P.K. Subban is a lot of things, but mainly he's a hockey player with a big contract - he's currently the NHL's highest paid defenseman - and an even bigger personality.
He's goofy on and off the ice but he's also an intense competitor who doesn't back down from anyone, not even one of the toughest, nastiest players ever to don an NHL uniform -- Chris Pronger.
During a recent interview with Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated, Subban recalled a story from his rookie season that involved coming face to face with the towering Philadelphia Flyers defenseman and ended with Subban telling him, in not so many words, to get over it.
"He's got one guy in one hand and one guy in another," Subban said, thinking back to his first NHL game in February 2010 between his Montreal Canadiens and Pronger's Flyers. "I come right in the middle, grab him and say, 'Let him go, let him go.' And he didn't say anything. I say, 'I'm not scared of you.' He says, 'God, your breath stinks. Can you get out of here?' "
The tussle came in the waning moments of the third period of a game the Flyers would eventually win 3-2. But luckily for hockey fans everywhere, the story doesn't end there.
"Next night we're playing them in Montreal. The puck gets rimmed out of the zone on a power play, and I'm in front of the Philly bench. I stop just before the red line, getting ready to rim it back around after our forwards tag up. As I'm winding up I look over, and the player coming out of the [penalty] box is Pronger. All I see coming over my shoulder is orange. He's coming to kill me. So I follow through with my shot and as I recoil, I kinda duck down over my right shoulder and slip out of a check as he starts to throw it. He trips over my back leg and falls into the boards face-first. As I'm backing away, I see [Flyers wing] Ian Laperrière, and he's got a funny face, like, 'Oh, my God.' And I'm laughing and Pronger's yelling, 'You bailed! You bailed!' If you can believe, the words out of my mouth were 'Suck it, Prongs.'"
That's probably not something Pronger has heard a lot in his life, let alone while out on the ice.
Here is to hoping Subban's career lasts for a long while and he continues providing fantastic first-hand accounts of stories just like this one.
