Maple Leafs Reliving Familiar Situation With Bunting Match Penalty

Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting has been known for being an agitator and a player who can get under the opponent’s skin. 

In the second half of this season, we started to see a trend with Bunting as he was starting to stray from what made him successful as a top-six forward. He was inconsistent overall and started to voice his displeasure with missed calls, becoming a target for the officials. His overall production took a dip going form 63 points to 49 in the regular season, being demoted from the top line. Bunting has always played with an edge but needed to stay within the line and not cross it. 

Well, Bunting crossed the line in Game 1 of their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, as he received a match penalty for a hit to the head on defenseman Erik Cernak. 

The Maple Leafs had an embarrassing outing as they didn’t have the start they needed to win. They were down 3-0 after the first, lacked energy, showed nerves, and the officiating was downright awful, but that penalty changed the tide of the game when the Maple Leafs started to show some life. Which begs the question, instead of re-signing Bunting, has he already shown his way out with a penalty like a familiar face did years ago?  

Bunting Took a Selfish and Dangerous Penalty

Before he took the penalty, Bunting was doing a great job of staying within the line. He was mixing it up after the whistle and even drew a penalty, despite not getting many calls his way during the latter part of the regular season. Everything was going well until midway through the second period. 

After a faceoff, Bunting was engaging in a battle with Cernak. As they were going for the puck, he extended his elbow up and caught Cernak on the side of the head and took a nasty fall as a result of that hit. Head coach Sheldon Keefe felt that Bunting was trying to win a race and Cernak wasn’t expecting the hit. 

Even with the officiating being criticized throughout the game, that is something that you can’t do in the post season as it’ll give the opposition more fuel in a game where the Lightning were dominating in every aspect. That was an undisciplined and selfish penalty for Bunting to take after the team managed to find some life in the period with back-to-back powerplay goals. As a result, the Maple Leafs were shorthanded and the floodgates opened with two…