Why do people like PK Subban? While watching regular season games my friends and I constantly ask eachother and ourselves this question. Off of the ice, PK seems like a great guy. I have seen his interviews and his commercials and he makes me believe that he is sincere in his personality and is an enjoyable person. His PR game is more than admirable, and his charity work, comedy, and interactions with fans are wonderful. However, on the ice PK seems to be a completely different person.
I hope that everyone will bear with me in this wall of text and video link that I have constructed, but all of these interactions have lead me to so intensely dislike a person who, off ice, is clearly a terrific guy. How can someone have such different personalities on ice and off? This is my opinion.
Why do people like PK?
PK Subban is notorious for diving This year he has lead the league in embellishment penalties and has been fined $2,000 on February 4th And $3,000 on May 20th for his Third infraction of the season. PK is the first and only player to ever be fined Twice for embellishment.
Diving incidents
[March 20th, 2015 (Fined)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-OjoLxW_5M
[John Scott facewash]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Korrjug37lw
[Bruins playoff Game]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fd57VNE6Kg
[Pretending to be hit]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EHLQ7NNiwQ
[Dive Vs NY Rangers]
http://gfycat.com/FrighteningFrequentCowrie
[Embarrassing leap Vs Bruins]
http://www.gfycat.com/AromaticMixedCockroach
[October 16th, 2014 (arguable)]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IInpXddoiLA
Although there are a surprising few on Youtube.
While players of every team do make the occasional dive, most players mature and grow out of this habit, much like Sidney Crosby or Brad Marchand seem to have grown away from it. No other player in the league dives as often or as obviously as PK, and as the seasons pass he seems to only be doing it more often, rather than shy away as would be expected of maturing players.
Slashing Mark Stone The slash is intentional no matter how it's looked at. Whether he intended on hitting Stone in an unpadded area is arguable. Subban injured the rookie and was, according to NHL rules, rightfully thrown from the game. What I'm interested in is Subban's consistent responses to be called for penalties. While Subban may have not realized that he truly injured Stone, there is no denying that he took two hands on his stick and intentionally brought it down with force toward Stone. Subban immediately jumps up and down and screams to the officials that it is not deserving of a penalty, and seems to be absolutely shocked that an official could make such a call.
Earlier in the game Subban swung at an airborne puck and brought his stick down onto Ottawa forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau Again, note PK's response. He throws up his arms and contests with the officials as if he cannot even imagine that he could have done something wrong, despite clearly knocking the Ottawa player to the ice. The carelessness of Subban is apparent in the amount of damage he could have done had Pageau not been wearing a visor. The tomahawk of PK's stick would have hit him with a tremendous amount of force to his face.
Dirty Player
Patrice Bergeron The Boston Bruins program "Behind the B" captures a valuable insight into Subban's reasoning. Following Bergeron into the corner, PK swings hard at the back or Bergeron's head twice and fortunately misses the forward, only to tackle him to the ice. When Bergeron confronts the punching, Subban acts as if he doesn't know what he is talking about, and when he admits making the sucker punch attempt, he claims "I thought you were Marchy" (Brad Marchand) Milan Lucic Here Subban makes a similar play in which he sucker punches Boston's Milan Lucic in the back of the head during play. Sean Couturier Here Subban is involved in a scuffle, but when everything has died down and players of both teams are calm, Subban swings through the officials grasps and punches and unsuspecting, unprotected Couturier. Kris Kreider There is another video that I cannot seem to find of last years ECF in which Subban winds up and punches Kreider in the chest as he turns around to face him, knocking him violently to the ice. Subban seems to use this tactic as a form of bodychecking, although completely incorrect and unsportsmanlike.
Slewfooting Slewfooting is arguable one of the most dangerous plays in hockey. These plays generally involve the victim and perpetrator falling to the ice, meaning that the player is not worried about where the puck ends up, as long as he can take down the other player. The victim of a slewfoot is completely helpless to their own landing, and often fall straight onto their backs after being airborne and almost always hit helmet to the ice. Subbans recent slewfoot on Logan Couture In this video , Subban has Four different slewfooting incidents. The Kunitz play against the boards seems to be the most frightening. I remember watching that game, and even re-watching it my jaw drops in fear of Kunitz's ankles being broken. Its a miracle that he was not injured on the play. Brandon Dubinsky, Patrik Elias, Chris Kunitz, and James Neal are all very dangerously slewfooted by Subban. Subban was fined $2,500 for his slewfoot of Kunitz
Unsportsmanlike Play and refusal to take responsibility
Here PK Subban throws a puck at an unsuspecting official, hitting him in the face.
Johnny Boychuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlcn574l5No I was lucky enough to attend this game. The boos of the Boston crowd when Subban touched the puck may have been louder than the goal horn. Boychuk is my favorite player as well, so this incident made me especially furious. Subban loses a puck battle, and while Boychuk is on his knee, Subban throws an obvious, deliberate punch to the back of the Defenseman's head. Boychuk immediately responds and engages Subban, he throws up his arms in shock that anyone could feel that way about his polite tap on the Bruins helmet. The usually calm Boychuk grabs Subban, who falls and turtles immedialty upon realizing he cannot escape. I miss you Johnny. Go Isles.
Andrew Ference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heF3OY2Pnoo Another Bruins incident, Subban leaves his feet and drives his forearm and elbow into David Krejci's head. Andrew Ference immedialty attacks PK, who drops to the ground and covers his head, accepting no responsibility for the dirty hit. Although the forearm/elbow drive may be arguable, the leverage given by leaving his feet is not.
Given that a good amount of these incidents are versus the Boston Bruins, who I happen to be a fan of, I am a fan of hockey itself before I am a fan of Boston. The rivalry of Boston and Montreal may be the greatest rivalry in all of sports, and I like to think that the two organizations and fans respect one another, but on the ice the hatred is clear.
There must be a hundred chippy players in the NHL. Whether it's Marchand, Lucic, Shaw, Cooke, Subban, Neal, Ribeiro, or Ott, it is hard to find this much video evidence of any one of those players committing such obvious unsportsmanlike and disrespectful acts. Aside from Cooke that is.. PK Subban is a tremendous player. He can score, he can stick handle, he can hit, and he can block shots. He won a Norris trophy. His athletic ability is undeniable. However his on ice antics are a disrespect not only to the others involved but his teammates, his franchise, his fans, and most importantly; the game of hockey itself.
This post is not intended to infuriate people, or to begin arguments, but rather to bring to light all of these outrageous acts and hope that more people see PK the way that I do.
