As expected, it turned out to be an eventful encounter between the Maple Leafs and the Panthers yesterday. The Panthers came back strongly to level the series 2-2 and swing the momentum in their favor to enter the semifinals of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, not everything went smoothly for the Panthers as their captain, Aleksander Barkov, took a hard hit from the Maple Leafs’ Max Domi. The incident became a big talking point of the game and was widely discussed in the hockey world. Even the Maple Leafs’ coach, Craig Berube, shared his take on this matter.

During the post-game interview, Berube was asked to comment on Domi’s hit on Barkov. Replying to this, he said, “To me the Kulikov hit on Marner was 10 times worse.” While he completely ignored Domi’s controversy, Berube referred to Dmitry Kulikov appearing to hit Mitch Marner on the head, which went unnoticed by the referees. However, Berube felt that his team was at the receiving end of some unfair decisions and played down Domi’s clash with Barkov.

The incident occurred in the third period during the closing stages as the Panthers were cruising to a 2-0 win. However, Domi struck Barkov from behind, resulting in the Panthers captain falling on the ice. Barkov was sent headfirst into the boards, and Domi received a penalty for his aggressive play. Luckily for Barkov and the Panthers, he escaped any serious injury and is expected to be fine for the next game.

Nonetheless, the hit did rattle the Panthers’ bench. Matthew Tkachuk, who was on the bench, was seen chirping at Maple Leafs’ star William Nylander, saying that he was coming to get him. However, all’s well that ends well, and the game was devoid of any further incidents.

Further, there were reports that the NHL was looking at the incident to determine any further action on Domi. Amid this, NHL insiders didn’t quite reach a consensus on the incident.

Is Max Domi set to receive a massive penalty ahead of the Panthers’ visit to Toronto?

While Domi was assessed a penalty for his hit on Barkov in the game, the NHL bigwigs were also determining if he should receive any supplemental penalty. Although the decision is yet to be taken, NHL insider JD Bunkis felt that the incident deserved a supplemental penalty to Domi.

He said, “They are going to have one that is forced. Domi is in jail. At the very end of the game, Domi ran Barkov from behind, this is a suspension, period, duh, look at it. It’s multiple strides into the numbers, he’s close to the boards. That’s a game. People aren’t going to like to hear it.”

On the other end, Maple Leafs reporter Mark Masters thought otherwise. “I don’t think the league is going to suspend Max Domi. I know just talking to our TSN hockey insider Chris Johnston, he’s been working his sources, doesn’t feel like it’s going to be suspendable. Paul Maurice said that’s the type of play the league looks at, especially late in a game.”

Meanwhile, the Panthers’ coach, Paul Maurice, also believed that the league would look into the incident closely to determine the further course of action. Even as the Panthers’ captain received a major scare, his team is right back into the tie and is looking good to progress through to the semifinals. It’ll be interesting to see how the series pans out in the coming games.