Nazem Kadri has become Maple Leafs' supervillain

Nazem “The Dream”? or Nazem “The Diver”?

Nazem Kadri’s teammates may still know him as the former, but might the rest of the league, officials included, be inclined to think the latter?

With the Toronto Maple Leafs trailing by one in the late stages of their game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, Kadri was felled by David Krejci, no penalty was called.

“I wasn’t very hungry, I didn’t want to eat the dashboard there,” Kadri said.  “It’s not like I’m trying to dive headfirst.  I’m worried about my safety and my health more than drawing a penalty.”

Seconds later Matt Beleskey scored the Bruins insurance marker into an empty net to seal a 3-1 road victory.  In what appeared to be frustration due to the non-call, Kadri filled in Loui Eriksson along the corner boards after he set up the scoring play. Mayhem ensued.

As Kadri comes into his own at age 25, he is becoming known for his edgy play as much as his offensive flair.  He has garnered plenty of attention this season for his ability to get under the skin of his opponents.  Part and parcel of that is his ability to draw penalties and calls of embellishment have followed.

If he is selling and/or how flagrantly he is doing so depends on your perspective, one thing for sure is that he does a great job of playing “Who? Me?” when all is said and done.

“I don’t know how we didn’t draw one there, that was the definition I thought of a crosscheck,” he said of Krejci’s hit before describing the one he laid on Eriksson.  “I didn’t really see what happened at the end, I just tried to finish my hit.”

In a game against the Buffalo Sabres on March 7, Kadri was involved in a scuffle with Zach Bogosion and Evander Kane after a near knee-on-knee collision with rookie Jack Eichel.

After the chippy contest, he said “I got swarmed by three or four guys i'm not quite sure why”.

It probably explains in part why some bad blood spilled over when Buffalo returned to the ACC a week ago and he was involved in a flare-up with Mark Pysyk and Marcus Foligno near the Sabres crease.

On Monday, approximately six weeks after his throat slashing gesture toward Mark Giordano in Calgary resulted in a $5000 fine, Kadri drew the ire of the Flames Josh Jooris after an open ice hit on Johnny Gaudreau

Jooris and Gaudreau slashed Kadri and were assessed minor penalties, Kadri was whistled for diving.

“It happened pretty quick, you guys would know better than I would,” said Kadri regarding the chain of events.  “I just tried to finish my hit, I thought it was a clean hit, then I got whacked a couple of times and jumped and didn’t have much chance to defend myself.”

In his season-high four point performance against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, he was called for a boarding penalty on Josh Manson which led to a throat slashing gesture directed his way.

Truth be told, Kadri wants to be harder to play against and an ingredient in that recipe might be costing him with the referees.

“That’s four games the memo must be out they’re not allowed to call a penalty on him,” said head coach Mike Babcock.  “It’s got to be over with now, let’s get on with it, when there’s a penalty, let’s call a penalty.”

Super salesman or not, he is definitely making a name for himself as a supervillain.  A player the opposition loves to hate.

Follow Neil Acharya on Twitter: @Neil_Acharya