Bunting got 5 and a game for elbow to the head of Cernak (suspended 3 games)

[Chainshot]

It very much is an issue of both on-ice inconsistency for the officiating and off-ice inconsistency for both video reviews and supplemental discipline. The league has a problem. I love the sport but it's hard to be a fan of the league when it's just so variably officiated.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

No one is forgetting anything, these threads are filled with people being like "it should be X games but DOPS gonna DOPS.."

The thread is literally just people saying "wow DOPS got one right for once" and Leafs fans losing their minds about the DOPS failures from months ago. Both things can be true, the DOPS can be inconsistent and generally shitty, but also have gotten this suspension totally right. The weird thing is that the sentiment is less, 'DOPS needs be better going forward because they are inconsistent', and more, 'this shouldn't be that many games because they should continue to make the same errors they did before'. Which is clearly a backwards take.

I don't know. How would you feel if you were Bunting given those fairly recent incidents I posted that no one even seemed to care about? In particular, I think the Clifton one in November was worse than Bunting's elbow.

 

[Frederixx]

Correct call. It was pure vengeance and premedidated. Cernak was no where close to that puck.

A selfishness play that had dire consequences.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Bunting's cheapshot may be the key to the series for the Leafs if it takes out Cernak for the remainder of the games when Tampa's blueline is already battered and paper thin .

 

[Crease]

I think Bunting was expecting contact from Cernak there and wanted to meet body with body. Not malicious but trigger-happy and reckless. Fine with the suspension in light of Cernak's injury.

 

[Ace Card Bedard]

Looked like an attempted counter-hit to gain position but obviously went wrong.

3 games after the 5-min and game seems a bit steep but whatever.

 

[BayStBullies]

I see we've reached the "but whatbout?!" phase of the thread

You think a discussion around suspensions should be blind to prior instances or standards?

 

[ToDavid]

No one is forgetting anything, these threads are filled with people being like "it should be X games but DOPS gonna DOPS.."

The thread is literally just people saying "wow DOPS got one right for once" and Leafs fans losing their minds about the DOPS failures from months ago. Both things can be true, the DOPS can be inconsistent and generally shitty, but also have gotten this suspension totally right. The weird thing is that the sentiment is less, 'DOPS needs be better going forward because they are inconsistent', and more, 'this shouldn't be that many games because they should continue to make the same errors they did before'. Which is clearly a backwards take.

Arbitrarily pulling a longer suspension out of their ass isn't "getting it right". I'm sick of that narrative that everyone feels the need to tap dance around, as if calling out inconsistent officiating means you're pro head trauma. The right suspension is the one that is consistent with the precedent the league has set. That's it, that's all.

Whether the league should be harsher on hits to the head is an entirely unrelated issue. The solution to that issue involves sweeping changes with how they officiate games and handle supplemental discipline. The solution to that issue is not arbitrarily handing out a longer suspension to one player in the playoffs.

 

[notsocommonsense]

Bunting's cheapshot may be the key to the series for the Leafs if it takes out Cernak for the remainder of the games when Tampa's blueline is already battered and paper thin .

Toronto losing Bunting while Tampa loses Cernak

Leafs win both ends of that exchange

I don't know. How would you feel if you were Bunting given those fairly recent incidents I posted that no one even seemed to care about? In particular, I think the Clifton one in November was worse than Bunting's elbow.

If I were Bunting, I would pretty much just feel crippling shame overall

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Arbitrarily pulling a longer suspension out of their ass isn't "getting it right". I'm sick of that narrative that everyone feels the need to tap dance around, as if calling out inconsistent officiating means you're pro head trauma. The right suspension is the one that is consistent with the precedent the league has set. That's it, that's all.

Whether the league should be harsher on hits to the head is an entirely unrelated issue. The solution to that issue involves sweeping changes with how they officiate games and handle supplemental discipline. The solution to that issue is not arbitrarily handing out a longer suspension to one player in the playoffs.

Scheifele got 4 games for his hit on Jake Evans a couple of seasons ago. Tom Wilson got 3 games for his hit on Zach Aston-Reese in 2018. Let's not act like the DoPS has NEVER suspended these types of head shots and only now decided to punish Toronto.

 

[General Fanager]

Am I the only one saying essentially the same thing? Because what I’m saying is that the hockey world and a lot of posters on this forum are treating this differently than similar incidents exactly because it’s the leafs and it’s bunting.

And you’ve proved it, jumping through hoops to manufacture a difference “well, if you have the puck and get hit in the head it’s different then when two players are skating hard for a loose puck so it’s worse.”

