Catherine Rondina - P.K. Subban: Fighting Racism to Become a Hockey Superstar and Role Model for Athletes of Colour

Its playoff season, a hockey fans favourite time of the year!

On May 1, 2014, the Montreal Canadiens are facing the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs for the . Tensions are high between these two teams. Their history goes all the way back to the start of the National Hockey League (NHL), as both of them are Original Six teams. They have clashed on the ice since pro hockeys start.

Game 1 of the series is at the TD Garden arena in Boston, in front of a sellout crowd of 17,565 fans. P.K. Subban is a young, black on the Montreal team, proud and excited to be playing. All he can hear is the sound of his own heart pounding in his chest.

The game has been close and hard-fought. P.K. scored the first goal of the game in the first period. But Montreal lost a 20 lead in the second, and the teams have been trading goals ever since. The players on both ends of the ice are frustrated as the horn sounds to end the third period with the game tied 33. The game is going to sudden-death , where the first team to score wins.

The players hit the ice and wait for the other team to make the one mistake that might lead to the winning goal. But after 20 minutes of overtime the game still remains tied.

As the teams get ready for the second overtime, they have already played more than 80 minutes of hockey. Its time for a hero to step up. Thats when P.K. Subban sees his chance, an open line to the Boston net. P.K. lifts his stick in the air and shoots a from the blue line. His eyes follow the small black disc as it thunders toward the net. At 4:17 of the second overtime period, P.K.s shot whisks past the glove of Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask. P.K. has scored the winning overtime goal for Montreal!

The Montreal Canadiens are all smiles as they congratulate each other on the win. P.K. has been on the ice for this game longer than any other player, with 33 minutes and 49 seconds of ice time. He was the hottest player on the rink. The big, bright smile on his face says it all. But Boston fans are not impressed. They throw their garbage and giveaway towels on the ice as the players skate off. Upset, they boo the Canadiens.

It is what happens after the teams leave the rink that shocks hockey fans everywhere. Within minutes of P.K.s game-winning goal, hateful tweets begin to be posted on Twitter. Racist hockey fans, some even using the N-word, lash out at P.K. Subban. They tweet cruel, hurtful comments about Montreals star of the game. They call P.K. names, using insults that attack him as a person of colour.

With the incredible overtime goal still in his head, P.K. tries to keep the win in focus. He played a key role in the game. He is proud of what he did on the ice. It was an important night for him and his Montreal teammates. But sadly, P.K. realizes that the ugliness of racism has become the focus of the game once again.

1 Its Hockey Night in Canada!

Every NHL family has a story to tell. For the Subban family, the story is unlike any other in the National Hockey League. P.K. is a talented black athlete whose family simply fell in love with Canadas game. Unlike most hockey stories, this one didnt begin in the land of ice and snow. It began on two small islands in the sun-filled Caribbean ocean.

In 1970, P.K.s father, Karl, moved to Canada with his parents from Jamaica when he was 11 years old. P.K.s mother, Maria, arrived in Toronto, Ontario the same year with her family from Montserrat. Karls family lived in the northern Ontario town of Sudbury. They were the only black family in their neighbourhood. It was mostly a French-speaking community and young Karl didnt know the language. But that didn t stop him from watching the most popular thing on TV on Saturday, Hockey Night in Canada. The game was broadcast in French and Karl didnt know what the announcers were saying, but it didnt matter. He loved the game! Most of the people in Sudbury were Montreal Canadiens fans, and Karl cheered right along with them. He began to play road hockey and eventually got a used pair of skates to play ice hockey with the boys in his neighbourhood. Karl quickly took the goaltender position for his team, just like he was goalkeeper when he had played soccer back in Jamaica. He often pretended that he was Ken Dryden, the star goalie for the Canadiens. Many years later, Karl would realize how hockey made him feel he belonged. Even though the kids he played with didnt speak the same language as him, sports could somehow bring them together.

The flag of Jamaica.

It was when Karl moved to Toronto that he met and eventually married Maria. One of the things they shared was a love of hockey. Maria had grown up in Toronto and had played a number of sports too. As a young girl, she was a provincial champion sprinter. Maria was also a diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, while Karl was still cheering for his favourite boyhood team, the Montreal Canadiens. There has always been a huge rivalry between these two Original Six teams, and Karl and Maria kept that competition going strong. When they watched the two teams play against each other on TV, the Subban household could get pretty loud!

Original Six

When the NHL was founded in 1917, there were six teams. Called the Original Six, the teams were the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Detroit Red Wings, the Chicago Blackhawks, the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers. All six of these teams are still part of the NHL today!

Karl and Maria were eager to have a family together. They had two daughters, three years apart, named Nastassia and Natasha. On May 13, 1989, Karl and Maria had their first son at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. The couple didnt have a name picked out for their new baby boy. During her stay in the hospital , Maria saw a magazine article about one of her favourite characters on the hit TV show Bonanza. The actor who played Adam Cartwright was named Pernell Roberts . Maria and Karl liked the sound of the name. So the first Subban son was given the first name Pernell . It was a Hollywood stars name for a little boy who would become a celebrity himself one day. The babys full name was Pernell Karl Sylvester Subban. Karl for his father and Sylvester was to honour his grandfather. The family started using the nickname P.K. almost right away.

Hockey Night in Canada

In 1952, when the CBC started broadcasting in Canada, Hockey Night in Canada was on the air! Announcer Foster Hewitt started the show with the now famous words, Hello, Canada and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland. The first game was between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins.