Sabres Notebook: Racist incident involving Malcolm Subban's brother is 'disturbing'

Jordan Subban, who plays for the South Carolina Sting Rays, was in a scrum with Jacksonville Ice Men defenseman Jacob Pannetta early in overtime of a scoreless game and tried to engage Panetta in a fight after a collision near the South Carolina goal. Subban said Panetta responded by allegedly taunting him.

"As soon as I began to turn my back, he started making monkey gestures at me, so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is," Jordan Subban tweeted.

"When does it end" was the question Malcolm Subban tweeted Sunday.

When does it end 🤦🏾‍♂️✊🏾 https://t.co/N1W0FBaqUB

— Malcolm Subban (@Subbz3r0) January 23, 2022

Panetta, who played four years at Colgate University, was put on indefinite suspension by the ECHL and released by Jacksonville on Sunday. He later released videos on social media that said he was doing a "strong man" gesture that he has done before and had no intent of any racist act. Video of the incident also revealed racist language being used at Subban by fans in the stands. The entire incident came to light when New Jersey defenseman P.K. Subban began tweeting about it to his 1 million Twitter followers.

Sabres coach Don Granato said General Manager Kevyn Adams has spoken to Malcolm Subban, who is out for the season after surgery on his arm last week.

"I've obviously thought about him quite a bit and I will connect with him as soon as I can here," Granato said. "Kevyn reached out to him and had a good conversation with him. ... We haven't seen him because he's been out. But I'm looking forward to connecting with him and certainly hope he's doing well, both with the family and his surgery. It is sad and disturbing."

Sabres alternate captain Kyle Okposo, the first Black player to compete for the University of Minnesota hockey program, endured taunts during his youth days and said the incident disturbed him as well.

"I've been through that before and I've had that feeling and it's not a good one," Okposo said. "And I can understand the rage that he displayed after. It's something that cuts you to the core for sure. And it's a difficult thing that we're still dealing with things like this in our society in today's day and age in 2022."

Okposo went on to call social media "garbage" and said it plays a big factor in inflaming emotions.

"And I think that's part of this problem, that everybody is just kind of allowed to say whatever you want," Okposo said. "Violence and racist taunts perpetuate in that setting. And I think that we just need to start talking to people. I feel for him. It's very difficult to watch incidents like that unfold. As somebody that's gone through it myself, it's sad. It's really sad, and I hope that we can start to continue to move forward as a society."

Mittelstadt makes his return

Granato confirmed after practice Monday in LECOM HarborCenter that center Casey Mittelstadt and winger Zemgus Girgensons will return to the lineup for Tuesday's game in Ottawa that will open the second half of the Sabres' season. 

Mittelstadt has played only four games this year and has been out since Dec. 7 because of surgery for a lower-body injury. He centered Peyton Krebs and Anders Bjork on Monday. Alex Tuch missed practice for a maintenance day but will play. Kyle Okposo, who suffered upper-body injuries on hit last Tuesday in Ottawa, skated in a non-contact jersey and is likely to play on the team's Western road trip that begins Saturday at Colorado.

Okposo said the hit he took from Ottawa's Erik Brannstrom was the result of leaving himself vulnerable during a puck battle at center ice and didn't think it was a dirty play. Okposo said it was bizarre to see the Sabres get the tiebreaking goal in their 3-1 win from Mark Jankowski in the wake of the scrum that followed.

"The whole thing was weird. The whole game was weird," he said. "Nobody in the stands, like it kind of goes back to last year. And then that play happened and the teammates jump in there and they don't blow the whistle and the refs are screaming at us and then all of a sudden 'Janko' is celebrating ... just kind of a crazy, crazy play."

On to the second half

The Sabres went 13-21-7 in the first half, on only a 66-point pace for the season largely because of a rash of close losses and blown leads (NHL highs of 14 one-goal losses and eight defeats when ahead after two periods). 

"I want to see us get as healthy as we can," Okposo said. "I don't think that we've played a game with a full lineup other than the first half of the first game (prior to Mittelstadt's injury in the season opener against Montreal). That's No. 1. It's just going to be nice to get Casey back. He adds a lot to our group and just the dynamic of the room."

"It's a good sign that we're always in the game," said winger Jeff Skinner, who has a team-high 16 goals. "It's kind of a theme that we've got to find a way to close out some of those games. And then there have been some good games for us where we have closed things out, so we just have to keep building."