"I guess I've been singing for a pretty long time just for fun, just around the house and stuff," Subban said. "It puts me in a good mood. I always just love to sing... I didn't think it was going to happen, I didn't know. But, honestly, it wouldn't have been able to happen without the encouragement of my teammates and staff and stuff. So, yeah, they made that happen."
His teammates were amazed.
"It was unreal," Sabres forward Jeff Skinner said. "Obviously that's a lot of pressure. I think it would have been for me. So that was fun to see him. Obviously everyone was happy for him and excited. I was nervous, but he crushed it."
"We hear him sing in the locker room, so we've been pushing for that for a long time," Sabres forward Tage Thompson said. "I know he was pretty nervous but that hyped everybody up for the game. I know the crowd loved it and the guy killed it. He's got some good pipes."
Subban was so nervous, there was talk he would pre-record the performance, but decided to go for it.
"So originally that was the plan because I didn't think I could do it live," Subban said. "And then just the encouragement from everyone, the staff and the players, I made the decision to try it out at around 2:30 yesterday and it went well, so I decided to do it at the game. But even before that, I had a little voice note on my phone, and it was just like, 'Oh say.' You know, just that? I played it and then when the Canadian anthem was going on I literally like, 'Oh say, oh say, oh say,' trying to keep, you know, like the right thing. But it was a good experience, though, for sure."
"At first I heard he was going to record it so I was pretty impressed when he stepped up and did it live," Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt said. "I don't have the balls to do that so that was extremely impressive. ... He's good. I did not expect that. I was really impressed. Obviously it takes some courage to stand up in front of that many people and sing."
"He crushed it and that was awesome," Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. "I loved it. It was great for him. He's outgoing once you get to know him, but he's a little shy and timid at first so I was a little surprised that he actually got out there and did it, especially live. I thought it (would be) recorded and it came out live and it was great. It gave us a lot of energy.
"It was awesome. I was so nervous before. Like, I couldn't even eat lunch. Oh yeah, I was so nervous. But just hearing (the crowd cheer), it made it all worth it, for sure," Subban said.
- NHL.com Independent Correspondent Heather Engel contributed to this report.
