From the Montreal Gazette (Photo by John Kenney / Montreal Gazette)

It was late in the third period Saturday night, the Canadiens and visiting Toronto Maple Leafs locked in a 1-1 tie, when P.K. Subban crossed the semi-magical half-hour threshold.
By the time sides were chosen for the shootout, with David Desharnais’s 15th goal in 32 career shootout attempts finally nailing down the victory for the Habs, Subban had played 35:21, the most by any NHL player this season.

Only once before in his 382-game NHL career had the defenceman skated more, that being a plow-horse effort of 40:38 in a double-overtime playoff loss to Boston on April 23, 2011.

So now it was 15 minutes after Saturday’s game and here came Subban, under his Canadiens tuque with a Hockey Night in Canada towel wrapped around his neck, striding to his dressing-room stall with a grin, looking like he’d just been out for a light skate.

“I feel great,” he said. “I mean, I don’t think there was a time out there when I felt tired. I just felt in the game. I’ve always felt the more I play, the more I’m into the game. I’m engaged. I just tried to keep the game in front of me and make plays when I could. I felt pretty good out there.”

Good enough to call some of his own action for viewers nationwide, asked post-game by Hockey Night’s Scott Oake to do play-by-play on a highlight reel that might still be running.

The die was cast late in the first period when the Canadiens lost two defenceman on the same shift. Veteran Sergei Gonchar left the game after having been heavily boarded from behind by Toronto’s David Clarkson, then young rearguard Nathan Beaulieu was penalized 17 minutes for having rallied, without gloves, to Gonchar’s defence.

There was no moment of dread for Subban, who probably suspected at that instant he’d be playing more than his per-game average of 25:55.

The work was spread around. By game’s end, the remarkable Andrei Markov had played 31:57, well above his average 25:02 and his regular-season high in almost a decade, while blocking a game-high seven shots and taking a Habs defence-high four shots.