Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice was fined $25,000 by the NHL on Thursday for criticizing the officiating in his team’s game at the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this week.
Maurice said he didn’t know what referees Francois St-Laurent and Pierre Lambert were doing other than it was not friendly toward his team. He called out St-Laurent in particular in his postgame comments following Florida’s 5-4 overtime loss Tuesday.
“I just explained to them that it had nothing to do with my players,” Maurice told reporters in Toronto. “It had to do with me and a relationship that I have with one of the referees. That’s what that was all about.”
Maurice was fined $5,000 in 2016 when coaching the Winnipeg Jets for criticizing St-Laurent, who did not call a penalty on a hit to the head of center Bryan Little.
Maurice lamented the schedule his team faced with tough travel and said of St-Laurent and Lambert the league then “threw those two guys at us.”
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