I will support any decision on Bunting being in or out of the lineup TBH because I do believe there are valid arguments for and against playing him. That said, at the end of the day, he is a much better player then Lafferty and ZAR and I can see him being hyper focused and motivated to make a difference in the game. Of course, I also see the value in rewarding the 12 men who have won 3 straight games. But lets not pretend like those 12 forwards were dominating the entirety of Bunts absence. In the 11 periods of hockey that we played w/o Bunts in the lineup we were the better team in maybe 5 or 6 of those periods and despite that we walked away with all 3 W's. 3 of those periods came in that game 2 blowout. So in reality, the last 2 games there were 8 total periods including the OT frames, and we got outplayed to varying degrees in at least 5 of those periods.
I know we are all jacked up about the results of games 3 & 4, specifically in the fashion that they occurred, but we cannot lose sight on the fact that this series could have easily been flipped 3-1 in TB's favor. You make your own luck in the NHL, but we are very fortunate to be up 3-1 in this series. This series is far tighter then it appears, and in all honesty TB has probably been the better team all series.
I think we'd be foolish to leave Bunts out of the lineup for a number of reasons.
1. He will be fresh
2. He will be motivated
3. He is a guy that TB is going to try and get retribution on, and potentially could lose their focus as a result
4. He's a good player
Bunts stock is at an all time low right now, but lets not run this guy out of town. Lets allow him to learn from this most recent mistake, and give him the opportunity to make right by it
