Auston Matthews Has One Of The Worse Penalties Called On Him And Flips Out At Referee
A moment occurred in last night's game between the Leafs and Kraken that saw one of the worst penalties of the year called on Auston Matthews.
Toronto was up 3-1, but with the Kraken pulling their goalie for an extra attacker, it was about the worst time possible to lose their best player to the penalty box. These things happen, except, in this case, nothing actually did.
With less than three minutes remaining in Thursday's game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Seattle Kraken, Auston Matthews was whistled for a high-sticking penalty.
The moment the whistle blew, Matthews was furious. As he skated to the box, he could be seen dropping multiple f-bombs at the officials. TSN's post on X didn't include the audio, but for those watching live, the frustration was loud and clear.
And for good reason. Matthews' stick never came remotely close to touching Seattle's Brandon Montour. The defenseman sold the call, hoodwinking the referees into sending Toronto's captain off for two minutes.
Matthews' stick did not touch Montour in the face
What happened was that Matthews' stick barely grazed Montour's own stick, which then barely grazed him up around the face. That's not a penalty.
Fortunately for the Leafs, Seattle did not capitalize on the power play, and Toronto would go on to win 3-1, moving their streak to three games in a row.
Justice served? Perhaps. But the refs need to do a lot better going forward, as there have been many instances of blown calls this year in the NHL.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 7 | 157 ANSWERS Auston Matthews Has One Of The Worse Penalties Called On Him And Flips Out At Referee Was this one of the worst calls you've seen all season? | ||
| Yes | 94 | 59.9 % |
| No | 63 | 40.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
