Clear Reason Emerges for the Non-Call on Anthony Stolarz After Greig Incident

Given how tense things have already been through two games of the first round between Toronto and Ottawa, it's unsurprising to see things boil over from game to game. Ridly Greig decided to be a menace in Game One and tried to put his stick through John Tavares' head, then went feet first into Anthony Stolarz later on.

Taking exception to that, Stolarz was able to get his payback on the pest, chopping, hacking, and slashing at the forward in his crease, not only as a way to give him some payback, but make him think twice about crowding him.

He tried to play coy afterwards and did his best not to incriminate himself, but given the type of atmosphere and high stakes, he shouldn't have to try to defend himself.

It's not like the refs cared.

Understanding their assignment, the referees were more than happy to let Stolarz get his licks in where he could, but don't expect it to become a regular occurrence. He needs to be able to defend himself and create space, plus with what they've seen in Game One, it felt like a receipt was necessary to the officials.

Ottawa was much more disciplined in Game Two and while Toronto couldn't capitalize on a lot of power play opportunities, they were able to still come away with a 3-2 victory thanks to Max Domi's heroics.

The refs will need to keep their head on a swivel though as we head into Game Three, as both teams are going to be aggressive and nasty towards each other, and perhaps the referees will still be a bit more lenient, but they also need to hold teams accountable.

Toronto lost opportunities on several missed calls, and the referees will need to tidy up their penalty calling a bit more, and while they aren't perfect, it's pretty egregious to say that the actions of Greig on Tavares, or Thomas Chabot's high stick on Mitch Marner didn't warrant at least additional punishment.

Hopefully everybody got their anger out after the first two games, and while things won't necessarily calm down, it's clear the Maple Leafs have sent a message, and if Greig wants to try any of his antics, then it's fair game for Toronto to retaliate; but both are going to get punished if they do.

If Games One and Two were any indication of how things will turn out, then it's going to be an absolute fight until the end; both figuratively and literally.