Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
In hockey, there are always a countless number of mistakes that can be made by any player that may result in a goal against, and fan witnessed two glaring ones in the Montreal Canadiens‘ loss vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning — both made by P.K. Subban. There is no doubt that Subban is an elite NHL player and one of the top defensemen in the NHL right now, but everyone has their off days, and Subban just happened to catch one.
You can’t blame this all on dumb luck, however, as one error that Subban made was completely avoidable and resulted in the Lightning scoring the game-winning goal.
As Brett Connolly was skating toward the Tampa bench upon blocking a shot, he body-checked Habs’ defenseman Andrei Markov, knocking the both of them to the ground. Upon getting into his teams’ bench, Connolly was poked at by the stick of Subban, who had crawled across Montreal’s bench to protest the hit on Markov. This all resulted in one penalty, which was a slashing call on Subban, and the Lightning continued to score what would be the game-winner on the power-play.
Subban simply had no business in avenging the hit on Markov. He wasn’t even on the ice at the time of the collision, and both Connolly and Markov seemed to be going their separate ways. Sometimes emotions get high in a game, which is easy to understand, but the league’s best players learn how to control such emotions, and Subban will get better at this as his career progresses.
The second mistake was a little more excusable for Subban. The Canadiens were in the offensive zone, and as the Lightning controlled the puck and attempted to break out, Subban pinched the zone trying to hold the puck in, and he lost his stick and fell to the ice. All defensive responsibilities immediately fell to Montreal’s back-checking forwards as Subban was on his knees picking up his stick, totally removed from the play. Tampa Bay rushed down the ice, subsequently scoring.
Subban had to make a judgement call when pinching the zone; had he stayed on his feet and held on to his stick, who knows how the play would’ve turned out, but in this case, he may have made the wrong call.
1″>Two different mistakes made by Subban led to two different goals against for the Canadiens; particularly the first mishap by Subban is one that can’t be made. He is still a rather young player, but that can’t be used as an excuse. Subban is an elite player with lots of skill, but at the same time, lots to learn. Expect him to gain knowledge and get even better as his career progresses.
Shaun Lavery is a Calgary Flames writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, or add him to your network on Google.
