Don Cherry fears one thing could ruin the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Arguably the National Hockey League's most experienced analyst has taken to the airwaves again, this time voicing some concerns about what we might see in the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. On the latest episode of Don Cherry's Grapevine Podcast, the man himself described how he felt that there was one thing that could potentially ruin the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The NHL revealed it's planned schedule for the opening round of the playoffs, now being called the Stanley Cup Qualifying Round, and that schedule is absolutely packed. Every single day in the first 9 days of the Qualifying Round will feature at least 5 games, or the potential to host that many games barring any eliminations, with several days featuring a whopping 7 games on the schedule. This will mean unusually tight time constraints for both the league and its broadcast partners and this has led to some conversations regarding how the games will be officiated, and this is where Cherry's concerns come in. Some believe that the officials will be instructed to get the games done and over with as quickly as possible, but Cherry feels that we may see the opposite taking place in the opening round and fears we might see too many cheap penalties damaging the playoffs.

"The only thing that bothers me is if the referees are going to call chintzy penalties at the start," said Cherry on his podcast. "If that starts you know it will be good for the Leafs, but if they start those chintz penalties it will ruin the playoffs."

How the games will be officiated and how NHL officials themselves will prepare for live game action has not been given a ton of thought by many fans, but if NHL officials try and set a tone early in the playoffs Cherry fears we could be headed for disaster.

"Well I'll tell you if they call chintzy penalties it will ruin the playoffs, it won't be the same playoffs cause that St. Louis/Bruins series that was a great final."

Interestingly enough Cherry believes that, although calling cheap penalties would ruin the playoffs, it could actually turn out to be a benefit to teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs. Unfortunately Cherry did not elaborate on this point, so I will leave it up to you to speculate on why he thinks that will be the case.