NHL superpests Merchant, Bunting show value in other ways

They’ve been called superpests … greasy rats … little balls of hate … and sometimes, names you wouldn’t want your kid to hear.

They’re players like Michael Bunting and Brad Marchand, who meet Tuesday when the Leafs face the Bruins in Boston. They’re players who, in flattering terms, get under another player’s skin.

But in the current NHL, the definition of the “superpest” has been altered. The role, while still practiced and respected, is also squarely on the radar of the on-ice officials.

“I don’t think you use the word much anymore … when you think of somebody like Bunting and what he does, I’d say these guys are tough to play against because they’re always in your face, But the word “pest ,” I wouldn’t call Bunting a pest, I’d call him a good, two-way, hard-working player. They’re just frustrating to play against,” Marchand said in a telephone interview from Boston.

Merchant is looking forward to playing against Bunting. The veteran Bruin appreciates how Bunting has parlayed his “get under the skin” abilities into a full-time job, not only in the NHL, but on the Leafs’ top line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

As Merchant says, it’s not easy to do.

“You have to find a way to play … you have to separate yourself from other players, and that’s something a lot of people don’t get,” said Marchand, who has 28 goals and 37 assists this season.

“When you look at teams, the top lines are set, so how do you separate yourself, do you play a fourth-line role? Very few players can come in and play that way, but it allows you to play different roles and it brings energy to the group. One shift can change the whole game around…”

Bunting and Merchant follow in a long line of the superpest mould, which stems back as far as the game does. Players like Claude Lemieux — who used to yell “I’m coming to get ya” at goalie Patrick Roy — and Sean Avery, who went viral before viral was a thing when he waved his stick to block Martin Brodeur’s view, became famous in part for the way they played the role.

Merchant, probably one of top three all-timers in the role, has combined the role with an all-star level skill set to become one of the most valuable playoff performers of his generation.

In 2020, Sports Illustrated “broke down” Merchant and the role in a full-length feature. Dozens of players — Brendan Gallagher, Nazem Kadri, Matthew Tkachuk — have similarly carved out their niche in the NHL, using both their skill and their abilities to get under players’ skins.

Newly acquired Leaf Colin Blackwell is noted as a “buzz saw” type of player. But Bunting, who has 20 goals and 30 assists this season playing on the Leafs’ top line, has a firm grasp on his role in Toronto.

“One thing I know about Michael Bunting is he usually leaves the game as one of the most hated players on the ice,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said earlier this season.

Bunting even gets under the skin of his teammates sometimes. He was in a wicked battle with fellow Scarborough native Wayne Simmonds in practice last week (they both hugged each other afterwards). And he ticked off Mitch Marner earlier this season after laying a bit too much body on him during a practice.

Former Leaf fan favorite Darcy Tucker is another Bunting supporter, and recently tweeted out his support for his play.

“It’s not in everyone’s DNA,” Tucker said. “If you have good hockey sense, that’s the most important thing to me as a hockey player. Everyone says skating is (the most important thing), and it is important, but hockey sense is it for me. Michael has the right hockey IQ for his style of play.”

Tucker was celebrated — and hated — depending on where the Leafs played, taking part in the famous “Battle of Ontario,” when the Leafs upset the Senators during several playoff series in the early 2000s. At the same time, and especially after a hit that took out Islanders captain Michael Peca, the Leafs were forced to change hotels for road games in Long Island after receiving threatening calls.

For Tucker, the role helped him earn a career in the NHL. He scored 29 goals — the most of his pro career — with the AHL’s Fredericton Canadiens in 1995-96, but was never going to crack the top six in Montreal.

He moved on to Tampa, before landing in Toronto, establishing himself as a player who got under everyone’s skin. It paved the way to three consecutive 20-goal seasons with the Leafs (2003-04 to 2006-07).

“It was a maturity thing for me … I didn’t play much in Montreal, and I wasn’t got to move up the lineup and keep scoring goals the way I did in (the AHL),” Tucker said.

“So, I played a style that was conducive to the ice time I was getting. If you have the hockey sense to understand who you are, you will succeed. That’s the role I was given, and I did the best I could with it. Bunting understands his role, and he does it extremely well. You look at guys around the league today who play it well, like Merchant … the role is exhausting, it’s hard to do …”

“If you go to the net, you get hit, and you give hits, it’s physically exhausting, if you do it all the time. But I loved that role as a player, it helped me become the player I was in Toronto.”

Competing merchant.

“The game is shifting away from that (superpest antics) … kids want to be skilled these days, and refs are cracking down on it (superpest), they’re (stamping it out quickly). But players like Bunting will have a place … because he competes so hard, he is hard to play against,” Marchand said. “Players with skill will only get you so far, but players like Bunting can out battle other guys, and that’s the key.”

Bunting, meanwhile, has become the answer to a training camp question about how Toronto was going to survive the loss of Zach Hyman.

Like Marchand and Tucker, he loves his role.

“I think that’s the way I get into a game, getting the other team after me or getting in their head,” Bunting said. “I feel like that’s when I’m playing my best. When they’re chasing after me and not worried about the game, that helps us out, so I don’t mind playing that role.”