Ottawa head coach-Senators’ head coach, Travis Green, suggested to journalists that the Maple Leafs manipulated officials to obtain penalty calls.
Toronto’s counterpart, Craig Berube, reflected a few minutes later that Ottawa had intentionally struck, slipped and fell on his goalkeeper.
The center of the Winnipeg Jets Mark Schiefele and the Blues goalkeeper of St. Louis Joel Hofer, meanwhile, played twice a chicken game at the end of the heating to see which player would be from the last of the ice.
The intensity and emotion accelerate considerably in the NHL qualifying series. The same goes for the game of games – this persistent leaf game in the game – during this time of the year.
Post-season 2025 is no different.
Whether on the ice, in the media or in camera, the teams are looking for any advantage they can find in the seventh-seven year series where the smallest details and the percentage points fractions can make the difference between victory and first.
“It’s still there, it’s still a part of that,” said Toronto defender Morgan Rielly. “But I think it is just as important for guys to stay focused on the game and not be taken in this kind of thing.”
It can certainly be a challenge in the heat of the moment.
Green was not satisfied with some of the decisions that were against his team during an eruption of match 1 in Toronto. Ottawa striker Ridly Greig, on the other hand, was one of the players to get in touch with Toronto goalkeeper Anthony Stolarz. Two nights later, the pair found itself in the fold of the leafs, Stolarz finally folded the senators’ antagonist to end a sequence which earned the two players of minor penalties.
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There were more potential shenanigans before match 3 when the center of the Senators Nick Cousins, who won the Stanley Cup last June alongside Stolarz with the Florida Panthers, seemed to shoot a few rings towards the Toronto goalkeeper during the warm -up.
“There is a fine line with how far you can go,” said Nino Niederreiter jet striker about the eliminatory game.
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The series between Winnipeg and St. Louis started with the Mind Games in the first two heats. Hofer not only refused to leave the ice – Schiefele’s superstition must be the last – after the horn has struck, he pulled rings on the playing surface with the back of his turned opponent.
“You should make sure you don’t get lost and focus,” added Niederreer. “This is the most important thing … that you don’t get carried away.”
Montreal Canadians, on the other hand, have a list with a number of young people who find their way – and learning dark arts after the season.
“You just feel how online there is,” said Montreal center Alex Newhook. “Guys try to do everything they can to get an advantage.”
Edmonton’s Oilers striker Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, said that finding a balance under the lively lights of hockey playoffs is the key.
“You don’t want to take penalties and put your team for unnecessary games,” he said. “At the same time, you want to play these hard guys, who you play. It could be seven games, so little things, they start to add up. You want to find ways to make things difficult for the other team.”
“As you need to be aggressive to stay on this line,” said Montreal Defender Mike Matheson of the required ice calculation. “You must remain disciplined. It is important to find out how to do it in high pressure situations. ”
The coaches, on the other hand, are often found lobbying for calls – either with officials in person or when they stood in front of the cameras.
“Special teams are still part of the post-season,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “It’s always a very tight game … generally comes down to a manufacturer of difference in special teams.”
Ottawa captain, Brady Tkachuk, is in the playoff series for the first time in his career, but learned many lessons by looking at the older brother Matthew going in spring races with the panthers, including last year’s title victory.
“There are things that happen in a series,” he said. “He can test discipline, test your will to win. There will be battles, you will be intense moments. You get these battles and there is a factor of respect there, but at the end of the day, two teams will do everything you need to win.”
Niederreiter said that players will sometimes target adversaries with specific characteristics in the hope of gaining an advantage.
“There are some guys you want to undergo under their skin because you know they are a little more emotional,” he said. “You might go younger because they are very nervous, more juice of eliminatory series.”
“The tenacious to be always in someone’s face over and over … you continue to be a little bite and he carries them).”
-How of Daniel Rainbird files in Washington, DC, Gemma Karstens-Smith in Los Angeles and Judy Owen in Winnipeg.
This Canadian press report was published for the first time on April 25, 2025.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press