Subban crashes pickup game
HAB SHOCKS FANS
MONTREAL • Aaron Fraser thought his two boys were playing a practical joke on him.
It was around 4:30 p.m. Sunday when 14-year-old Gabriel came running into the family’s home in Westmount, shouting: “Dad, you have to come! P.K. is shooting on Jack.”
“I said, ‘ What the…’” Fraser told the Montreal Gazette on Monday.
“He ran away and I looked at my wife and she said: ‘They’re going to throw water balloons at you or something,’ ” Fraser added. “So I went out with an umbrella expecting to get pelted by the kids, and I turned the corner and there was a black SUV parked just past the net and P.K. (Subban) was taking shots on my son. Amazing.”
Gabriel, Jack and a few of their friends were playing street hockey when the SUV drove past, a door opened and the Montreal Canadiens’ high-profile defenceman got out.
“P.K. just pulled down the street, hopped out and said, ‘OK guys, let’s play some street hockey,’” Fraser said.
Jack, who plays centre for a novice team in Westmount, was playing goalie in the street-hockey game. Subban grabbed a stick and started taking one-timers on him, breaking the first stick he used, but promising to replace it.
“It was just so natural,” Fraser said. “It’s like he was just a kid who pulled up … the kids didn’t freak out, there was no yelling or screaming. There was no time for that … he just jumped in and it was just like another kid joining the fray. It was really cool.”
Subban played with the kids for about 10 minutes, then posed for some photos before getting back in the SUV and driving off.
Fraser got a chance to shake Subban’s hand and thank him for playing with the kids.
Neighbour Adam Starr videotaped Subban playing with the kids and posted it on YouTube.
Subban told Fraser that he had just eaten at a nearby restaurant and was driving by when he saw the kids playing street hockey.
“Al l the kids in this neighbourhood are hockey crazy,” Fraser said, adding that during the playoffs families take turns hosting the kids and their parents to watch the Canadiens play.
“Guys like P.K. and Carey Price are the two guys the kids really identify with,” Fraser added. “They see them having so much fun and they just love the energy they have.”
After Subban drove away Sunday afternoon, the kids kept playing street hockey until about 7 p.m. And the parents? Said Fraser: “We just sat around saying: ‘What just happened?’”