Last night's game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Vegas Golden Knights may not have been the prettiest game the Leafs have played this season, but it certainly wasn't bad enough that you'd believe the score was 6-2 without seeing the scoreboard. For the most part, the Leafs had hung in there all night and were it not for a few calls not going their way, that game could very well have had a different result - especially if Adin Hill didn't keep his team in the game early with his tremendous athleticism and poise.
The officials weren't the worst I've ever seen them in this one, but they certainly weren't the best either - particularly on the Marner call late in the third period after a Golden Knight had toe-picked with Marner in his immediate vicinity. The call drew the ire of Sheldon Keefe, who was far less animated than he normally is with these types of plays. Shockingly, the Leafs' bench boss was ejected for simply informing the official that he made the wrong call, indicating that the Vegas player had fallen on his own.
Even TSN's Mike Johnson, who was positioned between the benches at rink side, was shocked to see Keefe tossed and didn't see anything from his point of view that would warrant official Garrett Rank tossing him out the way he did. Just listen to the shock in Johnson's voice:
Johnson had an ice level view for the entire game and, from his view, the Leafs were getting the raw end of the deal from officials all night. At one point, he even suggested that perhaps the Leafs should attempt to embellish a bit just to draw a call as the penalty scaling heavily favoured Vegas.
It's abundantly clear that the NHL and their officials have a different set of rules and guidelines for how they treat the Leafs versus how they treat each other team. This one is a real head-scratcher. The way coaches go at officials all season long, it's surprising to me that this is the first ejection for a coach this season and that it involved a shockingly calm Sheldon Keefe.
