Joe Rexrode

USA TODAY NETWORK -- Tennessee

One thing NBC hockey analyst Mike Milbury hadn’t encountered as of Monday afternoon was anyone trying to reach him for comment on his latest controversial comment. His words, about Predators defenseman P.K. Subban, came off completely inane and angered a lot of people. To Milbury’s credit, he responded to the request Monday and elaborated on his thinking to The Tennessean.

First, in case you missed it, here is what he said about Subban on Friday’s broadcast before Game 2 at St. Louis, and after brief footage of Subban dancing a bit in warmups:

“P.K. has got a tremendous personality, and sometimes you’ve got to keep it under control. I know it’s a new day and age and everybody wants to be on Instagram or Twitter or whatever. But you’ve got to keep focus. When I see this I start to think maybe Peter Laviolette ought to give him a rap on the head and say, ‘Hey, P.K., we’ve got a game tonight, focus in. You don’t need to be a clown out there.’ And he will. He’s been a clown in the past, and we’ve seen him act like a clown. When he’s serious and focused, he’s one hell of a player.”

And here’s our conversation:

Can you elaborate on the comment? It came off like you were upset by what you saw that night with Subban dancing in warmups.

Milbury: “First of all, we go pretty hard in the playoffs. We don’t get much time off. We do a lot of doubleheaders and we’re in there like all the time. We try to look at what we’re looking at and then convey our opinions or analyze what we see in a moment’s notice. We don’t always get it right, but we try to. And I think we’re on the right track. In this case, what I said was really meant to be a discussion point. And if you saw the clip, I think you saw me say, ‘What do you think about this?’ to Keith (Jones) and Keith says, ‘Well, he does this every game.’ Yeah, I guess he does. But I just felt like, does there come a time when the circumstances are more serious? And there’s a little bit more serious behavior? That was just my question. It wasn’t really even meant to be a statement on the whole thing.

“And I understand, he does it all the time. I just wondered, does there come a time? Let’s put it this way: if you’re in the newsroom and you’re writing a story, and someone is beside you and they’re writing a story but they’re dancing, would that bother you? You know, would it be distracting? You’re writing a serious column and somebody else does that. It’s different, right? What P.K. does is different. It doesn’t make it wrong, doesn’t make it anything; it just makes it different. And I said this when I was on with (Jeremy Roenick) a day later. For me, I’m just merely mortal. I’m not like P.K., a superstar, a Norris Trophy winner. When I played, I had to visualize the night before, go to bed on time, get to the rink at a certain hour, eat a certain food, sleep in the afternoon, stretch at a certain time, make sure my sticks were OK, put blinders on kind of thing.

“Because for most or all of us, even for P.K., I’m sure, this is the quest for the Holy Grail, right? But obviously, he can approach it differently. The question was, does this approach pose a distraction? If it doesn’t, and Peter Laviolette – who coached for me (with the New York Islanders) and is a great coach – doesn’t think it’s a problem, then it’s not a problem. I just brought it up as a point of discussion because I thought it was interesting.”

I think the part of the comment that got people the most fired up is when you said Peter should give him a “rap on the head” and you said Subban is acting like a “clown” and has been a clown before, what about that?

Milbury: “That’s right, and actually, given the kerfuffle over this, I regret the use of that terminology. I wish I had said something different. I wish I had used the word distraction, ‘Do you think this is a distraction?’ That probably would have been, if I had a mulligan, I would probably use that phrase.”

So when you were talking about Subban being a clown in the past, what did you mean? Things he has said, the way he has acted?

Milbury: “No, no, no. You know how he comes in, it’s actually a show in and of itself, pregame, some of the stuff that he does. I marvel at some of his athletic ability. I mean first of all, he’s a riveting character in the scheme of things, and God knows we could use some riveting characters. I’m always curious since I’m just a blue blazer and a tie guy, I’m interested to see what the hell he’s putting together for his attire. That’s one of the highlights of my night; I want to see P.K., what hat he’s wearing, what kind of clothes he’s wearing, how he arrives with panache and swagger. I have no trouble with, I got to meet P.K. briefly in Chicago, he actually got the Norris Trophy that night a couple years ago. He was just as engaging as he seems to be for you all of the time. And I met his family at the Sochi Olympics and they seemed like terrific people. This shouldn’t be about Mike Milbury doesn’t like P.K. Subban. This was just a question of, does behavior like this impact the rest of the team in a circumstance where it’s pretty serious for everybody but you can get away with that attitude. I mean, God bless him. But the question, does it impact anybody else as a coach, does it distract, I think was legitimate. And that’s what it was meant to be. It’s turned into something far different, and that was not my intention.”

Last thing, the point I want to make here is that the NHL needs more of this. I’m trying to imagine a guy having some fun in warmups in another sport being questioned like this. I think hockey needs more personality, more individuality, not at the expense of team pursuits, but more things to draw in the casual fan. What do you think about that?

Milbury: “Yeah, I don’t have any trouble with that. We’re a pretty conservative lot, by and large. I think we’re starting to, with all of social media and the attention (the NHL) puts on people, they’re looking for things that can make the game fun. The game is supposed to be fun and I’m glad that P.K. Subban is part of the game. I’m glad he’s a personality. I think it’s wonderful that he has that kind of approach. At the risk of repeating myself, the only question was, does that distracting kind of behavior impact anyone else? I’m just asking the question. Everybody has a different approach to it. It was just meant for a discussion point, and I have no trouble with him. He’s a terrific player who’s having a terrific postseason along with his teammates. And I’ll be curious to see where they go with it.”

Reach Joe Rexrode atjrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.