Report: Leafs on Tkachuk, “It’s child’s play”

Calgary Flames sophomore Matthew Tkachuk may be Toronto’s Most Wanted after his dirty spear on Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Matt Martin from the bench last night. 

The 19-year-old Tkachuk will have a hearing with the NHL to determine whether or not the sneaky play warrants supplemental discipline or not. But regardless of the NHL’s reaction, it’s clear the Leafs weren’t fans of Tkachuk’s ugly stick work.

“That’s junior hockey stuff,” said Leafs head coach Mike Babcock. “So he’ll learn over time. You’ve got to give Tkachuk credit, he played a good game, he played hard. But, there’s no reason for that stuff.”

Martin was a little more critical calling Tkachuk’s actions “child’s play”. “It’s whatever, it’s child’s play. I don’t really get involved with that kind of stuff,” said the Leafs tough guy. “I guess if he’s going to do stuff like that he should probably make it count,” joked Martin after admitting that he didn’t even feel the the spear.

This is the second time in just three weeks that Tkachuk has been called before the league for an incident. Last month he was suspended a game for slashing Detroit Red Wings forward Luke Witkowski and instigating a brawl between the two clubs in a Red Wings 8-2 beat down.

While Tkachuk’s actions last night failed to leave any real mark on Martin or the game at hand, don’t be surprised if the NHL throws the book at him this time around.