Subban Takes His Cockiness on the Road as Habs Face Flyers in Anticipated Rematch

Tonight’s game has been erroneously billed as Richards vs. Subban 2, when really it should be considered just another game between two teams... of course another game that could quickly degenerate into a brawl at the drop of the hat.

Mike Richards and P.K. Subban do represent the faces of their teams in this latest clash of two teams that don’t like each other. But, when all is said and done, they are just two players whose words just add a little context to what should be a heated game overall.

“You can’t just come in here as a rookie and play like that,” he said after the 3-0 loss in which he and Subban got into it verbally on several occasions. “It’s not the way to get respect from other players around the league. Hopefully someone on their team addresses it, because, I’m not saying I’m going to do it, but something might happen to him if he continues to be that cocky.”

Or, in video form, as was interpreted by most people in Montreal:

Subban responded to those comments the following day, oddly enough saying that he respects Mike Richards as a player, but essentially confirming what most knew all along: that he wasn’t going to change his game just because an opposing player says he should. Maybe if a person and not just a player he respected asked him to, he would.

Due to the time span between last week’s game on Tuesday and Monday’s rematch, this whole storyline has been hyped up to the point that one might mistake it for Rocky vs. Drago, without the actual fighting (well, at least not between Subban and Richards; could you really see that happening?). But because Richards kind of, sort of uttered a threat in the aforementioned interview, everyone will be on especially high alert tonight, meaning if something does happen to Subban, Richards will have some explaining to do.

Then the whole “respect” debate should be revisited, but until then one mustn’t forget that there will be an actual game being played tonight, one with relatively large implications, with both teams a hair’s length out of first place in the Eastern conference. As it stands now, the Flyers have played one more game than the Habs, with a record of 13-6-2. The Habs are 13-6-1.

While the story for the Habs has been goalie Carey Price’s stellar play, it’s also been team defense as a whole with Montreal not yet allowing more than three goals in any one game and a 1.95 goals-allowed average overall. The Flyers have conversely scored the most goals in the league, with 75. Clearly defense beat out offense last week, even without defenseman Andrei Markov out for the Habs. But it remains to be seen how long the Habs can hold off a very deep Flyers team that boasts three, maybe even four solid lines.

"That's pornstar Gina Lynn, P.K. Guess who's feeling cocky right now?"

With adjustments presumably made on the part of the Flyers to make sure they don’t get shut out again, one has to believe they have the advantage tonight, even if Montreal has won seven of the last eight regular-season games played in Philadelphia. History doesn’t mean a whole lot, unless we’re talking about the recent history... and all the most recent history between the two teams should just make Philly angrier.

The game starts at 7 p.m. Eastern time.