"Come at me, Massholes."

After another thumping of the rival Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs are one step closer to mercifully ending their playoff drought. And although Nazem Kadri didn't have a dominating offensive performance, he made his presence felt.

The CBC feed caught Kadri yapping at the Montreal bench, with pointed words for Montreal's young Brendan Gallagher, specifically. And rather than leaving his words on the bench, Kadri made sure to back up his bravado. Kadri caught both Lars Eller and Gallagher at two separate points and delivered hard checks, the latter of which was called a penalty since Kadri ignored the simple fact that Gallagher didn't actually have the puck. A minor detail.




And here's Kadri's hit on Eller, considerably less dirty.


Although clearly a penalty, the check on Gallagher highlights the edge to Kadri's game. He isn't very big, but he picks his spots, usually lurking like a predator awaiting his unsuspecting prey, and makes it count. The Leafs haven't had a player of Kadri's skill with a chippy side for years; maybe not since—and hold the hyperbole—Doug Gilmour.

And as if that wasn't enough, Kadri doesn't seem to like the Habs—or the Sens for that matter—and seems to play with extra pride and energy during these rivalry games, saving some of his best performances for big Saturday night tilts.

Here's Kadri introducing Alexei Emelin to the boards back in February.


You might think that because of Kadri's size he would shrink when the games turn physical. He seems to enjoy it, however, something that bodes well for the playoffs, when teams will be specifically targeting him. He even took a run at Zdeno Chara a few weeks ago. Sure, it didn't actually do any damage because Chara is a certifiable monster, but it shows that Kadri's either fearless or has a death wish. I'm not going to complain if there's a little bit of Darcy Tucker-style crazy in Kadri.

Here is a sampling of Kadri's other greatest hits, a list that will hopefully continue to grow.