There’s another reffing controversy brewing for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their first-round playoff matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“The Leafs had Wes McCauley for Game 1. Tonight, they get Eric Furlatt for Game 2 — the official who called the Holl interference penalty in Game 7 vs. TBL last year,” popular official watchdog Scouting The Refs tweeted on Thursday morning.

For context, Leafs defenceman Justin Holl’s interference penalty in Game 7 was one of the turning points in last year’s Toronto-Tampa Bay matchup.

The Leafs appeared to tie the game 1-1 midway through the second, but Furlatt waved the goal off due to Holl’s bump into Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli.

What’s the deal with the Leafs and McCauley?

Tampa Bay was awarded eight power play opportunities in Game 1 to Toronto’s four, scoring four separate times with the man advantage as they won the game 7-4.

One of the key factors — depending on who you ask — was referee Wes McCauley, who doesn’t exactly have the most favourable history when it comes to Toronto come postseason time. 

As pointed out by Scouting the Refs, Toronto is now 0-8 in playoff games where McCauley is on the officiating crew (though they did go 5-0-1 with McCauley working games this past regular season).

There’s a potentially darker side to the Toronto misfortune: Leafs coach Keefe is a former client of disgraced hockey agent and junior hockey coach David Frost, with the former testifying against the latter in a 2008 abuse trial.

Meanwhile, Frost, who now goes by the name Jim McCauley, is a brother-in-law of Wes McCauley’s, as the referee is married to Frost’s sister.

Naturally, Leafs fans had quite the reaction to the news of Furlatt’s appointment.

Gary in his bag https://t.co/AMYT84wzpL

— Golden State Nate 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇸 (@LeafsNation8894) April 20, 2023

You can't make this up. FFS https://t.co/VsKZ6kco1E

— ontario is screwed (@farmcountrylife) April 20, 2023

Non-Leafs fans weren’t all that kind to those complaining.

This is why everyone hates Leafs fans its so cringe https://t.co/LZ5XkREheT

— Jake (@JakeD8771) April 20, 2023

Y’all the game didn’t even start yet but I’m glad we have the excuses locked and loaded and ready to go 😂😂😂 https://t.co/IqC70KBt98

— x – sarah ✨ (@bolts_babe) April 20, 2023

So now Eric Furlatt is a bad ref for tonight? This is getting incredibly tiresome. Leaf fans want their uncle Danny with a sign that says “Leaf fan parking” on his driveway to ref the game. Grow up. Win a hockey game.

— Sam McKee (@SamAMcKee) April 20, 2023

I’m so sick of hearing Leafs fans complain about reffing and suspensions. Just shut up and go win a series ffs

— Jesse Pollock (@jpolly22) April 20, 2023

Leafs fans are so funny because like oh, I'm sorry, I forgot that the NHL is supposed to never assign the refs that you don't like. how dare they not take your feelings into account. they'll just find a ref that has never made a bad call https://t.co/hS6FxIU9AO

— tak (@popunkprettyboy) April 20, 2023

Well, we’ll see you all tomorrow to see exactly who was in the right here.

Game 2 of the series is set for Thursday night, where the Leafs once again host the Lightning for a 7:00 pm ET puck drop.

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