PATIENCE, POISE AND POSITIVITY GUIDING SUBBAN THROUGH HIS RETURN TO PROMINENCE

Dec 26, 2022

By Suzie Cool

 

The Rochester Americans are currently riding a three-game win streak coming off the holiday break and its largely due in part to goaltender Malcolm Subban regaining his confidence in the crease.

 

“I'm pretty good,” said Subban when asked how he’s genuinely feeling when between the pipes right now. “I feel like the game slowed down, I’m seeing the clock and gaining some confidence. You know, confidence is a big thing.”

 

 

Subban isn’t wrong and confidence hasn’t been something that’s been easy for the netminder to find over the last couple of years, especially when regular playing time wasn’t readily available.  With the COVID-19 pandemic halting the 2019-20 campaign and forcing a condensed campaign in 2020-21, the goaltender was then faced with another bout of adversity when an injury put a premature end to his 2021-22 season in just his fourth game with the Buffalo Sabres.

 

Subban split last season between the Sabres and Rockford IceHogs, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks, where he combined to go 2-4-2 in nine appearances with the two clubs. Subban originally began the season with the IceHogs before being acquired by Buffalo on Dec. 2 for future considerations and then went on to re-sign a one-year contract with the Sabres in July.

 

And while sights were set on starting the 2022-23 campaign healthy and ready to go in Rochester, the preseason had a different plan for Subban. In the Amerks’ preseason finale on Oct. 9 against the Utica Comets, Subban suffered yet another lower body injury.

 

“It’s tough,” said Subban when asked how he presented so much patience and tried to maintain a positive outlook during a time full of adversity. “I'm an easygoing guy. I like to live in the present. I don't like to think too much in the future or the past, but it's tough when you go through something like that and for so long.”

 

 

After another month or so of being sidelined, Subban was finally cleared to play and ready to go on Nov. 18 against none other than the Comets. While Subban made 22 saves in his Amerks debut, he was unfortunately tagged with the 3-2 defeat in Rochester’s first regulation loss at home of the season and Subban’s first AHL appearance since Dec. 1, 2021.

 

Since then, Subban has most definitely settled in quite nicely and is starting to look like his old self once again.

 

“He’s barely played in the last couple of years,” stated Amerks head coach Seth Appert when asked how Subban has progressed over the last month. “He hasn't played a lot of hockey the last couple of years and as a goalie that is very difficult. It's difficult for any player, but certainly as a goalie because so much of goaltending is timing and the feel of the game and the tracking of the puck.”

 

With Rochester this season, Subban has appeared in seven games, boasting a 5-2-0 record. While the goaltender traded wins and losses when first settling back into the crease, he’s currently riding a three-game win streak that all started with him buckling down in an impressive 4-3 shootout win over the first-place Marlies in his hometown of Toronto on Dec. 10.

 

More impressively, he’s won five of his last six starts dating back to a 28-save performance against Bridgeport on Nov. 25.

 

“He’s been playing better and better with every start, but in that moment (of the shootout on Dec. 10 against the Toronto Marlies), I think that's probably the first game that he probably feels that he won for the team,” said Appert when asked why Subban needed that win at that point in his season.

 

 

After Subban’s 23-save effort against the Marlies, he went on to have himself a 75-save weekend in Rochester’s two-game sweep over the Charlotte Checkers, propelling the Amerks into their annual holiday break on a high note.

 

A night after making a regular-season career-high 45 saves in a near-perfect performance on Friday, Dec. 16 against Charlotte, Subban went on to have a flawless effort the very next day by stopping all 30 shots he faced to backstop the Amerks to a 4-0 shutout win over the Checkers. The shutout was Subban’s first since April 8, 2017, with the Providence Bruins.

 

“I think he's just getting his game timing back and that's something I've said publicly, but also to him all year, it's just going to take time,” Appert said when asked where Subban is really starting to come back to form. “He's barely played the last couple of years and so he's just getting his feel and his timing and his confidence back to where it's been in past years for him.”

 

 

And Subban agrees, a lot of getting his game back to form was getting the timing down and remaining calm in high-pressure situations.

 

“The timing and just the game slowing down,” explained Subban when asked if timing was a large component as to why we’ve seen such an uptick in his game. “I feel like you start to calm down a lot and not be as overaggressive and moving too much. You start to settle down a bit in there and I just got a little bit more efficient.”

 

Through all the adversity Subban has faced over the last few years, one thing has always remained constant – the contagious smile he manages to keep on his face while giving that same gift to his teammates and staff around him.

 

 

“In the big picture, living your life every day is a blessing. So, I kind of keep that close to me and my dad would always say, ‘Be yourself because everyone else is taken’,” stated Subban when asked how he’s stayed so positive through everything he’s faced the last couple of years. “Those two things I just keep in the back of my head all the time and when things get hard, I just try to try to be a good person and just try to be happy.”