WINNIPEG – As the crush of reporters crowds P.K. Subban’s stall like a screen even Pekka Rinne would have trouble spotting a puck through, a bilingual reporter asks the Norris Trophy finalist if he can have a seat beside him on the bench.
“Sure,” smiles Subban as he kicks off his skates. “You’re a good-enough-smelling guy.”
Pointing to the defenceman’s blades, the reporter attempts some small talk: “What size are those?”
“Nine-and-three-quarters,” Subban replies. He waits a beat for comic effect, then shoots his questioner a playful side-eye: “Why? What are you trying to say?”
Just for laughs.
P.K. Subban may be a winking charmer, a flashbulb magnet, Exhibit A in your think-piece for “We need more personality in hockey!”
But, oh boy, did the showman show up in Thursday’s crucial 2-1 Game 4 victory on enemy ice.
Which is more than we can say for a host of other star players in a Winnipeg-Nashville series that is all knotted at two and has that we’re-going-seven odour to it.
Kyle Turris has been a ghost. Young Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers look overwhelmed by the moment. Kevin Fiala just got scratched for Scott Hartnell.
All Subban did was blast the game-winner — his third consecutive game with a goal, each punctuated by the type of celebration they make posters out of — while firing a game-high four shots on net, throwing a team-high three hits (including an absolute crusher on Brandon Tanev), and leading the vaunted Predators D core in 5-on-5 Corsi percentage at 60.5.
Nashville just snapped Winnipeg’s home winning streak at 13. Fun fact: the last team to beat Winnipeg at home was Nashville, too, back on Feb. 27.
If Subban deserves a portion of the blame for committing a high-sticking penalty that resulted in Blake Wheeler’s power-play clincher late in Game 3, or for taking another late minor that resulted in Patrik Laine ending his goal drought and busting Rinne’s shutout bid late in Game 4, he also has earned praise for being engaged and engaging all series.
“You’re right. We’re constantly talking about the penalties, it seems like. We can do without the one at the end. And he knows that,” coach Peter Laviolette conceded.
“Short of that, he had a monster game tonight. He was a beast out there.”
If Disney has taught us anything, it’s that angry mobs pick on the beast.
So, for the second night in a row, the 15,000 all dressed in white lustily booed or chanted “Sub-ban Sucks!” every time No. 76 had the puck on his blade.
It’s a faulty strategy. Subban’s 58 playoff points are third-most among all D-men since his rookie season (2009-10). He already has five points this series, thanks in large part to that heavy one-timer up top.
“He’s got a bomb, and he lets it go with time and space,” says Hartnell. “He’s really accurate with it, too.”
Subban feeds off your hate, Winnipeg.
And then regurgitates it in the form of slapshots Connor Hellebuyck can’t handle (or can’t see because gamer Viktor Arvidsson is bravely jumping up and down in front of his crease).
“What boos?” says Subban, who has already given away more money than the rest of us will ever make. “You know what? I’ll take it as a compliment and continue to play.”
Subban began this series by sprinkling some of the bold statements we crave from our rivalries.
After Game 1’s loss: “That’s probably the best I’ve felt after being minus-3 in a game.”
On the refereeing in Game 3’s loss: “I’m not going to comment on the officiating, but I’m standing at the faceoff, I get a shot in the back of the head five times or a shot in the shoulder and I’ve just got my stick on the ice. You know, I wonder if I do that, what happens? If I give [Mark] Scheifele a couple shots like that, I don’t know.”
Nothing approaching Listerine levels, but in what’s now a best-of-three, the results are fast becoming more important the hype.
“I don’t care who gets it or how we get it,” Subban said of his series-evening shot. “We just have to get it. I wish the first one was the game-winner. I have to find ways to stay out of the box.
“These past two games, whether they’re penalties or not, I’ve got to stay out of the box. It’s going to cost us big time.”
So, after this monster effort, where Subban burned the Jets big time, he shushed the loudest crowd in hockey and turned the spotlight elsewhere.
To Hartnell, who brought a physical edge previously absent from the Turris line: “After I don’t play my best or have a tough game, he always comes to me and tells me I have to be better and gotta lead by example. I respect him so much as a player but as a person as well.”
To Laviolette, who shrewdly scattered land mines through the neutral zone, adjusting to the Jets’ speed game: “I love playing for Lavy. If you can believe it, he’s got more energy than me. I love that. It’s just fun to play for a guy like that. He motivates you every day. It seems we have a foundation of what we need to win, but he always finds that extra edge and making really good coaching decisions.”
Saturday, in this heart-pumping chess match, it’ll be Paul Maurice’s move. The Jets must find a way to cool down Subban.
“And now,” Subban said, “we got home ice back.”
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