Golden Knights’ faith in Subban rewarded with Fleury out

By Justin Emerson

Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 | 8:10 p.m.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Malcolm Subban knew he was going to start on Monday in Dallas. The Golden Knights lost that game, but no sweat: Marc-Andre Fleury was going to play Wednesday and the regular rotation would continue.

What Subban didn’t know was that he would be starting for the foreseeable future. Fleury left the team to attend to family matters and the death of his father, and suddenly Subban was thrust into the starting role, playing the next five games, culminating in Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

If the Golden Knights do end up making the playoffs, they will owe it in part to how Subban played over the last nine days. He won four of the games, got points in all five, and boasted a .928 save percentage. Vegas was fighting for a playoff spot when Fleury left the team. They’ll go to bed tonight securely entrenched in one.

“When you’re playing with confidence you feel like you can take on the world and right now, he played awesome,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “An awful circumstance, the way it had to happen, but he came in and made the most of it and helped us find our game back.”

The Golden Knights concluded a three-game East Coast swing on Thursday in which they picked up five of a possible six points in the standings. It could have very easily been just four. The Islanders controlled play, and if not for a Jonathan Marchessault equalizer with 4:32 left in the game, Vegas would have fallen in regulation.

But Marchessault wouldn’t have been in a position to tie it if not for Subban’s play at the other end. The Islanders generated 3.31 expected goals at 5-on-5, according to Natural Stat Trick, the second-worst outing in team history. Vegas generated just 1.94 expected goals, a 36.97% share that is the worst of any game this season and the sixth-worst in franchise history.

It means New York had high-danger chances all night: 18 to be exact. That Subban allowed just two goals at 5-on-5 says he had one of the better outings by a Vegas goalie this season.

“I thought I played pretty well,” Subban said. “I thought today was my best game technically, which is a good day to have it because they sent a lot of screens and tips toward the net.”

There was no timetable for just how long Subban was going to be in net. Then Thursday morning there was clarity for the first time, at least publicly, that Fleury was getting close. He returned and skated with the team for the first time since early last week, and while he didn’t play against the Islanders, he figures to return for Vegas’ next game on Sunday. And when Fleury is healthy and available, it means every other goalie doesn’t get much ice time.

The Golden Knights are in a better position now than they were when Fleury left the team. Of course, that’s not because of Fleury’s absence, but because while he was gone, the 25-year-old backup played some of the best hockey of his career, helping his team leap-frog Vancouver and San Jose in the standings.

“(Subban) once again kept us in it,” forward Alex Tuch said. “There was a lot of grade-A chances that we shouldn’t have given up, but he was there to hold us in there. It was a great week for him overall.”

Maybe Subban’s strong play gets him some more looks down the road. Maybe once Fleury reclaims the net, Subban will go back to playing about a quarter of the team’s games. It’s impossible to know for sure.

But what can be said for sure is that the Golden Knights have another trustworthy netminder on the roster other than their future Hall of Famer. And if the time comes they need to hand the net to someone other than Fleury, be it for a game or a week or a month, they know they can count on Subban.