoot taking a stretch pass from Mitch Marner to move in for the empty-net goal, Wild forward Mats Zuccarello got his stick into the legs of Kerfoot and pulled back to intentionally trip up the Leafs winger.
This is one of those plays that I would not be the least bit surprised if we see a fine or a one-game suspension to Zuccarello. He only has one hand on the stick when trying to disrupt the play, but puts two hands back on the stick with the expressed purpose of taking the legs out from under Kerfoot after he scored.
Call it whatever you want -- tripping, unsportsmanlike conduct -- whatever the case, it's unacceptable. The fact that it happened right in front of an official.. I mean, he watched the play unfold. That simply has to be called, no matter what stage of the game you're in.
I firmly believe that if the league has any integrity here, there will be a fine or a one-game suspension issued to Zuccarello for this gutless play.
