The Toronto Maple Leafs have plenty to talk about following their qualification round exit at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, including some pending free agent decisions. One of those scheduled for unrestricted free agency is veteran forward Jason Spezza, who came to his hometown of Toronto on a minimum contract to try and chase a Stanley Cup.
Today, when speaking to reporters including Luke Fox of Sportsnet about his future, Spezza explained that “the fire still burns” and that he hopes to be back in Toronto next season. For being a part-time player at the beginning of the season and seeing fourth-line minutes throughout, Spezza was pretty impressive with nine goals and 25 points in 58 games. He even got in a fight during the postseason, trying anything he could think of to wake up the Maple Leafs.
- Rod Brind’Amour didn’t like a call in the Carolina Hurricanes-Boston Bruins game earlier today and voiced his displeasure to several reporters including Sara Civian of The Athletic. Brind’Amour got a quick fine from the league for his comments, earning a $25,000 penalty. He also received a conditional fine of $25,000 which will be collected if Brind’Amour has any other “inappropriate behavior” in the next year.
- The Vegas Golden Knights have signed a new two-year affiliation agreement with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets, who have been partnered with the organization for the last two years. Fort Wayne was coached this season by Ben Boudreau, son of long time NHL head coach Bruce Boudreau. They went 31-23-6, but weren’t able to take part in the playoffs thanks to the COVID-19 cancelation.
Brindy is correct.
@mikedickinson – Don’t know whether you’d agree, but sounds to me like the first official “Have Another Donut” moment of the playoffs just happened and Brindy got jammed by it. Also sounds like Bettman owes Brindy about $75K (that’s treble damages, Bettman. Penalty on you for refusing to reign in referee incompetence.)
The same thing happened to the Pens in Game 4 vs. Montreal.
The refs got the call wrong. The replay officials upheld a bad call. And then, because that was not enough of a screw job, now go kill a penalty on top of it for having the audacity to point out we messed up.
I like that replays have been cut down by the penalty, but…when the call is wrong, it goes from unfair to absurdly unfair.
You all know that he is right about the referees… It is a joke and the league is going down fast with replays. Just all wait when a call like this costs a team the cup in the final game on a bone head call that two idiots on ice and then God knows how many in a booth somewhere else in Toronto can’t figure out or get out a rule book… Lol. Clowns biggest one Bettman..next GM meeting let some coaches go I betcha it will not be all wine and dine…
Remember last decade (and before that) when you knew every referees name? You could tell what kind of game you were getting, the players respected (mostly) the refs, and you didn’t have nearly this much BS? At least it felt that way when I was watching as a teenager and into my 20s…now I don’t know one refs name and hate them all….