TORONTO — You don’t need to be a lip-reading expert to know how Michael Bunting felt in the moment, a heated one. As so many moments touched by Bunting are.
“What the f— are you doing?” Bunting screamed at Dan Kelly, as the linesman manhandled the agitated player off the ice at the end of Tuesday’s first period.
Bewildered, angry and amused all at once, Bunting half-smiled and said to no one in particular: “That was crazy.”
Bunting is a crazy magnet. He attracts action, welcomes chaos, thrives in bedlam.
And truth be told, the structured, straight-faced Toronto Maple Leafs need all the Bunting they can get.
“He’s gonna compete. He’s gonna get under a team’s skin. And he’s gonna be around the net,” centreman and close friend Auston Matthews said, following the Leafs’ 4-1 measuring-stick win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“He was a beast tonight.”
The man had a zillion reasons to smother his fingerprints all over this game.
Bunting, you may recall, was not his usual antagonistic, effective self in last spring’s playoff series loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had suffered a lower-body injury in late April and was visibly a step off during his first taste of NHL playoff action.
On Saturday, the Maple Leafs got pushed around by the Washington Capitals and Bunting had his career-best 10-game point streak snapped.
Then on Monday, Bunting took a puck to the face in practice. The gash on his upper lip required six stitches outside and two inside his mouth to mend.
“These are the games that you wake up for,” Bunting said at morning skate.
Then the crease-crasher broke the ice with a wicked one-timer from the high slot that beat all-world Andrei Vasilevskiy high and clean.
Afterward, Bunting joked that maybe he should be the designated shooter on Matthews and William Nylander’s line and let one of the first-rounders fetch rebounds and provide screens.
“Yeah, I told Matty he can go to the front of the net,” Bunting chuckled. “Nah… When I have an opportunity to shoot, I want to shoot. But other than that, I’ll be going into the net and letting Matty shoot.”
The formula is paying off lovely.
On Tuesday, Bunting, Matthews (power play) and Nylander (empty net) each scored, and that trio alone outshot the Lightning roster to the tune of 20-18 in a dominant defensive performance against the three-time Stanley Cup finalists.
“They’re playing team defence, and that’s why they’re winning games,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “It’s been impressive how they’ve controlled games, played D, and come out with two points.”
After his and the team’s sluggish start, Bunting alone has racked up 13 points over his past 12 outings. The October demotion to the bottom six seems like a lifetime ago, and his contract season is shaping up smartly.
To thrive, Bunting must play loud and on the edge.
“He’s just a scrappy, hardnosed player,” said goalie Matt Murray, who played with Bunting in the Soo, too. “He’s got a great finishing touch. Good goal-scorer. Plays with passion. He’s a big part of this team.”
Bunting has drawn a league-high 22 penalties — the latest a nasty boarding check by a frustrated Nikita Kucherov, that paved the way for Matthews’ power-play winner.
But he has also committed 17 infractions of his own, like his roughing of Pierre-Édouard Bellemare in retaliation for the fourth-liner’s late-period run at Mitch Marner:
You take the good, you take the mad.
“I took a little different path to make the NHL. I played six years in the American League, over 300 games. I’m proud of my path and the way I got here,” Bunting said, after being handed the Maple Leafs’ player-of-the-game belt.
“I had to keep grinding and keep believing in myself, and it got me here. So, it’s been a great run so far, and I want to keep this going.”
Like Bunting, linesman Kelly, too, played well over 300 games in the farm, and Bunting remembers battling with the defenceman-turned-official.
Kelly, however, never did reach the show.
“Not everybody’s journey is the same, right?” said Matthews, the superstar Toronto tanked to pick.
“He’s obviously had to work his way up the ladder. I can’t say I’ve walked in his shoes. Obviously, he has his own story. But just getting to know him, we’re really close. So, it’s been a lot of fun hanging out with him and getting to know him, just having fun on the ice, off the ice as well. Kinda just doing our thing. So, I’m happy for him. Hopefully he keeps his foot on the pedal.”
Quick to ease off the gas after the final buzzer, a calmer Bunting downplayed Kelly’s shove.
“Emotions were high. It’s hockey,” he shrugged.
Does he have history with Kelly from their AHL days?
“I probably have history with everybody,” Bunting quipped.
Well, on Tuesday Bunting registered his 100th NHL point but, more pertinent, another reminder that his future with the Leafs is more valuable than his history with anybody.
“A very important player to our team,” Keefe said.
“It’s a great accomplishment for him, but I know he’s got better things ahead.”
Fox’s Fast 5
• Rasmus Sandin left the game early with a neck injury suffered on what Keefe describes as “an innocent play.” The move was precautionary, and further evaluation is necessary before we understand the severity of his injury.
Toronto’s remaining five defencemen were all excellent, locking down the lead under pressure.
• Matthews and Ottawa Senators ownership hopeful Ryan Reynolds join forces to raise money for SickKids Hospital.
Matthews sported these festive Christmas skates all night, and they glow like Rudolph’s nose.
“It’s been nice to build the relationship with them and get that jump-started,” Matthews says.
“It was nice to be able to make a special skate for the occasion and help raise some awareness and donations for the hospital.”
• The Maple Leafs got to visit children from SickKids in-person again Monday. The annual tradition had been limited to virtual meetings the past couple of Christmases.
“It really hits home because I’ve got my two own little boys,” John Tavares said. “You see kids here going through some difficulties and challenges. It’s hard to fathom, knowing how much you care about your own.
“Just try to brighten their day up.”
• Tampa’s Brandon Hagel leads all NHL forwards in takeaways (43). Toronto’s Mitchell Marner ranks third (36). Auston Matthews is fifth (33).
• Morgan Rielly (knee) has returned to the ice. The Leafs’ No. 1 defenceman put in a light solo session Tuesday morning, carefully working on his stride.
“Getting stronger every day,” Keefe says. But Rielly is still weeks away from game action.
Depth defenceman Carl Dahlström, who underwent pre-season shoulder surgery, worked out at the other end of the ice. His six-month recovery timeline sidelines him until April.
