Sheldon Keefe claims the Maple Leafs will speak to the league about awful officiating
Last night the Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Detroit Red Wings by a final score of 5-2. The loss leaves the Leafs 4 points up on the Tampa Bay Lightning for home ice during their 2nd round matchup. After the game Sheldon Keefe completed his post game media availability and shared his thoughts on the game and particularly about the treatment of Michael Bunting.
During the 2nd period Bunting was the recipient on two cross checks to the back courtesy of Jake Walman. The blows sent Bunting to the ice and unsurprisingly Walman received a 2 minute minor for his actions. To almost everyone's surprise Bunting also received a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, for embellishing.
https://twitter.com/TicTacTOmar/status/1642688498892169218?t=Yt-2WLi8170XrmvYRPa7bA&s=19
Shortly after his penalty expired Bunting was part of an end of period scrum. As Bunting continued to push a Red Wing player's stick away he was called for a 10-minute misconduct.
After the game Keefe had the following to say when asked if he was surprised about Bunting's misconduct:
He eats 3 cross-checks & he gets taken to the box with it. I don't know if he had 4 or 5 punches in the face in the scrum & he ends up with a misconduct so it's tough for him, but he's got to find his way through that & Kyle will deal with the other stuff ...
It's clear Keefe, who has already been fined heavily this year for abuse of officials, is trying to walk a very tough tight rope. If the Leafs and Bunting are unable to figure out this doesn't bode well for their playoff hopes.
| POLL | ||
Did Michael Bunting embellish? | ||
| He usually does, but he didn't here | 73 | 38.4 % |
| Yes he did like he always does | 86 | 45.3 % |
| No, he's not that type of player | 31 | 16.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
