No disappointments tonight from either Alex Auld or the Atlanta Thrashers, as the team shot a season high 47 shots on goal on the Canadiens’ goaltender. Auld fought the whole night, and played fairly well, but the bigger Thrashers’ defense was able to out-maneuver the Habs’ smaller offensive stars all night long. Ondrej Pavelec’s second shutout of this six game homestand saw him have to block just 25 shots on goal.
The Thrashers’ powerplay scored again, with Rich Peverley netting his second goal of the night on a P.K. Subban tripping penalty:
Subban was a major player in this game, and not necessarily in the best way for his team. He constantly was pushing and chirping at Eric Boulton and Chris Thorburn (who tried to hop in when Subban attempted to go at Boulton), but the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he got involved in a post-save scrum. Evander Kane and Tomas Plekanec were tussling (and both got roughing penalties, although Kane’s was a 4minute major), and Subban grabbed hold of Bogosian. They managed to break free, and Bogosian tried to get Subban to finally go. Subban tried to get out of fighting it, but Bogosian knocked his helmet off and taught the young rookie a lesson on The Code:
Mike Richards of the Philadelphia Flyers called Subban out on his lack of respect and arrogance towards older players a few weeks ago after a game between the Flyers and Habs. Much was made of this, and there was a decent amount of disappointment when nothing came of the issue the next time those two teams met. Bogosian tried to solve a problem that has been brewing for a while.
Of course, getting knocked around by Zach Bogosian didn’t seem to be enough for Subban, who tried to get Eric Boulton’s attention a few minutes later. Boults shook his head and skated away, completely unimpressed. Subban’s going to have to figure out when to pick his fights, and that just because he had a great rep as a defenseman in the playoffs last season doesn’t mean that people are in awe of him.