Happy Wednesday, hockey friends! Another week of this wacky season, where the divisions are different, games get delayed, and a referee gets fired for doing a thing all refs do (but should not do!) This week the COVID game delay finally hit the Canadian division, and Boston is bearing the brunt over in the East. Also – the Leafs posted pictures of their puppies!
Time to dive in.
Leafs Lads
Who doesn’t love PUPPIES? The Leafs sure do, and they celebrated National Puppy Day by sharing tons of adorable pictures:
It’s #NationalPuppyDay and we’re pawsitive there are some great Leafs pup pics out there 🐶
Share yours below ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/bnAy8K5gDo
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 24, 2021
The team missed a few, though. We can’t forget Mo and Zoë:
Or this sweet photo of Mitch’s pup and Auston’s pup hanging out:
There are tons of Leafs pups to love, and yesterday we got to see many of them!
In other fun Leaf news, the team has brought back their Leaf to Leaf series!
The Buds are back for a new season of Leaf To Leaf presented by @Rogers
Tune in on Sunday for our first episode! #LeafsForever pic.twitter.com/oHIyBE0Ehn
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 18, 2021
During the hockey hiatus last year, the virtual Leaf to Leaf live events were tons of fun. If you want to get to know the players’ personalities a bit more, here is your chance!
Meanwhile, the Leafs finally picked up a regulation win last Saturday – hooray! However, they lost two players to waivers in the past week: both Jimmy Vesey and Travis Boyd were picked up by the Canucks. Never fear, though, because Alex Galchenyuk made his Leafs debut and seems to be fitting in well:
Alex Galchenyuk said he was just out getting some fresh air when he bumped into William Nylander:
"I see a guy wearing a pink hat, so I knew right away that was Willy. He saw me wearing green shoes, so he knew it was me too." https://t.co/OapoiNOgOi
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) March 23, 2021
We love when Willy makes friends.
COVID Woes
The Bruins have been hit hard by the COVID protocol list:
We will soon get a Covid update from the NHL, Here's what we know about the #NHLBruins in the meantime. https://t.co/9IfLw1Mg5N
— Locked On Boston Bruins (@LOBostonBruins) March 23, 2021
If they do get back to playing, they will be short a few key players.
Also, the Canadian division saw its first COVID postponement this week:
Per @PR_NHL, Habs/Oilers scheduled for tonight has been postponed after two Habs players entered health and safety protocol.
This is the first North Division game to be postponed due to health and safety protocol. pic.twitter.com/yMEs2qpaWE
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) March 22, 2021
We made it to the end of March, but sadly we didn’t escape the season unscathed.
Hopefully everyone on the COVID protocol lists is doing well and, if ill, gets better very soon.
Bad Calls
Well –
Maybe if you're a mic'd up ref, you shouldn't express how you wanted to call a penalty against a team earlier in the game, changing how you ref the rest of the game.
"It wasn't much but I wanted to get a fuckin' penalty against Nashville early in the…"#Preds #LGRW pic.twitter.com/6fZImkdqLr
— Matt Best (@bestofmatt) March 24, 2021
Referee Tim Peel no longer will be working NHL games now or in the future. https://t.co/mrnDc61W5P pic.twitter.com/tKsg2SwGh8
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 24, 2021
So a ref intentionally makes a call to impact the course of the game, which happens all the time, but he is mic’d up and gets caught. And then gets fired. But…
To add some context to this, Peel was scheduled to retire later this season. His final game was April 24. Still think it’s a big punishment…taking that away from him. https://t.co/4KEN4wnLEO
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 24, 2021
the NHL firing Tim Peel for getting caught doing the exact thing they’ve told their officials to do for decades pic.twitter.com/uXC4mF3uNo
— Mike Stephens (@mikeystephens81) March 24, 2021
Many find this disingenuous on the part of the league – firing one ref for something they all do, and firing a guy who was already going to retire in a month. As many have pointed out, it’s a widespread problem, refs making calls intentionally to impact the game (even just to even things up) – and the solution isn’t to just fire one guy. It’ll be interesting to see if this leads to pressure to do more about the issue.
A Little Laughter
Finally, we end off with some fun. This guy rocks:
In case anyone missed them, here's MOST of them! My magnum opus of trolling:
kudos to the Troll King himself @MrBooth_7 for advising me that Chiclets were using my clip as a source! Wouldn't have had this much fun if he hadn't given me the heads up! pic.twitter.com/WY7o13cDuk
— End of an Era (@CodySevertson) March 20, 2021
To sum it up: Spittin’ Chiclets was using his videos so he changed his name over and over so the caption would read as various things….you gotta check out the thread for a laugh. Master trolling.
That’s all for this week, folks. Check back next Wednesday for more fun and drama!