Habs can’t mix it up again

Source : Montrealgazette.com

Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban took more penalty minutes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final against Ottawa on Sunday than he had time on the ice.

Twenty-five minutes in the box, 19:31 on the rink.

“I don’t think I’ve had ever that many penalty minutes in a game before,” Subban said on Monday during a 15-minute session with the media at Scotiabank Place.

Indeed, in 202 regular-season and 23 previous playoff games, Subban’s highwater mark for sin was 17 minutes vs. Pittsburgh last month.

“It was one of those things. I don’t want to be in the box for that long but I was happy seeing our guys stand up for each other,” he said of Sunday’s penalty circus that passed itself off as hockey.

“We’re a team that a lot of people don’t expect to see fight or get involved physically, but it’s about a character.

“For people who say there’s dissension or issues in our room,” Subban added, rolling his eyes, “to see a guy like Brendan Gallagher go out and fight a guy and not even think twice about it, that says a lot about our team.”

Gallagher’s actions were valiant, yes. Foolhardy, perhaps, given that the 2013 Calder Trophy nominee, who turned 21 on Monday, weighs 175 pounds only after seconds at dinner.

But the Canadiens are not built to pound their opponent. You’d best believe the coaching staff will hammer home the idea of returning to the fast-skating, hard-forechecking, defensively responsible game that has brought them to this spring prom.

Mixing it up again with the Senators, shedding common-sense with their gloves, will dramatically shorten the Habs season.

Sunday’s game established a Canadiens franchise record for penalty minutes in a single playoff game, the 129 eclipsing by nine the total racked up in a 6-2 Game 4 division semi-final vs. Quebec on April 11, 1982.

Despite his efforts, Subban failed to topple the late John Ferguson’s single-game playoff record of 37 minutes. Fergy had a minor, three fighting majors, a misconduct and game misconduct against the New York Rangers in a 4-1 quarter-final win on April 5, 1969, a night’s work that earned the Habs hardrock a police escort out of Madison Square Garden.

The tone for Subban, a prime target of the Senators on Sunday and surely in Game 4, was set less than half a minute into the match when he was drilled in the head by an unpenalized crosscheck dished out by Erik Condra.

At one point, as this game spiralled out of control, you could almost picture the scene in Slap Shot where the Hanson brothers corral an opponent in the corner and enthusiastically put the boots to him, racing away after he crumples to the ice.

“I don’t even remember what I got hit with,” Subban said of the Condra cross-check. “It’s a physical game out there. Things happen but whether it was a crosscheck or not, I’m not going to look at that. My focus and our team focus is getting ready for (Tuesday).

“This is the playoffs. It’s exciting, high emotions, and we knew this being an all-Canadian series there was going to be a lot of emotion and intensity involved. It’s been great so far.”

Not exactly the description Canadiens fans would use to summarize Sunday’s clobbering, the Senators ruling their visitor on the scoreboard and in the boxing ring.

On this night, Lord Stanley of Preston met the Marquess of Queensbury. And not to play croquet.
Much was made by an intermission panelist on network TV that Subban and teammate Max Pacioretty were feuding, at a point in the game that the Senators led only 2-1. This hypothesis was based on Subban’s animated words from the bench to Pacioretty, skating by, after the former had been belted by Ottawa’s Colin Greening.

“We talk all the time, it’s high emotion,” said Subban, whose distaste for Pacioretty was so deep that he joked about mischievously wearing No. 67’s sandals during his breezy interview.

“I spoke to Max. We’re fine and ready for the game (Tuesday). It’s (the media’s) focus to focus on all the little things but for us it’s the big things. … Everybody seems to have their opinion so I’ll let them have it. We know what goes on in our dressing room.

“Sometimes the game gets emotional and that’s fine. Max and I came into the league at the same time, into the organization at the same time. We’re great friends so we want to win.

“People can talk about whatever they want. Talk about things happening on or off the ice, it doesn’t matter. Our focus is winning. We want to win. I want to win. I don’t care what you guys think about what’s being said, who’s saying what, it doesn’t matter. We’re playing for the Stanley Cup.”

If Tuesday’s game isn’t sudden-death, it’s the next-worst thing. Down 3-1 would be a very deep crater from which to escape.

“The thing about being alive is that when you wake up, you have a new chance,” Subban said, his glass perpetually half full.

“We’re still alive and we have another opportunity. That’s all we need.”

A return to their own game, rather than being dragged into what the Senators want them to play, is the Canadiens’ best chance to square this series.