Former Bruin Subban sharp as he shuts down former organization

LAS VEGAS — What made the recent 1-2-0 road trip worse for the Boston Bruins is that it ended with a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Sunday with ex-Bruins' farmhand Malcolm Subban earning the victory in net.

When the Bruins placed him on waivers early this month, the organization was hoping he would clear and report to the P-Bruins, but Vegas claimed him. He started Sunday because Golden Knights’ No. 1 goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was placed on injury reserve with a concussion.



It was highly entertaining that Subban was making the start against Tuukka Rask and the Bruins on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena -- he nearly shut out his former organization until David Pastrnak scored at 19:30 of the third period.

"I feel great right now. Obviously you come into the first game and you want to have a good game, especially a good start," Subban said. "I had a great team in front of me. There weren’t too many high chances. A lot of textbook saves and just having good rebound control. I’m happy to get the win."

After the game, he stood outside the Knights' locker room, waiting for some of his former teammates.

"Obviously it’s a great feeling, I still have a lot of love for those guys," he said. "I still have a lot of love for the organization. I made a lot of friends there, a lot of teammates. They have a great coaching staff. I’m just happy to get this win tonight for us."

Prior to the game, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gave the game plan against Subban -- create traffic and make him as uncomfortable as possible, especially on second chances.

“We turned down chances to shoot,” Cassidy said. “There weren’t that many and then we were off net on some and we needed to generate rebounds. We talked about that. We know Malcolm well and he’s a good first-shot goaltender for the most part. We wanted to put stress on him and make him uncomfortable on those second ones. We didn’t do a very good job of that.”

When Vegas claimed Subban, Rask said he was impressed with the former first-rounder during training camp and the preseason. After Sunday’s game, Rask said the Bruins could have done more against Subban.

“He saw a lot of shots,” Rask said. “He played good. He was square, made saves and no rebounds. Obviously, you would want to make the night as tough as possible for the opposite goalie and we could’ve done more.”

Bruins defenseman Torey Krug added there wasn’t enough of a commitment level against the Golden Knights and Subban.

“He was good,” Krug said. “He obviously showed up and had a shutout for almost the whole game. I still don’t think we made it difficult on him. He’s a great goaltender with skilled talent, and he held up his end tonight.”