Leafs Coach Craig Berube Criticizes Referees' Questionable Decision in Loss to Senators

As expected, the Battle of Ontario was a heated affair and it started very early in the game with the Toronto Maple Leafs up 1-0. With the Ottawa Senators trailing, Nick Cousins was looking to give his team a jolt of energy through a big hit, however, he missed and turned it into a very dirty and dangerous play.

With rookie Jacob Quillan traversing the neutral zone, Cousins made a bee-line towards the forward and met him with a ferocious knee-on-knee collision. Quillan initially sidestepped the shoulder contact but couldn't avoid the knee.

Through it all, Cousins was the one who suffered the most as he was laying on the ice for quite some time before heading off with a trainer and was subsequently ruled out for the remainder of the contest. Quillan was also helped off the ice but ended up skating it off and returning to the game.

Nevertheless, Cousins, who has a reputation for being a rather dirty player, seemingly got away with a very obvious knee-on-knee hit that should have been called for a penalty, which left head coach Craig Berube just as baffled as the rest of us:

The Senators ended up tying the game on a 4-on-3 power play shortly afterwards, courtesy of Tim Stutzle. Max Domi and Brady Tkachuk each received coincidental minors with the temperature rising before Pontus Holmberg was called for a tripping minor, which sent the Senators onto a 4-on-3 man advantage.

Toronto's offense was muted after that as they couldn't find the back of the net despite firing 23 shots on goal in the final 40 minutes of play.

While there weren't many positives to take from this game, at the very least Quillan was able to return and finish the contest after what could have been a very serious injury.

The Maple Leafs are off until Wednesday night when they welcome the Minnesota Wild to Scotiabank Arena, which will be their final home game until after the conclusion of the 4-Nations Face-Off.

Several injured players could be making their way back into the lineup, which might force Quillan back to the minors. However, we can all breathe a sigh of relief with the head coach confirming he was okay and avoided an injury.