By Pat Hickey - The Montreal Gazette

If you think P.K. Subban's game has changed from last season, you're right.

And the young defenceman and head coach Jacques Martin are delighted with the change.

There are fewer end-to-end rushes and you won't see Subban trying to elude the forecheck with a spin move. And Subban is committed to being a defenceman.

"For my team, you look at the amount of minutes I'm playing, they don't need me rushing the puck every shift or extending my shifts or leading the cycle in the offensive zone," Subban said. "The offence will come. I know I can jump in the rush and create more, but it's picking your spots."

Subban's progress can be measured with statistics. Last season, he had a minus-8 rating. This season, he's plus-4 and he and partner Josh Gorges have been charged with playing against the opposition's top line. Going into Tuesday night's home game against the New York Islanders (7: 30 p.m., TSN-A, RDS, TSN Radio-990), Subban averages a team-high 24 minutes a game, while Gorges is close behind at 22: 31.

"I'm happy to hear it," Martin said with a smile when told that Subban was putting defence first.

"It's something that people don't see," Martin said. "I mentioned numerous times last season that P.K. had a good second half of the year and it wasn't because of his points. It was more of his commitment to playing well away from the puck.

"If you look at his combination with Josh Gorges, they've been one of the better pairs in the National Hockey League as a shutdown pair. At times, he'll make a crucial mistake and show a lack of maturity and you get upset. But I appreciate the way he's committed to playing 5-on-5 and working at improving his game. He's been much better when you look at the last stretch of games than the early part."

Subban agreed.

"I try not to make the same mistakes," he said. "I try to evaluate my game every 10 games. I remember the first 10 games, I made a lot of the same mistakes I made last year. Whether it was a lack of focus or coming out of training camp and not having participated in camp that much. But the 10 games after that, I changed my game completely. It was a 360-degree turnaround and it's been good since then."

Subban, 22, said he has benefitted from his experience.

"Playing against the first line isn't the easiest thing," he said.

"They're going to score goals on you," Subban said. "But with a couple of more games under your belt, you gain maturity (and) you get an idea how certain players play. When you play against (Ilya) Kovalchuk, you find out what his tendencies are. Last year, I kind of got thrown into the fire and the next thing you know, (Sidney) Crosby is doing spinaramas against you.

"Me and Josh have looked at videos on players and that's why we've been successful this year."

As for offence, Subban said: "You want to contribute but you have to put the team first. You want to do more and I know I can help the team offensively, but those opportunities will come. Right now, the team needs me to play solid defence because I'm capable of doing that. I like that. I like being solid in the (defensive) zone and having the coach throw me over the boards every shift. The coach has faith in me and that's more important than scoring two goals in a 6-2 loss."

It's not that Subban has been a total bust on offence. He has one goal and 10 assists in 30 games; in the same period last season, he had two goals and nine assists.

His numbers picked up after James Wisniewski joined the team after Christmas. He scored seven of his 12 post-Christmas goals on the power play and there's a good chance of a similar uptick following the acquisition of Tomas Kaberle.

Martin said the addition of Kaberle shouldn't affect the ice time for his No. 1 pair and that's good news for Subban, who thrives on a heavy workload.

"The more minutes, the better I play," he said. "I find you're into the game more. You're not worried about when your next shift is going to be, you know you're going to be out there. I find I keep the game a lot simpler when I'm playing more minutes. When you play less, you have a lot more energy and you want to do more."

notes - Travis Moen took a therapy day Monday but will face the Islanders. Scott Gomez is practising with a do-not-touch-me jersey, while Brian Gionta is out with a lower-body injury and won't play this week.