P.K. Subban involved in another slew-footing incident.

It has been a bit of a weird season for New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban but at this point it is getting a little difficult to argue that he isn't bringing it upon himself.

Subban has been heavily criticized this season for a number of incidents that have either been slew foots or have been borderline slew-footing, the most notable of which led to a season ending injury for New York Rangers forward Sami Blais. On Sunday evening Subban was once again involved in a similar incident, although once again I think you would be hard pressed to argue that this was anything more than borderline.

During today's game against the Washington Capitals, the veteran Devils defenseman got tangled up with 30 year old Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway right next to the Devils' net. When I watched it in real time I didn't see what had transpired but it was clear that Hathaway was upset about their interaction, with the Capitals forward throwing several unanswered punches in Subban's direction. Going back to watch the replay however showed me that this was more than a simple mauling on the part of Hathaway.

As Hathaway was looking to close the distance to the Devils' net, he was met by Subban who gave him a pretty solid bump that appeared to momentarily knock both men off balance. I suspect that it was the movement of Subban's left leg that lit a fire under Hathaway, and if you watch the replay here you can clearly see it move in a sweeping motion behind Hathaway's own legs.

The reason I'm going to call this a borderline play is due to the physical contact that occurred between the two men right before Subban's leg appeared to move in that sweeping motion. You could make the argument that this was not an intentional move on his part but rather the result of him being knocked off balance by the collision between the two men. As I stated before  it is getting harder and harder to give Subban the benefit of the doubt given how many times we have seen similar incidents just this season, but that could also be why he is being more closely scrutinized for incidents such as this one.