Refs intervene over questionable act from Leafs after Game 1.

There is going to be a ton of gamesmanship between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs before their first round Stanley Cup playoff series is all wrapped up, and we didn't have to wait long to get our first example of some on-ice gamesmanship from the Maple Leafs.

On Saturday night, the Maple Leafs suffered a very tough loss at the hands of the Bruins in Game 1 with the Bruins thoroughly dominating the game from start to finish. There wasn't really anything positive to take away from this one from a Maple Leafs perspective, but following the conclusion of the game it sounds as though at least one Maple Leafs player tried to salvage something from this game.

According to a report from 98.5 The Sports Hub's Ty Anderson, the Maple Leafs attempted to skate away from Game 1 with the game puck much to the dismay of the Bruins. It is often tradition for winning playoff teams in the National Hockey League to hang onto their game pucks as they try to stack up 16 of them on their way to a Stanley Cup championship. The Maple Leafs are of course well aware of this, and were no doubt trying to get under the skin of their opponents by skating away with the puck itself.

This only caused a very mild controversy on the ice thanks to the NHL referees on the ice stepping in and prying the puck away from the Maple Leafs to hand it to the victors.

Some have expressed their displeasure at this decision from the Leafs, and I can certainly understand that perspective given just how poorly the Leafs played in Game 1, but I suspect that the Bruins would do something similar if the situation was reversed. At the end of the day no one was hurt, and a little gamesmanship of this nature only serves to stoke the fires for the games that have yet to be played in this series.