I've never liked or endorsed booing a player every time the puck lands on his stick, it was even inane when they did it to Bertuzzi.
The punch to the back of the head was unconscionable but the Avs handled it the right way (well, MacKinnon kept messing with Subban and PK frickin' LOST it). I think the incessant jawing on the way to the box combined with the replay on the VERY big jumbotron in Pepsi Center sent Avs fans over the top. He is their designated villain. I don't think it's race-related as if it were someone like Ellis or Watson (both of whom I think are far, FAR bigger punks than Subban) they'd have booed him as well. But still...not a great look.
What was inexcusable was giving the fan who snuck the catfish in a beer shower after he threw it on the ice. Who the fuck cares if some random doofus wants to throw seafood onto the ice!? Let them. At that point it was super-lame and kinda pathetic anyway, as the Avs had a commanding lead. It's an empty, silly gesture. If some guy wants to travel all the way from Music City with a smelly rotting fish in tow, that says more about him than anything else.
All that said...last night was an amazing game to watch. Preds keep trying to bully and brawl their way through this series in the hopes it will cow the Avs, and they're just getting more fired up. If any team lost their composure last night, it was the Preds. There was one sequence where someone bounced a pass to Arvidsson off his skate and he was visibly frustrated to the point where Haynes and McNab made fun of him.
And MY GOD the Preds are frickin' whiny babies. Empty net, Landeskog and MacKinnon get a clean break for the net, Ellis blatantly hooks Landy from behind and keeps him from scoring. Refs, as are the rules, award a goal. Both Josi and Ellis argue like kids that just got their allowance taken away.
Unreal. BTW...it was Josi and Ellis who were on the ice when Landy forced Mr. Carrie Underwood to cough up the puck and dish it right to MacKinnon who got behind the two and scorched Rinne for his first goal of the game. That was a thing of beauty.
Anyway, I still don't think the Avs take this series, I was just hoping they'd take one game. The fact they have been in every single game of the series thus far is more than I or any other Avs fan have any right to ask for.
Two things the Avs MUST do if they have any hope of advancing:
1. Quit icing the goddamn puck every chance you get when you're in trouble. This team has too much speed and skill to play like that. It doesn't help that the Avs are the worst faceoff team in the NHL by a very wide margin. There were a ton of close calls in the 3rd, that's just ridiculous.
2. Avs have to find a way to get the power play going. Lost in the victory is the fact they went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage. The Preds' Achilles heel is their penchant for taking lots and lots of penalties, more than any other team in the league this year. They could have put the game way out of reach but kept Nashville hanging around way too long.