Subban ready to seize opportunity in goal
When 36 players hit the ice on Tuesday for the three-day national junior team selection camp in Calgary, one of the interesting subplots will be what happens in goal.
Malcolm Subban from the Belleville Bulls in the Ontario Hockey League is one of four newcomers battling for a goaltending spot on Canada’s team for the world junior championship that kicks off on Boxing Day in Ufa, Russia.
Some observers speculate that Subban, the Boston Bruins first-round draft pick last June, has an early edge for the starting job. The other goalies challenging for a spot are Jordan Binnington and Jake Paterson, also from the OHL, and Laurent Brossoit who plays for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Western Hockey League.
“Obviously you hear a lot of stuff but at the end of the day ... I’m only thinking about what I control and that’s playing well,” Subban said in an interview on the weekend. “So I don’t put too much pressure on myself.”
Hockey Canada plans to name three goalies to the team because it would take too long to bring in a replace- ment goalie, if needed, to Russia because of the distance. The roster will be announced on Thursday night.
Subban, who turns 19 next week, got his start in hockey as a defenceman — the position played by brothers P.K., the popular Canadiens blue-liner, and Jordan, his teammate on the Bulls — before switching to goal.
He backstopped the national junior team in its two victories in last August’s CanadaRussia Challenge, a series that Hockey Canada called the first step in identifying players for Canada’s team for the world junior championship, which will be played on the larger international ice surface.
Subban is accustomed to playing on a bigger surface. The Bulls are the only OHL team with an Olympic-size rink. There are more angles to cover just because the rink is wider, Subban said of the adjustment a goalie needs to make on that surface.
“But at the same time, you get a little bit more time when (players are) coming in going side to side just because the rink is wider.”
Subban likes to challenge shooters and is patient at the same time, said Sebastien Farrese, the Bulls’ goalie coach.
“So that’s why I think he has so much success in a shootout. He’s never lost a shootout in 2 ½ years with us,” he said.
Subban’s strength is that he’s very athletic and covers the angles really well, Farrese said. “His reflexes are unreal, especially on the rebound.”
Sometimes Subban is so quick on a play that he will get out of position. “So he needs just to be a little more patient,” said Farrese who added it’s something they’ve worked on a lot this year and Subban has made a big adjustment.
Subban says he always wanted to be a goalie and got the green light from his father, his coach when he was a defenceman, when he was 12.
A biblical verse is inscribed on the back of Subban’s goalie mask: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
More spiritual than religious, Subban explained his choice of inscription this way: “It’s like symbolism of what I go though in life. You’re going to face obstacles in life.”
Obstacles like being drafted in the 11th round, 218th overall, by the Bulls in the 2009 OHL draft. Which clearly didn’t derail Subban’s career. He was drafted 24th overall by the Bruins in last June’s NHL entry draft.
Subban didn’t get invited to last year’s national junior team selection camp.
He’s glad and relieved this time around to be on the list.
“Hopefully I can show my stuff and make the team.”