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Michael Bunting fires back at Evander Kane.
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Michael Bunting fires back at Evander Kane.

Bunting responds to the comments from the Oilers forward.

Jonathan Larivee

Things got pretty heated between Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting and Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane on Saturday night when the Leafs and Oilers clashed in what proved to be a high scoring affair.

Bunting and Kane were at odds the entire game but things would truly come to a head when the two brawled halfway across the ice before finally coming to a stop in front of the Oilers' net. I suspect that it was that incident in particular that had Evander Kane fired up following the game, something he made no effort to hide when he threw some barbs at the Leafs forward through the media.

"It’s funny. You want to get these little ticky-tack calls. He likes to dive, embellish," said Kane on Saturday night. "You want to get that out of the game, but they (officials) prevent guys from the consequences of those actions a lot of time they get in the way, sometimes the ref. I think fighting is a great deterrent of those kinds of plays. It just prevents guys from answering the bell and he’s a perfect example of that."

Kane's comments are quite clearly a public challenge to Bunting but on Sunday when he was asked about the inflammatory comments from Kane, Bunting opted not to respond in kind.

"I'm not going to lose sleep over it," said Bunting. "He made comments but I'm not really the type to bring it to the media. You have to protect yourself if it comes to fighting. I'm not against it, it's part of our game."

Unfortunately with no more regular season games scheduled between the Leafs and the Oilers, we won't get to see these two settle the score this season. At least not unless both teams manage to make a deep run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.