Malcolm Subban is trying to earn a spot with the Boston Bruins. After last night’s performance, it seems unlikely he’ll wear the spoked ‘B’ on opening night.
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Malcolm Subban went into Thursday’s game against the Detroit Red Wings with a few strikes against him. He hadn’t played a single game of hockey in nearly eight months. He had more rust on him than many of the other prospects and players. All things considered, it wasn’t a terrible showing for a preseason game.
(Had this been a regular season appearance, I assure you my opinion would be far less kind.)
Subban went 30-for-34 (.882) in a 5-1 drubbing at the TD Garden. To be fair, Subban was playing better when the rest of his team was playing worse. There were some ugly defensive breakdowns throughout the game, especially in the first two periods. He handled three breakaways, including a 2-on-0 well. It seemed the simpler shots were the ones that got by him.
Subban was trying to kick Anton Khudobin out of the number two spot. By and large, he failed to make the grade against the Red Wings. But there is still potential there. The Bruins will certainly suit Subban up at some point this season (and hopefully avoid the 3 goals on 6 shots performance he had against the St. Louis Blues).
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The 22-year old netminder has the potential to play at the NHL level. Several publications have Subban going to Las Vegas in the expansion draft next season. Hopefully, Subban can take this year to get back to playing hockey and fight for a NHL spot against Khudobin next season.
“It wasn’t so much the shots,” said Subban of his performance post game. “It was the movement of the puck around, obviously just getting back in to the flow of the game.
“In terms of straight shots, in practice you can work on that stuff, the game stuff is more technical stuff like the post seals. Definitely felt a little bit behind, but as the game went on in the second – other than the third goal – I felt pretty good.
“I thought my game was getting better as the game went on.”
Bruins assistant coach Joe Sacco was asked by members of the media about his performance. Sacco thought it was a good game for a player who hadn’t played in nearly a year.
“He faced some quality scoring chances out there,” said Sacco of Subban. “The ones that went in, he’d probably like to have back. But when you look at his overall performance for the two periods, he played pretty solid for us.
“He made some big saves, some timely saves, and moved well in there. I think for Malcolm, despite the score, he had a good night.”
Subban will likely get another chance in net before the end of the preseason. He’s still got to battle Daniel Vladar and Zane McIntyre for a spot on the Providence roster this year.
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