Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller didn’t mince words on the cross-checking penalty defenceman Darren Raddysh took in the third period of the team’s 3-2 loss to the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday.
Raddysh took the penalty after getting into a physical altercation with Utah forward Barrett Hayton deep in the Toronto end. While wrestling his stick away from Hayton, who was on the ice, Raddysh delivered a cross-check to the Mammoth centre.
Nick Schmaltz scored the game-winning goal for the Mammoth on the ensuing power play, breaking a 2-2 tie with just under seven minutes remaining.
“Stupid penalty,” Hiller said postgame. “Let’s call it what it is, and it costs us. Thought we had all the momentum … and it didn’t turn out very well for us."
“I think he knows pretty clearly,” Hiller added of whether he would address the issue with the blueliner. “I haven’t seen that happen over and over again. That’s a one-off I guess in his case. He said he didn’t like the penalty and took it on himself, he understands that. That’s hockey.”
Raddysh, who joined the Maple Leafs in a sign-and-trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning in June, has nine assists in 17 games in his first season with the team. The 30-year-old Toronto native blew past his previous career-best totals last season, posting 22 goals and 70 points in 73 games to earn an $8.5 million cap hit on an eight-year deal.
After a slow start to the game Tuesday, in which the Maple Leafs were outshot 30-17 over the first two periods, Toronto took over play in the third period and tied the game at 2-2 on a Jack Roslovic goal two and a half minutes before the Raddysh penalty.
Mammoth head coach Andre Tourigny acknowledge his team was on the back foot in the final frame, pointing to it as a teaching moment.
“I think we played a really, really good hockey game for the first two periods,” Tourigny said. “I really liked our identity and what we wanted, we were connected, disciplined in our details and we played really good. They had a push in the third and we were on our heels a little bit and we will learn a lot from that.”
The Maple Leafs lamented their poor start in the loss, which dropped their record to 8-7-2 this season.
“There’s no excuses,” captain Auston Matthews said. “It doesn’t matter with the schedule, the travel, the time change and all that. You gotta come ready to play, regardless. You’re not gonna have your legs every single night, but just try to find a way to compete and grind through. Unfortunately, it took half the game, but I thought we found it.
“We started competing and found some life.”
The Maple Leafs are now off until Saturday, when the team will host the rival Montreal Canadiens in the first half of a back-to-back set that continues Sunday against the New Jersey Devils.