Last night's 6-2 thumping of the Philadelphia was a statement win for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are 7-3-0 over the last 10 games, but even with the win, the Leafs know they were in a fight last night and are coming home from Philly very banged up. Not only was Calle Jarnkrok injured last night, but Ilya Lyubushkin also took some punishment, crashing into the boards hard after Garnet Hathaway finished a hard check on the Russian Bear that left him shaken up.
Hathaway was in the thick of it with the Leafs all night. Not only was he physically engaged, landing 6 hits on the night, but he was also involved in an exchange with Max Domi that baited the short-fused winger into being essentially tossed out of the game.
For those who saw the game last night, it was very easy to miss what happened to cause the 10-minute misconducts. I know the officials didn't want a runaway game to get any chippier than it already was, and I understand why they threw out both Domi and Hathaway in theory, but I really don't think Domi deserved to be tossed if I'm being entirely honest. For those who missed it, here's the little tap from Hathaway and reaction from Domi that earned them the misconducts.
Looking at it again, it seems pretty silly and insignificant. Certainly nothing warranting either player being tossed out of the game with under 6 minutes to go. It seemed pretty likely that the two may have dropped the gloves, so perhaps it was just the officials trying to defuse the situation before chaos ensued in a game that was already almost entirely over. Still, I've seen players do more and remain in the game. Seems pretty lame of the officials to me.
