Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews escapes penalty after helping $65,408,000 teammate retrieve stick

Auston Matthews avoided a penalty after flipping Mitch Marner's stick back to him on Tuesday. It happened during Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final round one against the Ottawa Senators. Matthews was skating toward the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench. He picked up Marner’s stick with his own and tossed it behind him.

Marner, who is in the last year of his $65.4 million contract, was skating in the same direction behind Matthews and caught the stick.

According to NHL Rule 10.3, it should’ve been a penalty. The rule states a player may not throw, slide, or shoot a stick to a teammate. Instead, the stick must be handed directly or picked up from the ice.

Here's a detailed explanation from the NHL rule book:

"10.3 Broken Stick - Player - ... A player who has lost or broken his stick may receive a replacement stick by having one handed to him from his own players' bench, by having one handed to him by a teammate on the ice or by picking up his own unbroken stick or that of a teammate from the ice.

"A player will be penalized if he throws or shoots a stick to a teammate on the ice, or if he picks up and plays with an opponent's stick. A player may not participate in the play using a goalkeeper's stick. A minor penalty shall be imposed for an infraction of this rule."

This isn’t the first time Auston Matthews has done this. He pulled off a similar play against the Florida Panthers in 2020, when he tossed the stick to Morgan Rielly.

He did it again in a game against the Bruins in 2022, this time to William Nylander. Both times, officials let it go and did not call a penalty on him.

Auston Matthews and Leafs won their second straight home game

Auston Matthews and Leafs secured a 3-2 win in overtime against the Ottawa Senators in Game 2. Morgan Rielly opened the scoring at 3:43 of the first period. He tipped in a pass from William Nylander near the crease. John Tavares made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 8:20.

Brady Tkachuk scored a power-play goal at 15:41 of the second period. Ottawa outshot Toronto 13-3 in that period. Adam Gaudette tied the game 2-2 in the third after deflecting a point shot from Tyler Kleven.

In overtime, Max Domi scored at 3:09 to win it, with a wrist shot past Linus Ullmark. Anthony Stolarz made 26 saves for Toronto, and now, Game 3 will take place in Ottawa on Thursday.