Benching ignites fire under players

Subban, Desharnais help team to a win

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Eloquence may not be Michel Therrien’s long suit, but the Canadiens coach is proving to be an effective communicator.

Therrien sent a message when he benched two of his key players briefly in the second period of Thursday night’s 5-2 win over the New York Islanders in a half-empty Nassau Coliseum.

“I didn’t like the chemistry out there,” Therrien said after he invited P.K. Subban and David Desharnais to enjoy the view from a frontrow seat.

But the two responded to the not-so-subtle message. Subban tied the game with a power-play goal midway through the second period and added an insurance goal in the third period. As for Desharnais, he redeemed himself by picking up two assists, including one on the game-winning goal by Brian Gionta at the 45-second mark of the third period.

Subban, who was raked over the coals for taking a bad penalty that led to the winning goal in Buffalo’s 3-2 overtime win over the Canadiens on Tuesday, was subdued after the game.

“Whenever you can score on the power play, it can be the difference in the game, so I’m happy we could score,” said Subban, who scored one of the Canadiens’ two powerplay goals.

When someone suggested that he didn’t look happy about the win, Subban replied: “No. I’m happy. It was a tough game especially when it was tied 2-2, we went ahead and then we had 16 minutes to kind of grind away. We were happy to get the fourth goal and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the game.”

Therrien wouldn’t comment on why he felt it was necessary to send a message to Subban. It might have been because he was the culprit when the Canadiens were called for too many men on the ice or it might have been because Subban expressed some displeasure after he was left on the ice for most of the time killing that penalty.

Subban was involved in an interesting exchange in the third period when he put his gloved hand in Keith Aucoin’s face after a scrum in front of the net. Aucoin staggered backwards and was assessed a two-minute penalty for embellishment.

“I’m not going to talk about the refereeing,” Subban said when asked if that call may have gone against him last season. “The penalty was called, we had a power play and we tried to capitalize on it but we didn’t.”

Brendan Gallagher polished his rookie-of-the-year credentials with his ninth goal and was plus-2, which makes him plus-11 for the season.

“I’m getting a lot of lucky bounces, but I’ll take them,” Gallagher said.

He and linemates Desharnais and Max Pacioretty combined for five points and had a hand in all three Montreal goals in the third period.

“It’s nice to see when the game’s on the line in the third period, we can come out and help the team,” Gallagher said. “It would be nice to do it in the first and second as well, but I was glad (Therrien) put us out in key situations in the third. I think as a team we did a good job in the third. We did a good job forechecking and, as a team, we played a good road game.”

“We wanted to rebound after the last game,” said Carey Price, who made 25 saves for his 16th win of the season. “I don’t think we played particularly well in the first two periods, but we played really in the third.

“We got lucky and capitalized on a few opportunities, and when you’re scoring, it’s easy to say you’re playing better,” he added.

The Canadiens have been characterized as a defensive, somewhat boring team, but they are averaging 3.2 goals a game, the fifth-best record in the NHL. Price said he wasn’t surprised by that statistic.

“I know they score a lot of goals in practice, so it doesn’t really surprise me.”