The Toronto Maple Leafs Michael Bunting made a stupid decision, but it knocked one of the Lightning’s best defensemen out of the series and forced the team to play Matthew Knies.
While it’s unfortunate that Cernak was injured on the play, there is no denying the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs have a much better chance of winning when he’s not in the lineup.
That doesn’t excuse Bunting, because it was an idiotic play, but the three playoff game suspension was extremely sever and the Leafs will be getting a huge boost by getting one of their better players back into the lineup.