William Nylander and Morgan Rielly ridiculed for lying about Matthews/Gudas controversy.

Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews is done for the season after being the victim of a dirty knee on knee hit courtesy of Anaheim Ducks captain Radko Gudas but, although fans in Toronto are furious with Gudas, the real anger may currently be directed at Matthews' own teammates.

Following the incident Matthews' teammates have come under fire for failing to respond to their captain being taken out in such a fashion, with defensemen Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo as well as forwards William Nylander and Easton Cowan facing the brunt of that criticism as the players who were on the ice at the time.

Nylander and Rielly in particular are now facing a ton of backlash for responding to the incident in the media with what we now know are demonstrable lies.

"I didn't really see the hit, I know I passed the puck to him but I didn't really see what happened," said Nylander in his post game comments. "I didn't know the severity of it and then should of probably gone in there but I mean in the situation at the time I didn't really understand."

Rielly, who attempted to claim the puck was going back up the ice at the time despite Nylander passing the puck to a wide open Auston Matthews in front of the Ducks net, made similar excuses to the ones given by Nylander.

"I didn't have a good view of it because the puck was going the other way," said Rielly.

Fans have since analyzed video of Nylander who not only passed Matthews the puck but clearly had his eyes locked onto Matthews before, during and after the hit from Gudas. This applies to Matthews other teammates on the ice with screenshots and videos showing the Maple Leafs players looking right at the incident but failing to respond. Unsurprisingly this has resulted in widespread mockery on social media with longtime Leafs Rielly and Nylander taking the brunt of it.

Local media in Toronto hasn't been any better with Rielly and Nylander facing heavy criticism for their response to the incident.

"So Willy we can confirm saw, and knew the severity, because his hand was up," said Adam Wylde of SDPN. "So you know William Nylander knows in this scenario, so that's lie number one."

Wylde continued on his rant, suggesting that the Leafs players had been coached by public relations to lie about not seeing the incident, this time targeting Rielly directly.

"Let's go number two," continued Wylde intent on calling out the lies. "Morgan Rielly 'Oh the puck went by me it was going the other way' no it didn't."

JD Bunkis made scathing comments about the lack of response from the players who clearly saw the incident, despite their protests to the contrary.

"This is insanity," said Bunkis on Leafs Talk. "That these guys did not just fly in there for their captain as he receives an unbelievably dirty hit and is just laying there on the ice and nobody is doing anything. It is one of the lowest moments for me of this entire core's tenure... it is putrid what those guys did allowing their captain to just lay there and allowing Radko Gudas to skate off the ice completely unscathed, completely untouched."

It is an ugly situation and one that seems to have angered what was already a very unhappy fan base.