MONTREAL — Well, it all worked out for P.K. Subban and the Montreal Canadiens, didn’t it?
Subban slashed the Ottawa Senators’ Mark Stone in the playoff opener Wednesday night. He received a major penalty and a game misconduct. But the Canadiens survived without their best defenseman for half the game – when they were already without their best forward, Max Pacioretty – and won, 4-3.
Now Subban has not been suspended, and Pacioretty might play in Game 2 on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Stone – one of the best players in the NHL down the stretch, a main reason the Sens rallied to make the playoffs – is “very questionable for the series” with a microfracture and ligament damage in his right wrist, according to general manager Bryan Murray. Even if he can return, how well will he be able to perform? His biggest strength might be his release. He kind of needs his wrists.
“It’s a huge loss to our hockey team,” Murray said.
There is no debate about that. There is debate about almost everything else, though, and we need to take a deep breath, be objective and cut through all the spin, BS and gamesmanship on both sides one step at a time:
— Stone said Wednesday night Subban had tried to target him on faceoffs before the slash and knew what he was doing. Murray said Thursday Subban had threatened Stone and tried to slash him twice before the big one. Subban denied that.
“I’ve never threatened anybody out there,” Subban said. “I don’t think I would. First of all, I’m not really the toughest guy without my gloves on, and I’m not really going out there looking for fights or anything like that. I just try to play the game hard between whistles.”
If Subban did threaten and target Stone, that would be serious. It would be premeditated attempt to injure. The thing is, guys threaten and whack each other all the time. There is a big difference between “I’ll get you” and “I’ll break your wrist.” There is a big difference between hearsay and proof.
Who knows what Subban really said, if anything? Murray said one of the officials might have heard it. If one did hear something that crossed the line, you’d assume the league would have suspended Subban. It didn’t.
“Threats are what they are,” said Canadiens winger Brendan Gallagher. “When you’re playing, you have to understand that everyone’s goal is to win the hockey game. You’re not doing anything that’s going to jeopardize your chance of winning. All that talk is what it is. You don’t really take it for much.”
— The Senators described the slash with terms like “baseball swing” and “tomahawk chop.” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien described it in French as a good, old-fashioned Sherwood slash, no big deal. The truth, no surprise, was in the middle.
What Subban did was stupid. Even he admitted it was “not a smart play.” Even he said he deserved the major penalty and the game misconduct, though he ranted and raved after the call, though his coach said again Thursday he didn’t deserve more than a minor.
The Canadiens had just scored twice in 15 seconds to take a 2-1 lead, and they had just taken a penalty. Subban raised his stick with two hands and brought it down on Stone’s wrist right in front of the referee, and Stone dropped to the ice and went to the dressing room. The rule states that if a slash causes an injury, the penalty is a major and game misconduct.
Subban said the Canadiens had talked about discipline, and he had taken a penalty at a bad time. “As an assistant captain and leader on this team, I have to set a better example than that,” he said. “That’s probably the most unfortunate thing for me yesterday. I kind of felt like I let my teammates down.”
As far as the major and game misconduct, he said: “When you see a player down on the ice rolling around like that, there’s one call to be made, and he made the right call. If I was in that position, I’d probably do the same.”
But no, it was not the hardest slash in hockey history, and Subban did look away as he made contact. A reckless slash is one thing. A surgical strike is another. Subban said it was a let-him-know-you’re-there slash in front of the net on the penalty kill, intended to protect goaltender Carey Price, and it’s entirely possibly he’s telling the truth and just caught Stone in a bad spot with little to no protection.
“I mean, listen, I’ve been slashed a lot harder than that,” Subban said. “I’ve probably seen many slashes a lot harder than that. I don’t think that it was that hard of a slash. First of all, I didn’t even really look at where I was putting my stick. …
“There’s no intent to hurt anybody there. I’ve never done that in my career. It’s something that my family doesn’t condone, this organization doesn’t condone. I’m not out there to do that.”
— The Senators bristled at suggestions Stone sold the call. Even after emotions had cooled, even after the news of the microfracture and ligament damage, the Canadiens continued to insinuate the injury wasn’t that bad. Subban said it was frustrating to see Stone return to the game and even get involved in a scrum at the end.
“I’m going to let you guys talk about what you think is happening, what you think is truthful, what’s not true,” Subban told reporters. “That’s for you guys to do.”
OK, P.K. We will. NHL teams are loathe to make injuries public except when it suits their interests. There is no doubt the Senators were trying to get the league to suspend Subban – or at least to set the stage for the next call or decision. Murray said he told the series officiating supervisor about Stone’s injury Wednesday night and was disappointed NHL disciplinarian Stephane Quintal did not take more time and consider more facts before making a decision.
But there is also no doubt Stone was legitimately injured. He went to the room not once, but three times during the game. He was trying to play hurt. He didn’t practice Thursday. Asked if he was out for Game 2, Murray said: “I would assume. I think the trainers have worked on him and tried to do things, and Mark is willing to take shots or whatever it is, but he has no mobility at this point at all.”
It’s a moot point in terms of the punishment, anyway. Like it or not, the department of player safety felt the major and the game misconduct were appropriate and enough, and the slash wouldn’t have been worthy of a suspension in the regular season, let alone the playoffs. Generally the DoPS considers injury when determining the length of a suspension, but not whether a suspension is warranted in the first place.
— In the heat of the moment Wednesday night, Senators coach Dave Cameron said: “I think it’s an easy solution. You either suspend him, or if one of their best players gets slashed, you just give us five.” That sounded like a threat. Nice player there. It’d be a shame if something happened to him.
In the aftermath Thursday, Murray said: “We’re not threatening anybody here. We’re just asking for justice in a situation where we’ve lost one of our best players.”
The Senators need to be smart. Cameron has alerted the officials to possible retaliation, so they’re going to be watching closely now. If he has to put Chris Neil in the lineup for Stone, he’s already losing considerable skill. If the Senators try to take justice into their own hands, they could make a bad situation even worse for them.
Gallagher laughed when asked about the Senators possibly slashing back.
“Even if they do,” he said, “whatever.”
A five-minute power play?
“I don’t mind that,” he said.
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