In Nashville, Subban's Legacy Lives On Through Blueline Buddies Program

July 18, 2016 began the same as most Mondays do at the Metro Nashville Police Department's East Precinct - that is, until a new face walked through the door with a special delivery.

P.K. Subban, having arrived in his new city just 24 hours earlier - and less than three weeks after a blockbuster trade between the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens - had a car full of Amerigo's and wanted to introduce himself to the Music City's finest with a hot meal.

There were no cameras, no members of the media and no fanfare - just P.K. doing what he does best.

20-year Metro Police veteran Mike Fisher - no, not that Mike Fisher - recalls the day vividly.

"We were all just blown away that this guy just pops in," Fisher said. "He told us growing up that he had a close childhood friend whose father was a police officer. And so he was just talking with us about his interaction with law enforcement from being a kid all the way up to then and how he wanted to get plugged in [to the community]."

The following summer, Subban would find a way to plug in permanently.

As nationwide debates surrounding racial injustice permeated into the sports world, the Nashville Predators leadership group - Subban among them - called a meeting.

"We were just talking in general - if a player wants to do this, how will we support them, or if a player doesn't want to do that, how do we support them?" Predators President & CEO Sean Henry said. "We're a team and we wanted to make sure that everyone could individually voice their views on certain things in their own way."

With a simple question, Subban flipped the script entirely.

"P.K. kind of stopped the room and said, 'Let's actually look at what people are upset about. How do we bridge that?'" Henry said. "I get chills thinking about it. He was the first person that wasn't talking about how he was going to show support or anger or displeasure. [He said] that there's a problem we're all angry about, no matter what side of it you're on. So, let's stop figuring out what side you're on and let's figure out how to solve the issue."

The solution was Blueline Buddies.

Elegant in its simplicity, yet powerful in its impact, Blueline Buddies connected a local child from an underprivileged neighborhood and a Metro Police officer for a night of good food and even better hockey.

"When your team wins, you're hugging strangers and high-fiving people," Henry said. "You're not thinking about where they live, where they're from, what they do for a living or what they look like… and if you eat a meal with someone, more often than not, you're going to walk away friends."

When the groups arrived at Bridgestone Arena before the game, Subban was there waiting to roll out the welcome wagon. And after the game - win or lose - Subban stuck around to answer questions, sign souvenirs and even share a laugh.

One participant included a certain community outreach sergeant Subban met on his second day in Nashville.

"We're always looking for better ways of how we can positively interact with the communities that we work with," Fisher said. "When P.K. pitched this, of course the department readily jumped at it because it was just one more way we could get out there and have positive interactions with folks and get to know people and have people get to know us as normal people and not just the police."

Fisher participated in his first Blueline Buddies night in 2018, though after witnessing Subban's genuine commitment to bettering young lives, returned to the program several more times.

"It was fun to watch," Fisher said. "You'd see these kids kind of turn around and look at their parent or their mentor, having this reaction like, 'Wow, he's actually talking to me and really taking the time to make it a personal interaction.'... Kids still see the world with so much more magic and wonder than we do when we get older. Here I am as an adult and I've just been bowled over by it every time that I've gotten to participate - I can only imagine that for kids, and through the way kids see the world, that it's got to be just off the charts."

In June 2019 as Subban was traded to the New Jersey Devils, the future of the program in Nashville became uncertain.

"When we traded for P.K he had just made a huge commitment to the children's hospital in Montreal," Henry said. "Someone asked him if he was still going to do that. He said, 'Of course,' almost like, how is that even a question? So when he was traded to New Jersey, we reached out to thank him for the great years and ask him if we could keep doing [Blueline Buddies]. And again, his answer was just, 'Of course you can, and I'm honored that you're going to.'"

Blueline Buddies has not only continued in Nashville - now funded by the team with a rotating cast of players volunteering in the defenseman's place - but picked up right where it left off in Subban's new city.

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived at the tail end of Subban's first season in New Jersey, effectively shutting off any in-person interaction between the League's players and fans, the defenseman pivoted quickly to not only keep his program running but adapt it to meet the crisis at hand.

"P.K. and the Devils decided for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 season that postponing the Blueline Buddies program, with no fan access at the arena, was not an option," Devils Senior Vice President of Communications & Team Operations Pete Albietz wrote. "Rather, Subban, began to explore ways to make sure these connections were still being made, particularly in a time of great need."

Like so many of us did during the pandemic, Subban took his program virtual and expanded his pre-game meetups from groups of four to 10, inviting Newark's brave frontline workers to participate as well.

While the Devils hope to continue Subban's program following his retirement from the NHL, back in Nashville the Predators are working to introduce the program to professional sports teams across the country.

After all, as Subban returns to Nashville for a special in-game celebration on Monday, he'll be returning to a city undeniably made better by his presence.

"I look at problems differently now because of that meeting [in 2017]," Henry said. "Take a step back, don't answer every question and kind of flip it over. That's exactly what P.K. did. And the beneficiaries of it are hundreds and hundreds of kids who have a better relationship with police officers, and hundreds of police officers who now have a better relationship with kids that they might not have otherwise.

It takes a little bit of time, a little bit of investment. The hardest part is finding that special person to ignite it. Fortunately, that special person created it."