Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe becomes the latest coach to criticize officials

A lot has been made of the officiating over the past few seasons, especially following last season's "hot mic" fiasco, leading to the dismissal of longtime official Tim Peel.

On Sunday, referee Brad Meier made himself the target of a lot of criticism for how he handled the Leafs/Jets game in Winnipeg, essentially putting the whistle away for much of the game and allowing tempers to boil over, leading to injuries, fines and suspensions on both sides.

One exchange that drew a lot of interest during Sunday's Leafs/Jets game was Jets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois' assault on Leafs star Auston Matthews during the third period.

Dubois and Matthews got tangled up back in the Leafs' zone at around the quarter-mark of the third period, and as the play went back the other way, Dubois began to clutch, pull and drag Matthews around back in the Leafs' end. The end result of the play was offsetting minor penalties, leading to 4-on-4 hockey.

The bottom line is that every star player should have a certain element of protection in order to allow the NHL to display its best product night in and night out. It is becoming abundantly clear that the NHL couldn't care any less about protecting its stars.

When asked about it on Tuesday following Leafs' practice, head coach Sheldon Keefe pointed out the fact that Matthews has not been able to draw a penalty yet in the 2021-22 campaign.

"If I'm not mistaken, I don't think Auston's drawn a penalty the entire season, which is strange considering how much he has the puck & how involved he is. So, those kind of things are worth looking at if you're involved with that," Keefe said of Tuesday.

Keefe had to choose his words carefully in order to try to avoid being fined $25,000 by the NHL for criticizing the officiating - something Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour had to learn the hard way when he was issued a $25k fine for giving the officials a piece of his mind during a game at the end of November.

If enough teams have an issue with the officiating, the NHL may end up having no choice but to address the problem. Until then, the league will continue to issue these fines to anyone who calls the officials' ability to do their jobs into question.

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