No, the NHL is not rigged in favour of the Leafs

Buffalo Sabres fans were angered by the call that allowed Mark Giordano's goal to stand even though Alex Tuch had knocked off the net but is there any evidence that officials' decisions across the league favour the Maple Leafs?

Video Transcript

- So that game against Buffalo had a lot of controversy. Mark Giordano's goal, where he scored the goal even though the net was knocked off, via Buffalo Sabres player knocking it off. But it was called a goal because there was a scoring chance. It was going to happen. And the puck crossed the line, so it was awarded a goal.

And of course, Buffalo Sabres fans and people who cover the Sabres are up in arms about it. I've seen a lot of takes like this. You know, Mike Harrington has kind of spread the idea of what a lot of Sabres fans are thinking. That oh, you know, of course. Because it's a game in Toronto, and because the NHL offices are in Toronto, that's why it was called. Another rigged situation for Toronto. Again, just paraphrasing what he said, but that's pretty much the sentiment that a lot of Buffalo Sabres fans had.

So I just have one question, if you have that if you have that perspective. Um, are you new? When has the league ever been rigged in favor of the Leafs? When? Where-- where are the cups, man? We haven't won a cup since fricking '67, which a lot of people would like to remind us of. Google the championship. It's in black and white. We haven't won a playoff series in fricking 18 years, man!

So like, every time I see this take that, like, oh, the league is rigged for the Leafs-- how? There is zero evidence for that. In fact, the Leafs had some stupid goal fricking called back for some stupid rule in the beginning of the season against Arizona. Did we all forget that?

That game was in Toronto, where the goal had nothing to do with this quote-unquote "hand pass." But the puck goes off of Rielly's hand, gets to Marner, Marner gets it to Kerfoot, and Kerfoot scores. But they waved it off because it was a hand pass, even though it was the most circumstantial hand pass I've ever seen in my life. Literally, it was the force that moved this puck off of Rielly's hand, onto the ice, through Jack Hughes' skate-- or not Jack Hughes' skate, through the player's skate. I forgot who it was.

So it's just like, no. The league is not rigged for the Leafs. It has never been rigged for the Leafs. The only time you can argue that the rig-- that the league-- the league is rigged for the Leafs, is when we won on the draft lottery. But I wouldn't call that a rig either, because we finished last for Matthews.

So I get it. I get it. If you're a Sabres fan, it's a frustrating time right now. The team is losing. And you thought maybe this might be the year where you're better. Cool. It was a goal, man. Leafs fans were watching it. Leafs fans in droves were excited about it, that Giordano didn't get robbed of his first goal of the season. It was a goal. The puck was going in anyway, and there's clear evidence for that.

So get rid of this whole the league is rigged for the Leafs thing, because it's not true. It's far from the truth. If that was the case, we'd be in the Stanley Cup Final every single year and have at least five cups. We have none. So stop it, please.