Toronto maple leafs playoff history7/31/2023 The lineup adjustment for the Leafs will almost certainly involve rookie Matthew Knies entering the lineup, and Calle Jarnkrok elevating to the top line. The Department of Player Safety has suspended Michael Bunting for three playoff games.īunting gets the boot for this hit /PBVtnu3QZn ![]() – Bunting has been neither fined nor suspended previously in his 187-game NHL career. – This is an illegal check to the head and interference This is an illegal check to the head delivered to a player who has no reason to anticipate any contact, let alone contact with sufficient force to cause an injury. The puck is some distance from both players when contact is initiated by Bunting. ![]() This is also not a case in which two players approaching a puck simultaneously are mutually prepared for contact to occur as they battle for space. Therefore, he should have no reason to expect to be checked, making him particularly vulnerable. Cernak is never in possession of the puck during the sequence. It is also important to note that this is also interference. Bunting unnecessarily extends his body upward into Cernak’s head to deliver this check, missing his core completely and picking the head. Second, the head contact on the play is avoidable. It is the head that absorbs nearly all of the force of the check. Bunting’s upper arm and elbow make forceful and direct contact with the head of Cernak. ![]() It is important to note that both elements of the illegal check to the head rule are satisfied on this play.įirst, the head is clearly the main point of contact. This is both an illegal check to the head and interference. Bunting and Cernak turn to locate the puck, with Bunting slightly ahead of Cernak.Īs the puck wraps around the net, Bunting cuts back into Cernak, elevating significantly into the contact and picking his head, making it the main point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable. Tuesday night in Toronto, Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak, causing an injury.Īs the video shows, the Maple Leafs win a faceoff and take a shot toward the goal that bounces into the corner. The equivalent of five more games for a player with no history, though? Bunting absolutely deserved supplemental discipline for a needless, reckless play away from the puck that caused an injury to Cernak, but it doesn’t add up. In a month when Minnesota’s Ryan Hartman - who has a suspension history dating back to an illegal hit to the head on Gabriel Landeskog in the 2018 playoffs - received one regular-season game for his interference infraction on Nik Ehlers (who missed time), it seems disproportionate, while still recognizing Bunting’s hit deserved more games for more clearly/principally targeting the head. Bunting’s suspension of three playoff games, therefore, makes this the harshest punishment handed out this year. ![]() The NHL has issued 21 suspensions this season, the longest being three games - Nicolas Aube-Kubel’s illegal check to the head on Cal Foote, Jeff Skinner’s high-sticking of Jake Guentzel, and K’Andre Miller’s spitting incident involving Drew Doughty. Knowing the Department of Player Safety is applying some kind of multiplier in the playoffs, this makes this the most egregious suspendable offense of the entire 2022-23 NHL season so far according to the league. The ruling on Bunting’s illegal check to the head is three games, or as we’re told, the equivalent of six regular-season games. Time is indeed a flat circle when it comes to this team and the postseason. A suspension at playoff time is clockwork at this point for the Maple Leafs.įor the Leafs, the last 24 hours have included a really tough Game 1 loss and now a suspended player.
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