Why do Leafs fans have their pitchforks out for Wes McCauley?

For the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans, it’s hard to imagine a scenario worse than Tuesday night’s Game 1 shellacking at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Maple Leafs appeared unprepared out of the gates, gripping their sticks too tightly to generate much offence and failing to make saves as the Lightning turned up the heat. They also couldn’t stay out of the penalty box, taking eight penalties including a five-minute match penalty on a senseless hit that will sideline Michael Bunting for the next three contests.

The final score may have been 7-3, but based on the ensuing panic from across Leafs Nation it may as well have been 70-3, with fans outraged at the team’s poor start, lack of preparedness and the tone they allowed the Lightning to set.

More than anything else, however, the pitchforks were primarily aimed at a singular target: Wes McCauley, one of the NHL’s most popular referees amongst players and noted viral video aficionado.

There’s obviously more to the story than that and in some ways the criticism of McCauley was understandable. The game's most prominent example came during the second period when mere moments after a momentum-shifting goal by William Nylander, the Leafs were dinged by a dubious slashing call on David Kampf — relative to officiating from elsewhere in the Stanley Cup playoffs — that swung the pendulum back to the Lightning and eventually helped to restore their cushion.

“Those calls that are borderline, more likely than not they’re gonna go their way,” captain John Tavares said postgame. “We have to be a lot better, learn from it.”

So, what is there to make of McCauley and his officiating history of the Leafs? And what about word of a possible conflict of interest based on Sheldon Keefe’s past? Are there legitimate gripes to be had?

Wes McCauley's history with Leafs, Sheldon Keefe

It’s easy to point the finger and make broad accusations, but with regard to any irrefutable evidence, that much is murky at best. For context, Keefe and McCauley do have a history, but there are layers to peel back when looking for what is based in fact, and what slips further down the rabbit hole into conspiratorial territory.

As recently as this season, the Maple Leafs bench boss and longtime NHL referee had at it in a public manner. Following a late December game against the St. Louis Blues, Keefe was fined $25,000 for “demeaning conduct directed at the officials” during a tirade at the aforementioned McCauley. Following a missed high stick on Leafs forward Zach Aston-Reese, Keefe was incensed, calling the referee out by name in an explosive rant from the bench.

Reaching further back, however, fans have called for McCauley to be barred from refereeing Keefe games altogether due to a perceived conflict of interest based on familial ties. Wes McCauley’s brother-in-law is Jim McCauley, a former player agent better known by his legal name David Frost, Keefe’s former abuser. The nature of the relationship between Jim and Wes McCauley is uncertain.

Keefe was also involved in a 2008 trial involving Frost on four counts of sexually exploiting young hockey players, though his testimony is under publication ban making it unclear whether he testified for or against Frost, unlike the story some have definitively claimed.

That narrative was furthered by a viral graphic from Twitter account Scouting The Refs that made the rounds following the game, pointing out the Maple Leafs are 0-8 in playoff games under McCauley’s supervision.

How Leafs have fared in games reffed by Wes McCauley

Putting aside the fact the first four games on the graphic date back to Mike Babcock’s regime, are there gripes to be had with the four losses Keefe’s group does lay claim to?

Once again, the evidence is spotty at best. The first three games, Games 3 and 5 of the bubble playoffs against Columbus, then Game 7 last year, don’t pass the sniff test based on a cursory glance at the game log.

You’ll recall Game 3 as the overtime collapse in which Nick Robertson scored his first career goal, while the penalty differential sits at an almost even 3-2, the bulk against the Leafs who didn't give up a power-play goal in the contest. There’s Game 5, where the Maple Leafs failed to score a single goal against the Blue Jackets with playoff hopes on the line, which resulted in a 2-1 differential against Toronto that included a too many men penalty.

And, of course, there’s the 2022 Game 7 against Tampa Bay, and the knife-twisting interference call on Justin Holl that erased a potential tying goal in the second period. Except, it was Eric Furlatt (who coincidentally will referee Game 2 on Thursday) who made that call, not to mention the Maple Leafs did eventually tie the game in the second, only to have the game slip away later that period following a Nick Paul goal on a poor giveaway.

By the way, the penalty differential in that game was 3-2, with the Lightning taking the additional infraction in the third period. The Maple Leafs also went 5-0-1 during the 2022-23 regular season with McCauley in stripes.

It no doubt stings watching the Maple Leafs repeatedly fail to rise to the occasion. Game 1 on Tuesday night was yet another bookmark in a hardcover that would put Tolstoy’s War and Peace to shame. To call Game 2 a monumental moment in Maple Leafs lore in deciding the fate of this iteration’s core is underselling just how desperate things feel right now.

But to squarely place the Maple Leafs' recent history of disappointment at the hands of one scapegoat in McCauley is disingenuous and untruthful. The fact of the matter is the Maple Leafs' demons have demons at this point.

This Maple Leafs team has the talent to beat the Lightning. They have the talent to go toe-to-toe with any NHL team in a seven-game series. The math says so, the eye test says so, and most reasonable hockey pundits say so.

The question is, do they have what it takes to get over the mental hurdle?