Lately, members of the media across the beautiful city of Montreal are looking for anything to discuss. Whether that’s on radio airwaves, on our television screens or in writing across countless platforms, speculation is at its characteristic all-time high at around this time of the year, especially since the Montreal Canadiens didn’t make the playoffs.
Rumours surrounding P.K. Subban are rampant, and many are (overly?) confident in stating that general manager Marc Bergevin will trade the superstar defenseman and former Norris Trophy winner this upcoming offseason, right before his no trade clause kicks in on July 1st. While many are claiming that his value is at its peak, they justify their position by referencing the infamous “divide” in the locker room. Specifically, they use the Max Pacioretty vs Subban argument, declaring that there isn’t enough space to contain both of their egos. They seemed to be at odds with each other, at least in a passive-aggressive fashion, and this was further theorized after Pacioretty stared his assistant captain down while fielding questions from reporters earlier this year .
Generally speaking, I’d like to think that the old adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” stands true. I sincerely have a hard time believing, however, that these young professional hockey players who are important to their team can’t seem to get along. While I can appreciate that their personalities are radically different and some have argued that Subban would make for a better captain, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around this “rift” between two keys elements of the Habs.
Supposedly, they love each other. At least, that’s what they told members of the media last week, and Subban even went over to Pacioretty and hugged him in an attempt to squash the supposed beef:
Pacioretty even went so far as to mention Subban being present at his wedding, and stated that the latter plays mini-hockey with the captain’s kids sometimes.
The question is, are they really feuding? Is there truly a divide in the locker room, or is it simply being made up by reporters looking to increase viewer and readership?
Here’s some food for thought: what if there is something to these allegations? What if there is a problem in the locker room, but not between Pacioretty and Subban but rather, between those two and Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec?
The latter two- a duo for the sake of this discussion- have been lifelong Habs and are 37 and 33 respectively. They’ve never won anything with this franchise and are past their prime, although the argument can be made that they still have a few years of decent hockey left in them. They’re significantly quieter and keep to themselves a lot more than someone like Subban, who as we all know, takes up a lot of space wherever he goes. Perhaps Markov and Plekanec feel as though they’ve been wronged by not being given the captaincy, considering how much longer they’ve been a part of this team and the significantly less amount of negative attention they draw to themselves.
Maybe they see #67 and #76 as arrogant people, who at times talk the talk without necessarily walking the walk. I know what you’re all thinking- Plekanec had an abysmal season, and didn’t hit the 15-goal mark as I had predicted, but a subpar showing over 82 games won’t always strip someone of their sense of entitlement.
There might be hints of frustration from certain veterans that we have yet to hear about…
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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