It’s just bullshit, your take is absolute garbage and I think it’s because of your bias because the leafs are involved. You’re just conditioned this way

Anyways, enjoy the rest of your day

Yes it is worse.

1. Okposo had the puck therefore he had a reasonable expectation that he would be hit. He got hit in the head and that's bad no doubt but not as bad as Cernak who did not have the puck and therefore had no reason at all to expect to be hit at all let alone a dirty elbow.

2. I have no proof but we both know that this Bunting elbow was likely in retaliation to Cernak knocking him down a few minutes earlier.

3. Once again you claim its my bias but I seem to see tons of other posters with the same thoughts as I do so I guess its all of us who are biased and you are the nonbiased one?

4. The truth is that its a Leaf so you are conditioned to defend him no matter what. Its your bias to blame others and defend a Leaf no matter what hes done. I bet you were over the top defending Matthews when he got rightfully suspended too.....

 

[General Fanager]

It very much is an issue of both on-ice inconsistency for the officiating and off-ice inconsistency for both video reviews and supplemental discipline. The league has a problem. I love the sport but it's hard to be a fan of the league when it's just so variably officiated.

Wilson and Scheifele got similar suspensions for similar plays. Lets not make it seem like DOPS just making things up now cause its The Leafs.

It was a brutal elbow to the head of a player who did not have the puck and likely a retaliation for a previous play. He is also now injured and wont be playing.

 

[Enga Olly]

Wilson and Scheifele got similar suspensions for similar plays. Lets not make it seem like DOPS just making things up now cause its The Leafs.

It was a brutal elbow to the head of a player who did not have the puck and likely a retaliation for a previous play. He is also now injured and wont be playing.

2-3 games for Bunting seems fair. Scheifele and Wilson hits were far more egregious than Bunting's. Your Leaf hate is showing by posting this nonsense. But hey it's the Leafs so have at it

 

[Oleksiak]

I don't know. How would you feel if you were Bunting given those fairly recent incidents I posted that no one even seemed to care about? In particular, I think the Clifton one in November was worse than Bunting's elbow.

Probably ashamed of the way i disgrace the sport and let down my teammates. I might make some effort to turn into a real man.

 

[North Cole]

Arbitrarily pulling a longer suspension out of their ass isn't "getting it right". I'm sick of that narrative that everyone feels the need to tap dance around, as if calling out inconsistent officiating means you're pro head trauma. The right suspension is the one that is consistent with the precedent the league has set. That's it, that's all.

Whether the league should be harsher on hits to the head is an entirely unrelated issue. The solution to that issue involves sweeping changes with how they officiate games and handle supplemental discipline. The solution to that issue is not arbitrarily handing out a longer suspension to one player in the playoffs.

No, the right suspension is the right suspension. I'm sick of the narrative that the precedent is gospel and assuming that history is somehow more correct, which makes us even. If you never veer from the precedent than a DOPS decision in 2022 is the same as one in 2019 as 2017 as 2015 as 2001, no matter who sits in the chair be it Burke, Parros, etc.

If your opinion is that this decision was arbitrary and ignores precedence then the counter argument is that using the same lens to look at the precedence will likely show that it was also summarily arbitrary and is itself an unsound precedence. Thus it shouldn't be the reference point in your argument against the current suspension. That they change their mind all the time is a different conversation than "last time it was this so it should still be this" while ignoring that last time was different from the time before it.

Makes no logicial sense that people are coming in with the DOPS being shit due to inconsistency but then citing past DOPS decisions as the basis for their desired punishment...if you prove they are inconsistent, you can't use their decisions as a benchmark to what the suspension should be because you just casted doubt on your own cited examples. All of this assumes people are even look at similar plays and the right precedence. Hartman didn't even headshot anyone, so that's a non-starter.

 

[Hunter368]

Pretty standard suspension IMO, I predicted up to 2 games right after the game, turned out to be 3 games so I was very close. Clear suspension

 

[ToDavid]

Scheifele got 4 games for his hit on Jake Evans a couple of seasons ago. Tom Wilson got 3 games for his hit on Zach Aston-Reese in 2018. Let's not act like the DoPS has NEVER suspended these types of head shots and only now decided to punish Toronto.

"One player" was probably not the right words for me to use because I'm not trying to say this is an entirely unique situation that only affects the Leafs. There are other examples, but they're few and far between and clearly not the norm.

