William Nylander surprisingly found himself inside the Florida Panthers bench after the door opened following his hit to Anton Lundell. People are speculating about why the door opened in the first place. Was this a calculated act?
@St. Louis Blues
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Intentional or not, it's not exactly what I'd call an intelligent move by Mikkola. If he's going to open the door in order for Ekblad to change, why wouldn't he open it when Ekblad was actually NEAR the Panthers' bench? As many have correctly pointed out, his action could not only have injured Nylander, but Lundell as well.
What was Mikkola doing down at defence door?
Dirty play is The American way. Wow. Rules are Amended for Amerixan teams, Bettmans Agenda.
Dirty play is the American Way ? Wait til the Shoe drops, and then we will see , Toronto Fight fire with Fire . Then see who comes on top.
Never heard a fan base bitch and cry and moan more than the leafs. Every play every shift looking for a guy to get suspended or fined.
The Ekblad getting ready to change would have some merit if any of the Panthers D were up and ready to go expecting the chance or were even watching for Ekblad to motion for a change.
There is zero reason for that door to open at that time.
As of late, Mikkola has emerged as a new dirty player in the Panthers roster, possibly as there are many role models and as it's clearly a successful tactic in the modern NHL but I think he has enough benefit of the doubt left that we can accept this dubious explanation this time.
Amazing how Leafs fans can make up a conspiracy theory out of thin air. 🙄
Pretty far fetched. How is a player going to anticipate where another player will go in this instance? Ekblad, as this Tough Call guy mentions, had been on the ice for about 1.5 minutes and was ready for a change…so, they opened the door anticipating this. No need for conspiracy theories folks…
Anyone that played at a higher level knows this was on purpose.
Wrong!
He was opening the door for Lundell to change . You can even see Lundell get off the ice .
Hope the Panthers eliminate the Leafs so their fans can stop crying and shut the f*** up .
There have been way more attempts to injure leaf players than goals in this series. Florida has deep connections with player safety.
Picking apart 1 play at a time, very smart! Now add em all up and you see how incompetent the nhl is and how good Florida is on attempting to injure players. This isn’t just this series…this goes back 2 years now. Shoot Marchand got it from Bennet last year. It’s all about placing bets and building non hockey cities into hockey cities. That’s why I don’t care much about my team, the refs can easily decide a game today, everyone has bills to pay and debts to honour
I think this is a good argument. But keep in mind, players opening the door like this has happened before in the NHL, so it is a real thing that happens. I don't know about the whole risk to his own player argument though. Players make mistakes in split-second decisions all the time. It's like arguing that no one would score an own goal because it would hurt his team. Never premeditated, but through a quick wrong judgement, sure.
Players come fast toward the bench, Mikkola opens the door as he sees Nylander being the one that will take the hit. There is no way he needed to open that door. Doesn't players mainly just step out on the ice without needing the door to open? Since when do you ever see a player open the door to let a player in and then go out? It never happens because you learn from the age of 6 in hockey that you let players on to the ice before going in for a change.
American Swine at it's finest saying Florida is a clean team. 😅😅😂😂😅. That good ole American Swine gets smellier by the minute.😅😅😅😅😅😂😂😂😂😂
I'm still trying to find an American with functioning brain cells and critical thinking skills. No luck yet.
Florida was going for injury
Did they open the door with no one changing? You saying they couldn't wait 1.5 seconds? No call and he could have easily broke a rib