Hab stars humbled by rout
For Carey Price, it was the quickest yank in his six-year NHL career.
For P.K. Subban, it merely felt like one of the longest nights in his NHL life.
At the final buzzer, Price was well-ensconced on the bench, having lasted scarcely 101⁄2 minutes into the first period, and Subban had just finished serving his second unsportsmanlike conduct felony of the evening.
With that, on the evidence of a 5-1 stomping by Toronto, two of Montreal’s primary assets from this season of remarkable reversal lost some of their lustre. Simultaneously, Maple Leaf fans are savouring the prospect of a playoff matchup between these two clubs, now that the rivalry has so clearly been restored.
It was a painful and abbreviated encounter for Price, chased out of the game after surrendering three goals on just four Toronto shots, though replacement Peter Budaj wouldn’t fare much better, beaten by Dion Phaneuf on the first piece of rubber he saw, an acute-angle shot that had no menace on it but found five-hole daylight.
“Sometimes they find a way in,” a clearly embarrassed Price said afterwards. “You overplay things and it winds up biting you.”
Price had a fine 2.28 goals-against average when the puck dropped Saturday night and only on one other occasion this year had been chased out of the net in-game.
“Obviously, it’s not a very pleasant feeling when you know you let your teammates down. That’s the hardest part. The guys out there put in a full 60 minutes of work and I didn’t come through for them.”
He put in 10:25 of work, beaten by Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov and Jay McClement, at which point coach Michel Therrien had seen enough, perhaps wanted to spare his starter any more mortification. This is the same team, with the same goalie between the pipes, that had clinched a playoff berth in Buffalo just 48 hours earlier and they remain atop the Northeast Division because Boston lost to Carolina. Montreal is second in the Eastern Conference behind Pittsburgh.
What Price won’t be doing is reviewing his stinky performance by watching it on video — doesn’t need to, there’s a videotape in his head.
“There’s nothing to watch, really. I know what I did wrong on the goals. You just forget about it and move on.”
For his part, Subban showed a tad less equanimity about the whole thing, angry at how his team had acquitted itself, and angry enough earlier that he drew a pair of unsportsmanlike penalties, not to mention at one point standing in front of the Toronto bench and giving the Leafs a verbal strafing.
“It’s easy to chirp and talk when you’re up 5-1,” the Toronto native observed about the digging he’d apparently absorbed from the hometown side, which may have contributed to his penalty-inducing surliness.
“It’s part of the game,” he shrugged.
Fellow blueliner Francis Bouillon was in the bin, drawing a penalty for high sticking less than two minutes into the game when Toronto scored its first in the quintet. “Obviously we wanted to have a better start,” said Subban. “We had to shake that off and continue to play. I didn’t think we were aggressive enough. We knew that this game was huge for them, they needed these two points, and we had to play with a sense of urgency. I don’t think we had it early enough in the game and it ended up costing us.” The hot-shot D-man arrived in Toronto as the NHL’s leading goalscorer among rearguards, tops in points too, and trailing Norris Trophy buzz for best-of-the-blue-breed in this shortened season. He left town with his reputation intact but his team scandalized, frankly. “It’s more than just standings and points,” Subban had said earlier. “Obviously, these are two teams that have a rivalry, a history of playing each other and playing each other in pretty big games. It’s always emotional.” It’s particularly emotional for a young man who’s known for wearing his feelings — volatility, exuber- ance, passion, call it what you will — on his sleeve, though tucked up a little further this year under the disapproving tutelage of Therrien, who’s apparently squeezed some of the spontaneous effusiveness out of Subban. “Nobody’s being squeezed, nobody’s doing anything to me,” he argued. “I’m the same person I was two years ago. Nobody’s tried to calm me down or tell me what to do.” Subban’s annoyance was on display against the Leafs. But he was also vociferously booed by the crowd (brothers Malcolm and Jordan in the stands) every time he touched the puck — which is a kind of a reverse honour. That didn’t bother him one bit. Nor was Subban in the mood to wax poignantly about the rivalry he’d promoted only a few hours earlier. The wincing loss was too much on his mind. “If you don’t come out ready to play against any team in this league, you’re going to get your butt handed to you.” That was a bum’s rush out of town.