The least surprising news in the fallout of the Maple Leafs’ wild Game 1 win over the Panthers came early this morning: Sam Bennett has avoided any Department of Player Safety discipline for his contact with goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who left the game with an apparent head injury.

As part of his long history of suspect hits, Bennett has proven to be an opportunistic head-hunter on the ice in the second round of three successive postseasons now, all resulting in head injuries for the affected player. In 2023, a then-rookie Matthew Knies missed the rest of the series against Florida with a concussion (the better part of four playoff games before the Leafs‘ season ended). In the 2024 second round, Bennett knocked his now-teammate, Brad Marchand, out of the lineup for the better part of three playoff games due to a head injury after throwing a similar punch to the one that concussed Knies.

Remarkably, Bennett has not been penalized on the ice or faced any discipline from the league despite the fact that he deploys the same dangerous tactic each time (the same move against Pittsburgh in the regular season did at least result in a penalty call). The pattern should be clear and obvious to the league by this point, based on even a cursory review of the video. Craig Berube labeled this contact with Stolarz an elbow after the game, but Bennett’s M.O. is opportunistically extending a glove-on fist/arm into the head/face of an unsuspecting opponent during a physical coming together on the ice. It should not live in the grey area of a hockey play/mutual engagement; it’s a dangerous act that he is concussing players left and right with, and yet the Department of Player Safety remains derelict in its duty by continuing to sit on its hands.

As far as the on-ice officials’ part in it, you can’t help but contrast this Bennett non-call with the opening penalty call of the game in which Max Domi was called for a cross-check where he didn’t even have two hands on his stick and lightly latched onto Marchand as they came together after the whistle — a total nothing play, and one of the most embarrassing penalty calls you’ll ever witness in an NHL playoff game.

There won’t be any accountability for Bennett from the DoPS, and there won’t be any accountability for the on-ice officials after a terribly officiated game in which one of the top goaltenders in the league this season was struck in the head and left the game vomiting without a call on the ice. Oddly enough, it just so happened to be the same officiating crew that had a clear view of Bennett’s punch on Knies in 2023 (Chris Rooney and Graham Skilliter).

This is the same league that just last week made a big to-do about an opposition puck being shot somewhere near Stolarz in warmups of the Ottawa series. Make it make sense.

Now, will there be accountability on the ice in the next game? Everything about the Leafs‘ approach under Berube suggests they’ll downplay this publicly and emphasize moving on to the next game as quickly as possible. After a big Game 1 win, the Leafs don’t want to let this become too much of a sideshow distraction throughout Game 2; that’s a sewer the Panthers embrace and thrive in. If Bennett would stand up early in Game 2 and settle the score with, say, a Max Domi or Simon Benoit, allowing the teams to get on with the series afterward, that’d be one thing (and an ideal scenario). If Bennett doesn’t accept any early invitations, the Leafs don’t want to lose their focus or allow Bennett to bait penalty calls out of them.

The Leafs should’ve been well prepared for this kind of drama against this opponent, and frankly, it was entirely predictable; we explicitly talked about Bennett running Stolarz in this series in the pre-game podcast yesterday. They are also well-equipped to sustain the potential loss in net thanks to two quality starter-calibre goaltenders on the roster, and Joseph Woll has been a .924 in the playoffs in his career so far (even despite the three goals on 20 shots when he came in cold in Game 1 last night).

It’s just a total shame the league has dropped the ball so badly to the point where the head injuries continue to pile up, all resulting from the familiar actions of a player who has actually been rewarded for it by eliminating key players from the opposition in the last three playoff runs.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR