SportsHockeyMaple Leafs

NHL fines Ottawa Senators for petty playoff 'shenanigans' with Toronto Maple Leafs

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Apr 25 2025, 7:52 pm
NHL fines Ottawa Senators for petty playoff 'shenanigans' with Toronto Maple Leafs
John E. Sokolowski/Imagn Images

Reset the clock: the Battle of Ontario between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators has now gone ZERO days without a juicy news story.

On Friday morning, TSN reporter Darren Dreger shared that the NHL had launched an investigation into an “incident” prior to Thursday night’s Game 3.

“A twist in the Battle of Ontario with allegations of pregame shenanigans last night. Sources say the NHL is looking at an incident in warmup prior to game three between the Leafs and Senators. Undetermined whether league discipline will follow,” Dreger wrote.

In a follow-up tweet posted less than an hour later, Dreger confirmed that the incident involved the Senators shooting pucks towards Toronto’s net with Anthony Stolarz in it, as shared by Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.

“At one point, there were some pucks being lobbed by the Sens in warmup. I did see [Senators forward] Tim Stutzle stop a lobbed puck near centre. Found it odd and didn’t think anything of it at the time. That was the only thing I noticed,” Garrioch wrote.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared video of the incident, with Senators forward Nick Cousins appearing to be the offending party. Cousins was a former teammate of Stolarz’ last year in Florida, winning the Stanley Cup together as a member of the Panthers.

Later in the day, the NHL came out with a fine of US $25,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct, and an additional US $2,083.33 to Cousins.

Senators coach Travis Green told reporters that he was trying to throw Stolarz off his game, per Sportsnet’s Luke Fox.

Interestingly, it’s not even the first warmup standoff that the NHL has looked into these playoffs, with John Shannon reporting on Friday that the league also put in a call to the Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues to stop players from hanging out on the ice at the end of warmup as a bit of a “last man standing” intimidation tactic.

 

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs less than a week old, we can only wonder what other sort of antics the league’s players will get into to rile each other up over the next two months.

Remaining Maple Leafs Round 1 schedule

Game 4: Toronto at Ottawa, Saturday, April 26, 7 p.m. EDT
Game 5: Ottawa at Toronto, Tuesday, April 29, TBD*
Game 6: Toronto at Ottawa, Thursday, May 1, TBD*
Game 7: Ottawa at Toronto, Saturday, May 3, TBD*

ADVERTISEMENT