Maple Leafs head coach accuses the NHL of being biased against Toronto

On Saturday night, an incident at the end of the game between the Leafs and Senators blew up the hockey world. Senators forward Ridley Greig iced the game with a cocky slap shot into the empty net, and Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly took responded with a violent cross check to the face.

Now, the league has announced an in-person suspension hearing to Rielly, and they're expected to send a message with a suspension of 6 games or more. Today at practice the Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe was asked his thoughts on the incoming suspension, and he shocked everyone in clearly claiming the league has bias against the Leafs.




Keefe says that because the Leafs are on the national broadcast and because they have so much attention on them, the league is more likely to punish them harshly to send a message and react to public sentiment.


Keefe claimed that the Leafs are the most heavily suspended team in the league due to the attention they receive, and the Department of Player Safety gets caught up in the media and reacts too harshly. Despite it being backwards from the usual thought that the league is biased in favour of the Leafs, the line of thinking does make sense from Keefe, especially when the Leafs do have the most suspensions and the longest suspensions in the last seven years since George Parros took over.