Maple Leafs’ Bench Bickering Isn’t One of a Kind

It’s frustrating for players who can’t play their usual game in the playoffs. They’re aware they’re not delivering what’s expected of them. In eight seasons together in Toronto, the Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Morgan Rielly foursome has won just one playoff series. At this stage, they must start the playoffs already fearing another Groundhog Day.

Is it that surprising then, that in Game 4, as the Maple Leafs watched victory slip through their fingers to go down 3-1 in their first-round series against the Boston Bruins and on the brink of elimination, that tempers boiled over? To me, arguing on the bench was hardly surprising. The playoffs always have their fair share of bench altercations and meltdowns.

Overflow of Emotion Is Not Rare on NHL Benches

Earlier this month, against the Calgary Flames, veteran Corey Perry gave Evander Kane a right earful, but life went on for the Edmonton Oilers and the NHL.

A couple of weeks earlier, Leon Draisaitl also gave Kane a good talking to, and not much was made of it. Most people agreed it was two players talking strategy in the heat of the moment.

In 2017, when Phil Kessel was still with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he got into an argument on the bench with Evgeni Malkin, and later in the game, the two connected for a Kessel goal.

We’ve even seen coaches yelling at a player. Who doesn’t remember the Pierre Pagé meltdown behind the defunct Quebec Nordiques’ bench? I’m sure Mats Sundin remembers it well.

Would this have been a bigger deal if it had happened in the social media era? We’ll never know, but this incident goes to show that emotions boiling over on the bench is nothing new. Compared to Pagé’s loss of control, the way the Maple Leafs players talked to each other seems insignificant.

The NHL is a big business and a results-based business. How much a player will earn on their next contract is directly linked to how they played in the previous seasons. Winning matters. It matters very much. What happened in Toronto on Saturday night is nothing compared to the time Patrick Roy bought himself a one-way ticket out of Montreal by telling Canadiens’ president Ronald Corey he had played his last game in Montreal.

That wasn’t the last time Roy made headlines for his behaviour behind the bench. In his first NHL coaching job with the Colorado Avalanche, Roy argued with Perry, who was with the Anaheim Ducks at the time, before losing it on Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau and getting physical with the board between the two benches.

If Toronto loses this series, as most people seem to think they will, there will be big changes. Those changes won’t be because of bench bickering, it will be because of the playoff losses. Nylander telling Marner to “stop crying, it’s not junior hockey” shouldn’t buy him a ticket out of town. Nylander is the most productive of Toronto’s top three forwards in the postseason. He isn’t going anywhere.

Marner, on the other hand, could be moved, especially since he’ll be an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season. Unfortunately, he has a no-movement clause that kicked in this season. So, he would have to approve any trade.

Today’s not the time for the post-mortem, though. Well, this afternoon isn’t. Tonight might be another story.