SUBBAN STORYLINE RESONATES WITH CUP-WINNER KESSEL
Predators defenceman looks to duplicate what Kessel did with Penguins last season
Here’s a scene for you. It’s one year ago, Phil Kessel has just won the Stanley Cup and it’s his turn to spend a day with the trophy.
The Pittsburgh Penguins forward heads to Toronto of all places, because he’s got lots of friends there. But also because the Maple Leafs booted him out of the city months earlier in an addition-by-subtraction type of trade, and you just know Kessel wanted to rub it in a little.
Kessel even goes so far as to invite former Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf and ex-Canadiens defenceman P.K Subban, who like Kessel, had recently been traded from places that never really appreciated them. It’s a who’s who of scorned rejects. And for one night, they are toasting the teams that gave up on them.
Of course, the real party has been happening in this year’s playoffs, where Phaneuf came within one win from reaching the Stanley Cup final with the Ottawa Senators, and Kessel and Subban are playing against each other for the championship beginning Monday in Pittsburgh.
“I was there at his Cup party. I dropped in late,” Subban, speaking during media day, said of Kessel’s day with the Cup. “I was actually in Florida with my power skating coach and I took a late flight back. Growing up in Toronto and living there in the off-season, I witnessed some of the stuff (Kessel) went through and hearing about it in the media. A lot of it isn’t deserved with how hard he’s worked in his career and how good he’s been.
“So I wanted to show him my support and I was really, really happy for him to do it. He deserved it last year, for sure.”
The admiration goes both ways. With the Nashville Predators having reached their first Stanley Cup final, Subban is in a position Kessel was a year ago.
“I know what he’s going through and what he dealt with,” Kessel said. “Obviously, he wants to win really bad because he got, I’d say, the shaft in Montreal a little bit. That’s how it goes. So you want to prove people wrong. I know what he’s feeling like.”
Subban was far more diplomatic when talking about getting traded from Montreal to Nashville for Shea Weber last summer.
Asked if playing in the Cup final means Montreal lost the trade, Subban spoke at length about how both teams were looking for something different and each player brings something different to the table.
When asked if he is happier now, he spoke about the success he and the Canadiens had during his time in Montreal. The team reached the conference final twice, Subban said, and qualified for the playoffs four of six years.
“I was happy in Montreal,” he said. “I have a lot of friends there and I made a lot of friends.”
Still, it’s clear Subban — like Kessel and Phaneuf — has found a place where he feels more accepted. Nashville hasn’t tried to filter him. In his first days in the city, he was on stage singing a Johnny Cash song at a honkytonk bar and GM David Poile has met with Subban about how to grow the personal brand some called a distraction in Montreal.
On the ice, Subban’s impact has been even larger. He has two goals and 10 points in 16 playoff games, while logging nearly 26 minutes on Nashville’s top shutdown defensive pairing. He’s now four wins away from the Stanley Cup.
“When David made that trade, whether we wanted to say it or not, a lot of people touted it to be a piece that was going to put us over the top,” Subban said. “I didn’t really see it that way. It seems that for our team we gelled at the right time and are clicking down the stretch. I guess you could say I’m definitely happier.”
As evidence, immediately after Subban’s media availability ended, he grabbed a microphone and went around the room interviewing his teammates. He asked Predators captain Mike Fisher if he’s the most handsome player in the final, then grilled Ryan Ellis giving up his swinging bachelor days for his girlfriend.
It might have been staged, but it was hilarious, the kind of interaction Subban might have taken heat for in Montreal. In Nashville, it was greeted with a familiar response.
“That’s Subby being Subby,” Ellis said. “I’ve played with some big personalities, but that’s probably the biggest, that’s for sure.”
You think that’s crazy? Just wait until his day with the Cup.