Maple Leafs In Surprising Spot After Referees Announced for Game 2 Against the Panthers

Tonight's matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers could bring about a lot of fireworks after the questionable incidents that occurred in Game 1.

The Department of Player Safety ruled that nothing egregious took place in Game 1. Therefore, no fines or suspensions were levied against the Panthers. All in all, the chatter coming from both sides indicates that they're going to try to keep their cool, but that's easier said than done with two heated rivals squaring off with so much on the line.

The job of officiating this game and making sure that it doesn't go overboard will be tough, which is why it's being handed over to referees Dan O'Rourke and Francois St. Laurent as well as linespersons in Shandor Alphonso and Matt MacPherson.

Both O'Rourke and St. Laurent are veterans with a combined 2,607 games officiated during the regular season and another 302 games during the post-season. Alphonso and MacPherson add another 1,856 games of experience in both realms.

What should give the Maple Leafs somewhat of an advantage tonight is that the home team has won 60% of the game officiated by O'Rourke and 63% by St. Laurent. Not that they're going to give preferential treatment tonight, but over the course of a large sample size, that could be a good omen.

The Maple Leafs have also done extremely well with St. Laurent, having posted a 4-0-0 record in games where he's refereed this season, and are 2-2-0 with O'Rourke. As for the Panthers they're 1-1-0 with St. Laurent and 4-3-0 with O'Rourke this year.

This will be the first time they've been paired up this post-season as well as the first Florida game they've both officiated so far. As for the Leafs, they have a bit of recent experience with both as O'Rourke was present during Game 5 of the opening round while St. Laurent was there for Game 3.

It's going to be a feisty game tonight no matter the officiating crew, but the Maple Leafs will look to keep their wits as they hope to jump to a 2-0 lead before the scene shifts to Florida for Games 3 and 4.