Ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Senators were confident about putting on a good show and making it to the business end of the tournament. Sure, they hadn’t seen postseason hockey in 8 years, but the beauty of the playoffs is that anything can happen right? However, nothing seems to be going their way at the moment. Yesterday, they suffered their third defeat against the Maple Leafs, in a series where the Sens just cannot seem to get the puck to fall in their favor. While it was a close victory for the Maple Leafs, their opponents were involved a bizarre mischief with goaltender, Anthony Stolarz.

Ahead of the game, Senators center, Nick Cousins shot a puck (lightly) at Stolarz during warmup. Interestingly, the goaltender was involved in a series of slashes against Ottawa forward Ridly Greig (after Greig slid into him), due to which he was already under the hammer from the Senators’ players’ point of view. As a result, Cousins seemed to engage in some lighthearted retaliatory action.

Elliotte Friedman later added some additional context, tweeting that the incident was under review from the NHL, in their crackdown of even warmup shenanigans. “Here’s what NHL is looking at from last night. “Friend of Bieksa” Nick Cousins shoots puck at Stolarz. NHL not crazy about pre-game stuff…also clamped down on funny Scheifele/Hofer standoff in Blues/Jets series.”

After Joel Hofer threatened Mark Scheifele’s tradition of being the last player to leave the ice in Game 2 of the series, the NHL is clearly taking no prisoners when it comes to warmup antics. The rationale? Any delays would mean a delay in ice resurfacing meaning a delayed start to the game. So any tomfoolery, is a big no-no.

Subsequently, the NHL took up the incident and has begun its investigation. With the Senators on the brink of elimination, even the fans were shocked to see this incident unfold and took to social media to share their views about the same.

Mixed opinions from fans as Anthony Stolarz faces Senators’ pucks during warmup

While NHL has yet to make any decision regarding yesterday’s pre-game drama, the Senators wanted to give it back to the Maple Leafs’ goaltender due to his antics in the earlier game. However, TNT reporter and one half of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast,, Paul Bissonnette, jokingly condemned the action and simply tweeted “Jail.”

On the other hand, a section of fans wanted to shrug off the incident ahead of the big game. As a result, one of the fans wrote, “Oh come on this is all push posh slap on wrist nothing else. Kinda funny lol.” The mindset that Sens fans will hope NHL officials will adopt while reviewing the incident.

However, a few fans seriously objected to the unwanted controversy caused by opponents firing pucks at Stolarz. “I really hope there’s more to it than that…Gimme a break,” a tired fan wrote, who didn’t think the incident on its own was serious enough to warrant such scrutiny. Further, one X user was confident that Stolarz could save any shot. Seconding it, the fan wrote, “I suppose Stolarz stopped those as well.” Indeed, Stolarz has put on some crucial performances to help his team to where they are now.

On the other hand, a fan put the blame on the likes of Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto, who they assumed had been involved in the incident. “I bet it’s Greig and Pinto. Big babies just like their captain,” said a fan, who was quite sure that the two players might be involved. It was only later that Nick Cousins emerged as the culprit. However Sens coach Travis Green simply shrugged things off. “Cousins and Stolarz have played together. I dunno. He’s probably trying to either laugh at him or make a joke or get him off his game. Is what it is.”

Lastly, one fan pointed out that it wasn’t the first time that the Senators had added some spark ahead of the game. The fan wrote, “The Sens never cease to display their lil bitch persona.” Well! It’s called the Battle of Ontario for a reason.

The Senators need to win their next game to even stand a chance, and then hold it together long enough for a reverse sweep. Will it be the Maple Leafs who will continue their domination or will we see a comeback from the Senators? Let us know your views in the comments below.