Before he would become universally known as Sudsie, before he excelled as a college and a professional goaltender, before he became a sought-after coach and mentor, Sudarshan Maharaj tried to make sense of what he was seeing outside his family’s living room window.
He was 8 years old at the time, as he recalled, newly relocated with his family to the Toronto suburbs from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Kids were in the street playing a game that was as unfamiliar to him as the snow and body-piercing wind of a Canadian winter.
One or two of the children noticed Maharaj watching and someone knocked on the front door.
“Hey, want to come out and play?”
He did and the rest is history.
Except there’s a good deal more to Maharaj’s story than his introduction to hockey and his long and compelling journey toward becoming the Ducks’ goaltending coach. For starters, it wasn’t at all like a Disney movie filled with apple-cheeked youngsters on skates.
Maharaj and his family arrived amid a great wave of immigration to Canada in the 1970s. They looked different and sounded different and then there was that name. Tough to pronounce, eh?
It was difficult to blend in. Hockey eased the transition, but it was not always a smooth one.
It wasn’t only the winters that could be cold and uninviting.
As a goalie, he enjoyed a degree of anonymity while on the ice, his face shielded by his mask. No one could see him. As long as the game was underway, he was just another kid on the team trying to help his teammates win the game. The mask had to come off at some point, though.
Unkind words were spoken.
“You were reminded you were different in the schoolyard, on the subway, on the rink,” said Maharaj, in his fifth season as the Ducks’ goaltending coach after joining the organization in 2013-14 to tutor their minor-league goalies, after eight seasons with the New York Islanders.
“Interestingly enough, as a goaltender wearing a mask, the full shield, you weren’t as noticeable. But you saw the name. Coming into the rink or going out, you got to be known. No question, that’s the beauty of sports in a lot of ways, that element of camaraderie. It’s not forced but reinforced.”
Friends and teammates called him Suds at first and then Sudsie because it’s hockey and everyone’s name invariably has the y-sound affixed to it. In addition to hockey, Maharaj played box lacrosse and grew to be friends with future NHL player and executive Brendan Shanahan.
Maharaj studied at York University in Toronto. He was a good collegiate goalie, but not good enough for the NHL. He spent six seasons playing professionally in Sweden and running into some of the same issues he endured as a youngster in Canada, only more frightening.
Sweden had an influx of immigrants at the time and there was a backlash.
“It very much mirrored my experience in Canada,” he said.
In one harrowing episode, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at his car after a game.
The experience didn’t sour Maharaj. He retains fond memories of Sweden. He learned the language, adapted to another new culture in another new country. It didn’t make him bitter, but it prepared him in many ways for what was to come when he joined the Ducks.
Back in Toronto, Maharaj got a teaching job, working with at-risk teenagers. He coached goalies in his spare time. Eventually, after getting a rousing endorsement from Rick DiPietro, the Islanders hired him to tutor DiPietro and their other goalies.
“I finished my degree and then became the goalie coach at York University,” Maharaj said. “I was a schoolteacher and I coached goalies on the side. Kevin Weekes, Ray Emery, Rick DiPietro, there were a bunch of NHL guys. I was hired by the Islanders because of my contact with DiPietro.”
The Ducks hired Maharaj in 2013-14, and he went right to work with John Gibson and Frederik Andersen in Virginia with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL. Gibson was the Ducks’ second-round pick in 2011 and Andersen was their third-round selection in 2012.
“We’ve worked together for eight years now, since my first year in Norfolk, and we have a pretty good connection,” Gibson said. “You know what’s expected. You know the on-ice drills. You know what you need to do. We’re on the same page most of the time. It makes the process so much easier.
“As a goalie coach, he’s great, but it’s the friendship we’ve built that makes it so special. He came to my wedding.”
Gibson emerged as the Ducks’ No. 1 goalie and Andersen was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs after the 2015-16 season. Gibson on Monday became the fourth goalie in Ducks history to play his 300th game with the club, following J-S Giguere (447), Guy Hebert (441) and Jonas Hiller (326).
Maharaj felt at home with the Ducks, and not only because Gibson was such a good student.
“We have so many Swedes in Anaheim,” Maharaj said, referring to Hampus Lindholm, Rickard Rakell, Jakob Silfverberg and Jacob Larsson. “Instead of speaking English with me, they like to speak to me in Swedish. It’s fun to practice the language. I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, but …”
Maharaj’s home is in Toronto, though, where he lives with his wife, Yvonne, and their two daughters.
Usually, in non-COVID-19 seasons, he spends several weeks at a time with the Ducks, and is there for all of their training camp, working with not only with Gibson and Ryan Miller, but with prospects such as Lukas Dostal, 20, the starter for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls.
“He’s not only just a coach, he’s a great mentor,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “I know he’s involved with the guys’ families. There’s quite a connection there. Sudsie is excellent at his job, but more importantly he really cares about those guys and their families.
“It’s just his demeanor. He’s a real person. If there’s a room full of people, Sudsie walks in and starts up a conversation immediately. He enjoys people. He’s such a people person. He’s unbelievably positive. He’s everything you want in a friend and he’s everything you want in a mentor.”
Naturally, Maharaj is an ally for all of his goalies, but there’s more to it. He’s a teacher, of course, but he’s also an advocate, someone who believes “Hockey Is For Everyone” is more than just a catchy slogan generated by a public relations firm in Toronto or New York.
“Full credit to the teams that drop off used equipment, but then what?” he asked. “It costs a lot more than running shoes or soccer cleats and shorts. There are expectations. Private coaches. Summer camps. Travel tournaments. You can’t just buy a stick for $29.95 anymore.”
Hockey is expensive, and it’s limiting who can play, and that could hurt down the road.
“Who knows where the next (Wayne) Gretzky could come from?” he asked. “If you want hockey to continue to grow and bloom, you have to be as inclusive as possible. If you look at the demographics of North America, it’s changing. You can rail against it or you can embrace it.
“But it’s happening.”
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