Brandon Prust had an eventful Game 2, during and after. (Getty Images)
Brandon Prust had an eventful Game 2, during and after. (Getty Images)

As the Montreal Canadiens racked up 53 penalty minutes in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2, no Hab saw his name in the penalty column more than Brandon Prust. The pugilistic forward ended up with 31 of those 53 PIM handed out to the Canadiens. After the game, Prust lit up referee Brad Watson in his postgame remarks.

Here's a full transcript of what Prust said via TSN's Bob McKenzie:

“I thought the original call [Prust’s first penalty of the game] was kind of soft and I let him know it on the way to the penalty box. He kept provoking me. He came to the box and called me every name in the book. He called me a piece of you know what, a mother-f’er, coward, said he’d drive me right out of this building. I kept going, ‘Yeah OK, yeah OK, yeah OK.’ He kept on me, he kept on me. I kept saying ‘Yeah OK.’ I wasn’t looking at him and he [gave Prust the unsportsmanlike]. That’s the ref he is. He tried to play God. He tries to control the game and he did that tonight.”

Those are pretty strong words that are unlikely to be met with a rosy opinion from the league office. Prust probably can expect a fine, but the league may also look into Watson’s alleged behavior. That said, it’s highly unlikely anything will happen to the official.

So let’s review Prust’s evening, shall we?

Prust first went to the penalty box in the first period for a roughing penalty after getting tangled up with Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn. He got an additional minor for unsportsmanlike conduct, apparently for the exchange Prust described.

Late in the third period, Prust went behind the Tampa Bay net and made contact with Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop. That put the Tampa netminder on the ground, which triggered Coburn coming to his goaltender’s defense. He and Prust dropped the gloves. After the scrap, Prust was being escorted off the ice, but he wasn’t done yet.

On his way to the Montreal bench, Prust removed his elbow pad and threw it at Steven Stamkos. The Lightning captain simply picked up the piece of equipment and threw it into the stands.

Here's that entire sequence:

After the game, Stamkos told Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Oake, "If he throws it in our bench, we're going to give it to our fans."

So in the aftermath of all that, both Prust and Coburn got majors for fighting, but Prust received an additional minor for tripping Bishop, as well as two separate 10-minute misconducts.

After the game, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that he thought Prust was trying to injure Bishop when he went behind the net. Based on the way the play ended up, that’s a tough sell, but it seems Prust at the very least wanted Bishop to know he was there.

It should also be noted that Prust and Bishop do have a history with at least two on-ice incidents involving both players prior to this game. Bishop once got into it with Prust during a TV timeout and the two came to blows. More recently, Prust ran Bishop into the boards late. Footage of both incidents can be found in the video above.

Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien had more to say about his own team after the game.

Those comments may have had Prust in mind, but the entire team had a rough night. The Canadiens allowed four power-play goals on eight disadvantages. Montreal repeatedly shot itself in the foot Sunday night.

There’s a lot for the league to unpack here. There’s the alleged comments from Watson to Prust, which probably isn’t all that uncommon, if unfortunate. There’s Prust’s actions on the ice, which includes throwing a piece of equipment at an opponent and possibly going out of his way to make contact with a goaltender. There’s Prust’s comments after the game which were about as critical as you ever hear when it comes to players talking about officials. Then you have to somehow remember that this series is only two games deep and has been drenched in controversy.

Show of hands, who else can’t wait for Game 3?