NHL Referees Refuse to Call Penalty on Panthers After Leafs' Auston Matthews High-Sticked in the Eye

The Toronto Maple Leafs are already fighting an uphill battle against the Florida Panthers, down 3-2 in the series, but now it appears as though they have another issue to deal with, as the NHL officials for tonight's game do not appear to be calling things fairly.

Both Garrett Rank and Jean Hebert had an opportunity to catch the Panthers for a pretty clear high-sticking infraction right off of a second period draw, with Aleksander Barkov catching Auston Matthews in the eye right at the faceoff dot. Unfortunately, no arm went up, and Matthews went straight to the Leafs' locker room.

Thankfully, Matthews was back on the ice during the next TV timeout, and didn't miss much time, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

Not only are the Leafs attempting to steal one from the Panthers on their home ice in Florida, but it appears as though they'll have a tough time even buying a call from the officials with the way things are going. We'll have to wait and see how this one develops, but it's still 0-0 on the scoreboard in the late stages of the second period as it stands.

The home teams have been favoured in games officiated by Rank and Hebert all season long as well, so the Leafs will have to do whatever they can to stay out of the box as the game progresses to give themselves a chance to take it out of the officials' hands.