Time For P.K Subban to Get in Line with Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are one of the most historic NHL franchises in the league. Their heritage runs deep from the days of Maurice "the Rocket" Richard, Patrick Roy, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur to the days of cup winning dynasty's out of Montreal (5 straight Stanley Cup championships from 1956-1969). The Canadiens are one of the most famous and proud NHL franchises. But many people have felt the Canadiens have strayed from their traditional roots over the past few years. They hired an English speaking coach on an interim bases, had the Scott Gomez fiasco, finished last in the Eastern Conference and now they have defenceman P.K Subban who is known to play as close to the edge as possible. But it seems like Subban's days of running around as a reckless rookie may be behind him- seems like there is always a story surrounding Subban eh?

Since re-signing with the Canadiens there has been lots of controversy surround the young defenceman. Some of his teammates had some interesting things to say about P.K Subban and didn't sound too thrilled about his return either.

"He's not in the room yet, so let's talk about it when he's going to be in the room" ~ Andrei Markov

Well that's a little cold and if you didn't understand Subban's teammates are annoyed with the young defenceman, Josh Gorges took it a step further.

"To be honest I'm glad we don't have to talk about it anymore. I've never had to deal with a holdout situation or a guy coming in late- we'll take it in stride."

Well it certainly doesn't sound like the Canadiens will be rolling out the red carpet for Subban's return. What really stands out from talking to his teammates is when Georges says "holdout", this wasn't a holdout by Subban- he didn't have a contract! Subban felt he deserved a certain amount of money for skills and wanted to stay in Montreal for the rest of his career, it was a contract negotiation and it was blown out of proportion by the lockout. Had there not been a lockout he would have been signed and started the season on time, these negotiations take time and unfortunately it feel at the wrong time for the Canadiens and Subban.

If there wasn't enough controversy surround Subban's return news broke on Friday that Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien had banned the "triple-low 5" that P.K Subban and goaltender Carey Price would do after every Canadiens win. A seemingly harmless gesture between two young and enthusiastic players has now been outlawed and ruled "unacceptable". So what's the reasoning behind the banned low five?

"It's a team concept." ~ Head coach Michel Therrien told reporters

The Canadiens and Therrien feel that the celebration isn't team orientated focusing on only 2 players, they want there to be more of a team aspect when celebrating wins. Now I personally didn't have anything against the celebration and I liked seeing 2 young players get excited over a big win and that's all it was, genuine excitement. I'm willing to bet if you asked the Canadiens players they wouldn't have an issue with it either- it's just fun.

Let's dig a little deeper into why the celebration was banned and if you go back and look at the title and first paragraph it will make sense. This is the

[caption id="attachment_2267" align="alignright" width="300"] P.K Subban celebrates after scoring[/caption]

Canadiens discrete way of roping in P.K Subban and getting him to play the way they want him to. Some have argued that Subban's style of play goes against the Canadiens history of class and humbleness. The Canadiens are sending a message to their young defenceman telling him he's not going to be the center of attention and he must buy into the team concept if he wishes to stay in Montreal. Subban is a very unique player, he leaves it all on the ice, plays with fantastic energy and knows how to get the fans into the game. The Canadiens are trying to micro-manage his game trying to change the young defenceman but will it work? Subban is a flashy type of player, it's who is and he's always played that way, people love him because he has fun playing the game. Why punish a young player by taking his creative freedom away?

Therrien is a no nonsense type of coach, you either buy into his system or you sit in the press box- it will be interesting to see how P.K Subban adapts to the new coaching style and having to buy into the new Canadiens system. What do you think of the "Triple-low five" being banned?