Leo Komarov hits former teammate Mitch Marner right in the numbers.

Uncle Leo is not feeling so friendly.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Leo Komarov hits former teammate Mitch Marner right in the numbers.

This one certainly created a bit of a buzz in Toronto for a brief moment. 

On Saturday night the Toronto Maple Leafs squared off against the New York Islanders in a match up that has become a highly anticipated one given just how many players have moved from one team to the other over the course of the past several seasons. Most fans are always excited to see how Leafs captain John Tavares will fare against his former team and there are also several former Leafs on the Islanders including players like Leo Komarov and Matt Martin.

In spite of the fact that some of these guys are former teammates, and likely in many cases still friends outside of the rink, there seemed to be no love lost between these two squads on Saturday night. The clearest example of this came during the final minutes of the game's opening period when the aforementioned Leo Komarov delivered some questionable punishment to Maple Leafs teammate Mitch Marner. Komarov chased Marner down as the Leafs forward was racing for the puck, and in spite of the fact that Marner had his back to Komarov the Islanders forward decided to finish his check anyways, sending Marner face first into the glass. 

The hit happened directly in the line of sight of a National Hockey League official but it seems that the official did not feel the infraction rose to the level of even a minor penalty, although Marner obviously disagreed. The Leafs forward protested to the official briefly and given the fact that he was hit square in the numbers on the play you can see where he was coming from and why he felt there maybe should have been a call. Although it likely was not meant as anything more than just a routine hit for Komarov, there is no doubt that the hit to Marner's numbers sent a clear message that there would be no mercy for his former teammates.

In spite of Komarov's physical brand of play however the Islanders have not fared well this evening, down 2 - 0 nothing at the time of this writing and through the first 40 minutes of play.


Source: