“This Panthers-Leafs series has been pure chaos so far,” said TSN’s Pierre LeBrun as the Toronto Maple Leafs went up 2-0 against the Florida Panthers in Round 2. Yet, despite the defending champions losing two in a row, all anyone could talk about was a particular call on the Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues. While both games have seen their fair share of hits, the NHL world became engaged in heated debate about the Scott Laughton hitting Rodrigues from behind.
While fans are often up in arms about certain hits or missed calls, even analysts couldn’t agree with the call. The analysts’ panel on Sportsnet discussed the officials giving Rodrigues a two-minute penalty for embellishment, but just couldn’t agree. “That was such a dangerous hit and dirty hit,” said one of them about Laughton hitting the Panthers forward from behind and smashing him into the boards.
Another analyst stated that while “embellishment has been a scourge on this playoff,” he didn’t think what Rodrigues did qualified. “I just don’t know how you can look at that and say that one’s embellishment,” said the Sportsnet analyst. And they were far from the only ones. In fact, former NHL goaltender turned NESN analyst Andrew Raycroft said, “That’s the craziest embellishment call in the history of the NHL.”
That’s the craziest embellishment call in the history of the NHL.
— Andrew Raycroft (@AndrewRaycroft) May 8, 2025
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