Late in the second period of Wednesday’s 4-2 loss in Game 3, with the Leafs leading 1-0, Toronto’s Auston Matthews was essentially tackled deep in the Boston zone with two referees standing not far away, and with nary an ensuing whistle to be heard. Not long after, while chaos reigned in an awayfrom-the-puck wrestling match between Bruins captain Brad Marchand and Toronto’s Tyler Bertuzzi, the Bruins scored a softie to tie the game 1-1.
Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe publicly lobbied to the league in his post-game press conference for a fairer whistle around Marchand’s antics.
“I don’t think there’s another player in this series that gets away with taking out Bertuzzi’s legs the way he does,” Keefe said. “It’s an art, and he’s elite at it.”
Keefe, of course, is dead on. But here’s the thing, in the final analysis: For all the griping about the calls that didn’t come on Wednesday, Toronto still got five powerplay opportunities for its trouble. And judging by their performance in those five, if the guys in the stripes had sent a few more Bruins to the box, there’s a decent chance it might not have changed the outcome.
Three games into this series, in other words, here we go again. Toronto’s power play, one of the NHL’s perennial best during the regular season, is already in the midst of its annual post-season slump. The Leafs are 1-for-11 in the series, a startling 9 per cent conversion rate that doesn’t reflect the potential of a team that made good on 24 per cent of attempts during the regular season.
“Obviously we haven’t scored enough (on the power play). That’s very evident,” Keefe said Thursday.
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