Senators, Nick Cousins fined after investigation into pre-game incident with Leafs' Anthony Stolarz

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The Battle of Ontario has spilled off the ice.

The Ottawa Senators and winger Nick Cousins had the book thrown at them by the league for a pre-game warmup incident in which pucks were fired in the direction of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz.

Ottawa owner Michael Andlauer will have to write a $25,000 cheque to the National Hockey League, and Cousins will have to dig into his pocket for $2,083.33 as well. Fine money is donated to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

As Darren Dreger of TSN first reported, the National Hockey League’s head office looked into “some shenanigans” in the warmup before the Leafs scored a 3-2 overtime victory over the Senators in Game 3 on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

The indication is that some Ottawa players have been shooting pucks at Stolarz. We saw the Senators lobbing pucks from their end toward where the Leafs were taking their warmup.

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Video showed Stolarz stretching along the boards near the penalty box and Cousins shooting a puck in his direction. We have been led to believe that it may not have been the only incident.

It should be noted that Cousins and Stolarz are old teammates. They won a Stanley Cup together last spring with the Florida Panthers. It doesn’t appear from the video that the shot was that hard, but the NHL frowns on that behaviour.

At one point, centre Tim Stutzle stopped a puck that looked like it was headed into the Toronto end.

Coach Travis Green addressed the matter with Cousins.

“Well, it’s an active investigation and I don’t know if I should be commenting on it,” Green said, tongue-in-cheek. “I have people who have advised me maybe not to comment on it.

“I’m kidding. Yeah, I saw the video. Nick Cousins and Stolarz have played together. He’s either trying to laugh at him or make a joke, or get him off his game. It’s what it is.”

No, this isn’t a serious violation by any stretch of the imagination, but if Toronto management complained to the league about what was happening in the warmup, then it’s incumbent upon the NHL’s head office to look into and they felt it was serious enough to issue fines.

Sure, the NHL has bigger issues to deal with than this, but everything is magnified in the playoffs.

“I don’t think it’s anything,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “They played together last year. I don’t know a lot about it. The league will handle that.”

Berube did recount a good story after leaving the podium about playing for the Philadelphia Flyers with goaltender Ron Hextall, who was a hothead, and linemate Keith Acton before a game against the New York Rangers.

“I didn’t want to open a can of worms,” Berube said.

He said Acton was shooting pucks at guys, and Berube was asking him what he was doing.

“Getting them going, we’re going to have a night tonight,” Acton told Berube, who was laughing while recounting the story.

Then, Hextall followed suit. Tie Domi fired a shot that hit Hextall and, of course, that set off a melee.

It would be shocking if Cousins received anything more than a stern talking-to and is told not to do it again. The only reason there would be a fine is that the NHL’s head office doesn’t want to hear complaining from Toronto management.

Green said there wasn’t a lot to it after speaking to Cousins.

“He said ‘I know him.’ It’s a game within a game. It probably happens a lot more than you think,” Green said.

We’re sure that when Green instructs his players to get pucks in deep, he wasn’t alluding to the actions by Cousins.

Green is right, there is always gamesmanship, especially in the playoffs, because teams look for any edge they can get. If Cousins thought he could plant a seed in Stolarz’s head, then why not take a chance?

Veteran winger David Perron said he hadn’t seen any incidents in warmup and the video that was posted online was grainy.

“We’re going to have to bring back HD for the warmup, too,” Perron said. “I’m from the days when there were only 10 games in HD when I started my career. It sounds like we need to update the quality of video in warmup.”

If nothing else, this incident adds some intrigue to a rivalry that has needed this kind of boost. The two clubs haven’t met in the playoffs since 2004 and this will help fuel the bad blood between the two sides a bit.

This was nothing more than a fun distraction on an off-day in a series that has the Senators trailing 3-0. With Game 4 set for Saturday night at the Canadian Tire Centre, you can bet everybody will be watching the warmup with an eagle eye.

Everybody has their pre-game habits. Alternate captain Thomas Chabot likes to fire the puck into an empty net after the opposing goalie is gone.

“It began a while back. It was this year. We won a couple of games in a row, so I just went along with it and kept it rolling,” Chabot said.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com