The bad blood between Evander Kane and Michael Bunting was apparent on the ice and it continued off the ice as well.
Kane and Bunting both received double-minor penalties after getting into a scrum on the ice during Saturday's game between the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
It took some time before officials decided to get in between Bunting and Kane as both players eventually got into a wrestling match in the Oilers zone.
In his postgame press conference, Kane called out the Leafs forward suggesting that the referees shouldn't protect players who choose to embellish penalties.
"I think it's funny, you want to get these little ticky-tack calls and he likes to dive and embellish which is something you want to get that out of the game but they prevent guys from the consequences of those actions," Kane said about Bunting. "A lot of the time the refs get in the way. I think fighting is a great deterrent to those types of players and actions. You know, just prevents guys from having to answer the bell like that, he's a perfect example of that."
Saturday night against Edmonton, Natural StatTrick reports that Bunting had fourth-drawn penalties while Kane had two. Along with the double-minor penalty, Bunting also had an offsetting minor for embellishment on an interference penalty by Ryan McLeod in the second period.
According to Natural StatTrick, Bunting leads the NHL with 35 drawn penalties with Nazem Kadri second with 31, Matthe Tkachuk third with 30 while Connor McDavid is fourth with 29.
1:57
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.