The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting has been suspended for three games for his hit on Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak. Bunting will miss games 2-4 of the Lightning-Leafs first round series while Cernak will not play in game two on Thursday after taking the hit to the head.
Tampa Bay could also be without the services of defenseman Victor Hedman, who will be a game time decision for game two. Hedman also left the Lightning’s 7-3 victory with an undisclosed injury and did not return. The hit on Cernak led to a match penalty and a five-minute powerplay that the Lightning ultimately cashed in on twice. Tampa Bay was 4-8 on the man advantage in game one.
Bunting has been a revelation for the Leafs after coming over from the Arizona Coyotes on a two-year deal. After putting up 63 points last season in 79 games, this year he put up 49 points in 82 games. Despite his strong offensive numbers, the Bunting incident is eerily similar to the suspension issues the Maple Leafs dealt with when Nazim Kadri was in Toronto. He had several incidents in the playoffs that eventually led to a trade to the Colorado Avalanche and now Bunting has had a few issues this season with various run-ins with the league. However none have led to suspensions until his hit in game one.
3 games??? theres been far worse hits for 1 or none, Dumba gets nothing, im not a Leafs fan but this hit wasn’t that bad and didn’t look intentional tbh
Gotta pay the leaf tax
XD
Didnt look intentional? He raised he shoulder and arm up into a players head for no reason, You cant get more intentional.
he was crossing over, it was unfortunate, his fault for the carelessness of his position, its getting inside positioning and the contact he didn’t even explode into the hit, compared to Troubas hits 3 games is definitely excessive, but i doubt you ever played hockey in your life
another question is how did Dumba get 0 games? dude left his feet before contact was made
I have no skin in this game but wow this is excessive.
Does Bunting have a history?
This is sad when you look at the Dumba hit along with some of the hits guys like Trouba throw.
Yes you do.
No not really.
Trouba drops bombs son.
No, I really don’t have any skin in this. And trouba is borderline Tom Wilson dirty
@TJECK109 – You don’t, in fact, have any skin in this, as you have demonstrated, repeatedly. Bunting does have a history for having the unmitigated gall as to cuss out referee incompetence types for crap-calling games. They, as a collective group, have decided to make him the poster child to curb this behavior from all players. The problem is, Bunting isn’t the only one, but must, in their eyes, be the worst one. He has now earned “reputation call” status, which extends to Parros’ office as well. Regarding Trouba, well, he’s doing his damnedest to justify having the “C” and make Turk proud. He’ll go over the edge until DoPS takes action, which may not be anytime soon, or until a serious injury occurs.
The hit was extremely late. Puck nowhere near Cernak Principle point of contact was the head. It’s an egregiously bad play. Are you actually familiar with the rules?
it’s a penalty and a suspension but 3 seems like a lot in comparison to other similar plays.
This seems like a lot. Bunting doesn’t really move the needle for the leafs anyway but Marchand gets away with everything and is the same type of player
Hope Cernak is “ok”. Dirty head hit by Bunting, definitely deserved a 3 game suspension. It’s this type of stuff that ends guys careers, no place in the game for these intentional head shots.
Bunting, meet Draymond, meet Scherzer. Three parallel stories, 3 guys who should have known that if they didn’t want to do the time, they shouldn’t have done the crime.