Justin Hryckowian<\/a> pass in a 3-2 overtime win against Detroit.<\/p>\nIt was a nice moment for the 30-year-old, who is on his sixth NHL team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a nose for the net, and he\u2019s got some skill,\u201d Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a position he can definitely play and it\u2019s good for him to get a goal and get playing in our jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bunting was drafted in the fourth round by Arizona in 2014 and worked his way up through the Coyotes organization. After 26 NHL games over six seasons, Bunting became a free agent and signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. His career took off, as he tallied 23 goals, including two on the power play. He upped that to 7 power play goals the next season and then 6 when he moved on to Carolina the next year.<\/p>\n
Bunting was traded to Pittsburgh and came up with his best power play season in 2024-25. The wiry winger had 9 power play goals and 6 power play assists as he averaged 2:15 in power play time on ice per game while playing with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust and Erik Karlsson.<\/p>\n
He was then traded to Nashville and then to Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been great,\u201d Bunting said of his four games with the Stars. \u201cThe guys are great here, and we\u2019re feeling good. Obviously, we’re four-for-four here, so hopefully keep this thing rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the power play, Bunting is walking into a great situation. New assistant coach Neil Graham, who was elevated after seven years with the Texas Stars, has the team sitting second in the NHL in efficiency at 30.0 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it for a long time. That\u2019s my role usually,\u201d Bunting said. \u201cGrammer has been great. I\u2019m a new guy and he\u2019s teaching me what to do. It feels good to get that one under the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bunting\u2019s goal helped stretch a power play goal run to 12 straight games. It was a huge moment in a very close game. Bunting said he\u2019s been trying to find his spot in a very good power play.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys move really well,\u201d Bunting said. \u201cIt\u2019s really fast. Good power plays are always shifting the puck around and creating little 2-on-1s. I feel we\u2019re able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
No matter who is in or out of the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First Shift \ud83c\udfd2 The intricacies of team hockey are maybe best revealed when you\u2019re going through injuries. With…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-543414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}