That said, I would drop the Wilson example. Wilson had been suspended twice in that season alone. Bunting has never faced supplemental discipline outside of embelishment. He's a pest, but he has zero history with bad hits. He has one major in his career, for fighting.

Scheifele is definitely more comparable and I think everyone had the same conversation around the time of that hit. I think most people had it at 2, maybe 3, and thought 4 was excessive. It was definitely a case of the league saying "hey look, we take head injuries seriously" after the bad optics of a player being stretchered off. So I would say the same thing about that, a player getting the short end of the stick because the league wants to set an example after a particularly nasty injury, is not the right call regardless of how we feel these types of hits should be penalized.

 

[Ezekial]

2-3 games for Bunting seems fair. Scheifele and Wilson hits were far more egregious than Bunting's. Your Leaf hate is showing by posting this nonsense. But hey it's the Leafs so have at it

Hitting a player with an elbow to the head who has no expectation of getting hit is about as egregious as you can get short of jumping into the stands trying the beat a fan with a shoe or kicking someone with a skate.

 

[ToDavid]

No, the right suspension is the right suspension. I'm sick of the narrative that the precedent is gospel and assuming that history is somehow more correct, which makes us even. If you never veer from the precedent than a DOPS decision in 2022 is the same as one in 2019 as 2017 as 2015 as 2001, no matter who sits in the chair be it Burke, Parros, etc.

It's not about never being able to change from precedant. It's that there should be a process for that and that process isn't just arbitrarily deciding to pull stricter enforcement out of your ass when you feel like it. Let's not pretend this is the beachhead for some monumental shift in how the league penalizes headshots. I can guarantee it's not. Just like it's not every other time the league decides to pull a long suspension out of its ass.

 

[ToDavid]

Yes it is worse.

1. Okposo had the puck therefore he had a reasonable expectation that he would be hit. He got hit in the head and that's bad no doubt but not as bad as Cernak who did not have the puck and therefore had no reason at all to expect to be hit at all let alone a dirty elbow.

2. I have no proof but we both know that this Bunting elbow was likely in retaliation to Cernak knocking him down a few minutes earlier.

3. Once again you claim its my bias but I seem to see tons of other posters with the same thoughts as I do so I guess its all of us who are biased and you are the nonbiased one?

4. The truth is that its a Leaf so you are conditioned to defend him no matter what. Its your bias to blame others and defend a Leaf no matter what hes done. I bet you were over the top defending Matthews when he got rightfully suspended too.....

You can create a villain narrative for any bad hit. This website is filled with it in every single suspension thread.

The reality is 99.9% of the time players aren't trying to hurt eachother. This wasn't an arbitrary headshot 200 feet from the puck. Bunting is trying to box a player out from getting to a puck battle on the boards. Is it interference? Yes. Did he put some extra mustard on it because of frustration with the game and player? Probably. Was he carlessly not looking at the player's positioning when he threw the hit? Yes.

But did the guy with zero history whatsoever suddenly decide to bean someone in the head for fun? I doubt it. It's a careless decision with a bad outcome like the vast majority of headshots. Like if Cernak is a step closer it's likely shoulder to shoulder and 2 minutes for interference. But he wasn't, and Bunting was careless, so here we are.

 

[Chainshot]

Wilson and Scheifele got similar suspensions for similar plays. Lets not make it seem like DOPS just making things up now cause its The Leafs.

It was a brutal elbow to the head of a player who did not have the puck and likely a retaliation for a previous play. He is also now injured and wont be playing.

I hate the Leafs. This has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the lack of consistency of how the league officiates the game.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

?

No one is saying that. Most Leaf fans wanted him to sit regardless of the suspension. He deserves it and needs to reset his brain.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

should have been 1-2 games. Im surprised by the 3rd game. not sure why it was added.
not saying that the NHL has it out for us but this isnt the first time they have given a harsh punishment. I think Spezza got 6 games for his first offense

 

[Ishad]

Looked like an attempted counter-hit to gain position but obviously went wrong.

3 games after the 5-min and game seems a bit steep but whatever.

Cernak was preparing to illegally hit bunting and bunting illegally hit him first and it went wrong certainly is a take.

 

[Menzinger]

Scheifele got 4 games for his hit on Jake Evans a couple of seasons ago. Tom Wilson got 3 games for his hit on Zach Aston-Reese in 2018. Let's not act like the DoPS has NEVER suspended these types of head shots and only now decided to punish Toronto.

Wilson has a DOPS history dating back to 2015....

To call him a repeat offender would be an extreme understatement. Him receiving a larger punishment would make more sense than a first time offender