John Tavares calls out referees for ‘brutal’ call

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares can’t believe he was called for hooking with 42 seconds remaining in a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Ottawa Senators.

He did not hold back when meeting with reporters after the game.

“Brutal. I mean I lifted the guy’s stick!” Tavares said, per TSN, when asked about the call.

He was then careful with his choice of words.

“At the end of the day, we put ourselves in that position in the first place, but unfortunate that got called when I just lifted his stick.”

What happened is that Tavares was sent to the penalty box in the last minute of play as the Maple Leafs attempted to send the game in overtime. But he barely did anything. He appeared to lift the stick of Connor Brown as the Senators forward attempted to shoot the puck on Toronto’s empty net from the neutral zone.

The ref made the call…

As for head coach Sheldon Keefe, he seemed discouraged that this kinda of bad call has already been made in 2021-22, stating it’s “early in the season for everybody.”

“We’ve seen the memos on the crosschecks and the guys are well aware of that and they’re adjusting to that, but I haven’t seen the memos on not being able to lift guys’ sticks, that’s new,” Keefe said. “I don’t think that’s going to be the standard moving forward, but that’s early in the season for everybody.”

Sure, it’s early, but the referees better get their sh*t together!