Karl Subban hopes sons can dodge injury bug

MONTREAL• Karl Sub ban is counting his blessings these days.

Just over a month after his son Malcolm, a goaltender, was rushed to a hospital with a fractured larynx after taking a puck to the throat during a pregame warm-up with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, his oldest son, P.K., was taken off the ice on a stretcher at the Bell Centre on Thursday night with a neck injury that turned out not to be serious. Jordan, the third son of Karl and Maria Subban, has also been injured this season as a defenceman with the AHL’s Utica Comets.

“It was Jordan first, then Malcolm, now P.K.,” Karl said. “They say things happen in threes, so I’m hoping that we’ve used them all up.”

Karl and Maria were out of the country on Thursday night while P.K. lay on the ice at the Bell Centre for eight minutes before being taken off on a stretcher late in the third period of the Canadiens’ 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres following a collision with teammate Alexei Emelin. Normally, Karl watches the Canadiens games on his iPad when he’s out of the country, but he was having trouble with his Internet connection Thursday and both he and his wife were tired, so they went to bed early.

Their sleep ended with a phone call from one of their daughters.

“She said: ‘ Daddy, did you see what happened to P.K.?’ I said: ‘What do you mean what happened to P. K.?’ And she said he was taken off the ice on a stretcher. So, right away panic sets in. It wasn’t long after that Newport Sports (the company founded by P. K.’s agent, Don Meehan) called.

“They put us at ease just a bit,” Karl added. “But as time went on, we got more information and we sort of brought down the temperature and the worry we had. It wasn’t a good night, but it ended up pretty good because we know that he’ll be fine.”

While the Canadiens say Subban’s injury is “non- serious,” his iron-man streak of playing in 274 consecutive games ended Saturday.

Karl said the recent injuries have reminded him of the risks involved in his boys’ lives as hockey players.

“I sent them all a text (Friday) saying something like: ‘ We’ve had many good days, many bad days. Thank God for those lucky days and I hope we haven’t used them up.’” he said.