Dec 13 Jacques Martin Didn't Break P.K. Subban

Dear Pat:

I love your work with the Gazette, Habs Inside Out and on the radio, which is why I have taken the time to respond to your brief editorial in today’s newspaper entitled “Subban fans must ‘chill out’”.

First, let me say that I agree with your assessment that Subban has taken this demotion with class and that, in all likelihood, he will be fine and a candidate for the Calder Trophy in the spring. But that is not why Martin’s decision to bench him is so madenning, at least for me anyway.

What is so baffling about the team’s decision to sit the player who has arguably been its best skater is the short sightedness of it all. The mistake (not mistakes as you state in your column – the winning goal was not his fault in any way) against Edmonton was the result of a combination of bad luck and over-aggressive play. Subban was not being lazy. He was not out of position. He did not miss an assignment. He took a bit of a gamble on a powerplay by pinching and lost. This was not Ryan O’Byrne putting the puck into his own net or Jaroslav Spacek putting a pass on an opponent’s tape in the high slot. It should be no surprise to anyone, least of all the Canadiens, that PK is an aggressive, high-energy defenceman whose creativity sometimes results in mistakes. This is the player they drafted in the first round two years ago. He has played that way since he was 16-years old.

And now Jacques Martin wants to take the creativity and enthusiasm out of his game. He wants to turn him into a Roman Hamrlik or Hal Gill – two solid defensive defencemen, but can’t hold a candle to Subban when it comes to overall skill and talent. The message to Subban (and any other rookie in the organization) is: “if you make a mistake you will be benched”. It is a message that I suspect most young players in Montreal and Hamilton (and those who were traded to other organizations) are very familiar with [see Lars Eller, Yannick Weber, Max Pacioretty, Sergei Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse, Mike Ribeiro, etc.] Martin and Pierre Gauthier don’t seem to understand that if you have young inexperienced players in your lineup you need to live with the occasional mistake. Otherwise you run the risk of breaking a young’s man’s confidence and spirit and ruining his career.

Martin’s decision is also shortsighted because it fails to consider the controversy it creates. Who will the team bench or send down once Subban is inevitably returned to the lineup? Will Yannick Weber go back to the Bulldogs? His play says he doesn’t deserve to. How about putting Alexandre Picard in the press box? He has been arguably the team’s best defensive player all year. The reality is that Spacek (despite improved play over the past ten days) and Hal Gill have been the weak links on the Habs’ defensive corps. Martin often speaks of a “healthy competition for time”, but I highly doubt we will see either of them have their playing time reduced by a significant amount any time soon. So, while we agree that Subban likely has the resolve to deal with being demoted despite playing well, do Weber and Picard? And don’t forget the Montreal media who have the ability to turn the smallest molehill into Mount Everest.

In short, Martin benched a player who did not deserve to be benched. And, by failing to consider the potential consequences of his decisions, he has put the club at serious risk of long term negative results. The team may be rolling at the moment, but there will be down times during this season when this will come back to bite the Habs in the posterior. Its kind of amusing that Martin scratched Subban for his so-called poor decision making when he is guilty of exactly the same thing.

Devin Maxwell
Halifax, NS