Todd: Hockey world still adjusting to Subban as first black superstar
Todd: Hockey world still adjusting to Subban as first black superstar
BY JACK TODD, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE MAY 8, 2013 9:22 PM
MONTREAL The kids name is Mike Benson. Hell turn 24 next Monday. He stands 6 feet tall, weighs 206 pounds and has a lethal, right-handed shot.
Bensons people own a farm west of Red Deer, but he played for the Swift Current Broncos in the Western Hockey League, where he had 14 goals, 62 assists and was a plus-47 in his last year with the team.
Benson was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, 43rd overall. After a season with the Toronto Marlies, he starred with the big club during their remarkable playoff run in 2010, before establishing himself as a regular in the lineup that fall.
A smooth skater who has more than a little flash in his game, Benson has become a favourite of the Hockey Night in Canada crew, in part because he isnt afraid to dazzle and he goes all-out with his goal celebrations.
By now, youve probably figured out that there is no Mike Benson, although the Leafs no doubt wish there was. Apart from his birthplace and the teams he played for, Benson is Pernell Karl Subban.
Subban comes from Toronto, not from western Canada. He played his junior hockey in Belleville, not Medicine Hat. He was drafted by the Canadiens, not the Leafs.
I invented Mike Benson to make a point: that much of the criticism you hear about Subban is based not on his play, but on the fact that he does not fit the usual hockey profile. Truth is, if P.K. Subban were Mike Benson and he played for the Leafs, he would already have received the kiss of death from Don Cherry.
But whereas the fictional Mike Benson is white and rural, Subban is black and urban and he is loathed, not loved, by a lot of people who ought to know better.
That loathing (which, going by my Twitter feed, is shared by Hab haters from Boston to Burnaby) comes with the territory when youre an effervescent, personable, 23-year-old en route to becoming the first black superstar in the NHL.
P.K. is unique, Kevin Weekes said when we spoke Tuesday afternoon, after Subbans nomination for the Norris Trophy as the NHLs best defenceman had been announced. The NHL has never seen anything like him. Hes different and like anything thats different, people dont think they like him until they get to know him.
Weekes, with Elliotte Friedman a voice of reason on the increasingly off-the-rails Studio 42 intermission panel on Hockey Night in Canada, knows Subban as well as anyone and better than most. Subban was only 8 years old when he first attended Weekess hockey camp, a high-energy, rambunctious kid to whom Weekes has been a friend and mentor ever since.
P.K. is good-looking, well-dressed and black, Weekes said. Hes not just a great player, hes a great person. Ive been mentoring him for years and hes made a lot of adjustments in that time.
People forget that hes still only 23 years old, so hes not completely mature, but hes learning to understand the landscape. Every sport is unique and you have to be strategic at times, so there are things hes continuing to learn, but hes a smart, smart young man. He wants to be great and he has a tremendous work ethic, which is why he will be great.
Hockey is unique in that black superstars are as rare as well, as rare as Subban. Because hes unique, Subban faces a special set of problems. The hockey world is still getting used to the idea of the black superstar and thats where Subban has hit rough waters at times.
I asked Weekes a question that has been troubling me since Subban first came into the league: Why so much criticism directed at him, when he is far from the first black player in the league?
Its a different narrative, Weekes said. P.K. is black. He isnt bi-racial. He didnt play in the Western Hockey League. Thats one of the myths of the NHL, that if you didnt play in the WHL, you dont have grit. We know thats not true, but thats the perception.
Some people, no matter what you do, theyre going to find fault. Theyve never met him, but they tell you P.K. has an attitude problem. Thats never been true, but P.K. has to learn to deal with them.
Hes learned that you endear yourself to more people when you recognize that its not about you. Its disarming. People say, Oh, this guys cocky, but then when they meet you, they realize thats not true at all.
Sometimes, people dont recognize their biases. They say hes cocky, he turtles, hes a showboat, all these things but they dont realize that they have this perception because hes different. People fear what they dont know.
With Anson Carter, Joel Ward and others, Weekes was a black player who had a good run in the NHL. Now, in his dual roles as an analyst for HNIC and for the NHL Network, he has had conversations about P.K. with people all over the league including league executives right up to Gary Bettman, who are aware of the special challenges Subban faces.
If you talk to executives around the league, people like Jim Rutherford, Rick Dudley, Luc Robitaille, Marc Bergevin, they know what a good guy P.K. is, Weekes said. They know hes a way better person than some people want him to be.
Hes also a way better player than some people want him to be. As Josh Gorges noted of his sometime defence partner after the Norris nomination was announced, hes just starting to scratch the surface of what his potential is.
The Norris might be the toughest trophy in hockey to win. As great as he was, Larry Robinson only won it twice and no Canadien has won the award since Chris Chelios in 1989.
The nomination is a sign that P.K. Subban has arrived among the NHLs elite defencemen two or three years ahead of schedule. He has done it in the face of massive skepticism and worse.
The only bad news on the horizon is that with the bar set through the stratosphere by the contracts handed to Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter, Geoff Molson is going to have to open the vault the next time the Canadiens talk contract with Subban.
No matter. The young man is unique. And as he proved this season, hes worth it.
jacktodd46@yahoo.com
Twitter: JackTodd46
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