The decision to use Lane Hutson on both waves of the power play against the Utah club left former Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien stunned, who recalled an old pact he had concluded with PK Subban.
To give Subban the best chance of winning the Norris Trophy in a crazy race with Erik Karlsson, Therrien gave special permission to his star defenseman.
“I had an agreement with PK Subban,” Therrien said Thursday during his column on the show JiC. I knew Karlsson played almost two minutes of the power play. I wanted to help PK as best I could. After the first wave, I told him he could stay and after about 1 minute and 45 seconds, he had to come back to the bench.
However, we cannot compare Subban, who was then a veteran, to Hutson, a rookie.
“He’s a guy who had a certain status in the team and in the National League,” recalled Therrien. The problem is the message you send. A little guy of 20 years old, you give him the two units… that’s putting a lot of pressure on him. And he handled that pressure badly. At least he responded well yesterday.”
See Michel Therrien’s full column in the video above.
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