Transcript of Michael Bunting Gets Scratched By The Penguins!? | SDP

I want to follow up what happened in Pittsburgh, and I want to be clear this is not to dunk on the Penguins. We talked about Tristan Jari and his struggles, and basically the athletic Pittsburgh saying he shouldn't be playing, and he wasn't. So Blumquist and Nadelkowitch dressed for the penguins this weekend. Not Tristan Jari, was not in uniform. And you know who else was a notable scratch? Michael Bunting.

Oh, boy. Did he miss a practice or was he late for something?

No idea.

He was so unreal for them down the stretch. There's no way him having a tough start to the season was.

And there's no way that Anthony Bavillier is the answer. You're playing, I'm sorry, no disrespect to him and his family. But that, to me, is cardio merchant guy. I just never have understood that player, why people valued what he brought so much. It's interesting, and we'll get to Jarny in a second since we're talking about former Leath Michael Bunting, is the Pittsburgh fan reaction to this, which is the exact reaction we're having. What? Which is, I can't believe, why are you scratching Bunting? Because he was unreal for us.

What happened? Just to make sure I'm not losing my mind. In 21 games with the Penguins after his trade from the hurricanes, he had 6 goals, 13 assists, and 19 points. He was just shy of a point of game player for the penguins. Yeah. He's got one assist in 6 games. He has not been good. Guys, what are we doing? Really? And he's only got two penalties. That sounds like a lot, but it's really good for him.

What are we doing?

The game before Saturday's game, it was Taylor made that Mike Sullivan was going to do this because in the middle of the game, Bunting got demoted from the second-line, Malkin's line, to the third-line. And then by the end of the game, he was playing on the fourth-line. So Mike Sullivan, by the end of that game, You've already found Bunting useless. He wasn't useful enough to be on the second line when you started him. He's wrong. His next solution was to scratch him to see if he can get his head in this. It's obviously been a very slow start to the season, and coaches have their ways of motivating guys. If his game plan right now is I don't have use for Michael Bunting on the second line where he's supposed to be playing, and I'd rather have somebody else in that position, then it makes sense on the surface. But I think there should be a little bit of a longer rope for Michael Bunting, considering what the spectacular run he had at the end of last year.

Every coach in every team he's had in the NHL has found a use for him. When he was with the Coyotes, 13 points in 21 games. Useful, 63 points in 79 games with the Leaves. Useful, 49 points in 82 games with the leaves. Useful, 23 goals in both of those seasons, by the way. Thirteen goals and 36 points in 60 games with the Hurricanes. Useful. Nearly a point of game with the Penguins last year under Mike Sullivan. Useful. So hopefully it's what you said it is, grab him by the collar and wake him up.

I think it's more of that, especially the quotes coming out from him being like, Yeah, I'm disappointed, but obviously I need to be playing better and that stuff. It feels like a, Wake up, kid. Solomons not stupid. It's not a Michael Bunting sucks forever. It's, I He voted you two times. You dropped down from line 2-3 and then three to four. Now we got to do the actual wake up. You're out of the lineup. I'll put you back in because we're in dire straits here. We need to start winning and everybody needs to be playing well.

And the penguins have succeeded over the years with players where you need to do that, where you got to go, Mike, and you wake them up. Gino, it's more like, Hey, can you let go of that guy's throat? It's more like that. But Phil, there have been players to go through that team where you got to wake them up a little. Yeah. There's no reason to not have faith in this player.

And honestly, though, it's fascinating about the penguins right First off, they're living off of Gina.

Dude, he's so fucking good.

You know what's nuts, though? He's got 11 points in seven games, still somehow a-5.

Oh, yeah, dude.

They're not good.

They're not. No, they're bad team, dude. They can't keep the pocket of their net. It's a struggle.

Hard to do. But Blunkwest does look good. I'm excited to see what Ned does because he's one of those guys that's like, Well, how dire is that?

How dire is that?

It's dire.

Goalie looks good. Can't keep the pocket of your net. That's a team that's dead. I'm not saying the Penguin, specifically. I'm just saying what I'm describing is a screwed team.

I didn't see all the goals that he led in on Friday, but I know they lost 4-1 when Blumquist wasn't in that. So I don't know if-You might have the answer. Yeah, if he's the long term. But it's one game, obviously. He looked good before that.

I'm excited to see what Ned does just because he had flashes of it in Carolina. And I wonder if that's just because that was a good defensive system or if he actually is good because Detroit really took a chance on him. But which goalie in the league hasn't Detroit taken a chance on? They've had 14 goalies in the last two years. I'm not even kidding. It's crazy the amount of goal-tending talent Alex Lyon beat up on the Preds last night. Yeah, he did. That's only because they tried to start Sarros and realized they didn't have them under contract.

I thought it was a good joke. I'm I'm trying to say they tried to start a goalie who wasn't theirs. That's not a good joke.

Wait, what?

I said the Red Wings tried to start Sarros.

I see. Okay, yeah. No, okay.

Fuck, that's bad.

I just didn't get it, man. It's not because I don't love you. Jessie, thoughts? Deserve to interestingometer?

We can go forward so Steve doesn't have to sit in this.

No.

Always good to have supportive team. I think we've been...

I don't think we were mean about it. Tristan Jari, though, I'm I'm wondering, again, is there a trade? Now, the other thing that happened in the Jets-Penguins game is the Where is Rutger?Chance. And Jaeger's Better?Chance.

They're feeling themselves, right? They haven't frigging lost. And Rucker McRordy's in the minors. How do you... I mean, we're only a few games in, but how do you early win better than that?

It was the exact reason that the Jets were like, No, you need another year. It was the skating. That was the big thing with Pittsburgh. It was a bunch of things, but the skating was an issue, and the Jets were like, Hey.

But it's not like he had a really public and viral incident in Toronto with his skating, right? Stop.

What? What are you talking about? What he did. When Domi... Jesus Christ. He kicked his pants off. No, I know what you're saying. Do you think that's what it was? Do you think that the dome was?

No, I'm just saying that probably added to it. It probably did. I don't know if I'm going to say anything else. Fuck.

I'm sorry. I was right on board with you with that one. I don't understand. What about this one? I think we're a little reactive at the moment. Okay.

What I would say is-Chill, Daddy.

What I would say is, sometimes, you feel like, and this happened with Askarov, too. I deserve a shot. No, you don't. And they're saying, No, you don't right now. Now Askarov has been really good. So maybe he gets a shot next, but I don't know about McRordy. And Brandon Jaeger seems like he's a really good prospect, so I think Winnipeg is thrilled.

How do you not feel good if you're a Jets fan right now?

I want to blow your mind with a stat that has nothing to do with either of those teams. Tyler Myers played his 1,000th game for the Vancouver Knucks this weekend. He is the only active player from the Sabers that made the playoffs. So he's the last remaining Buffalo Saber to have played in the playoffs that's active in the NHL.For.

The Sabre.For the Sabers. The last time they made the playoffs.