He wasn't better than Josi defensively for me.
Re: Your last paragraph. Excellent points. It is weird. For people that really know the score, "weird" should be one of the bigger red flags that you have...because "weird" means that something doesn't look right or match up. It's important to pursue that weirdness because most things in this arena aren't just random chance.
This is Subban doing a skating drill. On its surface, it looks good or great or whatever...but in there lies the problem that you hinted at.
This is an athletic player, who relies on athleticism to cover his deficiencies. At the top end, in his prime, he was unreal as a puck carrier and a shoot-to-score point man. He deserved a better fate in 2011 all by himself, in fact.
But here's the trick, and here's why it fell apart so quickly...whereas other athletic players could hang on longer (Subban was toast at 29 or 30, while someone like, say, Keith Yandle made it a few seasons longer)...his athleticism was ALSO flawed. So the mental game and all that, PLUS the technicals of athleticism are poor.
The skating drill...what you see there is a lot of steps, a lot of fast steps, in a very short amount of time...why would someone rush through an exercise? Same reason why we might rush through a pull up or even a simple motion like a bicep curl...to gloss over bad form. Does anyone here do a bicep curl 3 seconds on the up, and 3 seconds on the negative/down? Hell, I know how it's supposed to be done and still probably only go 1 up and 2, 2.5 seconds down because I don't have the patience or the discipline. But bottom line, we're doing it to get through it and we're doing it to gloss over bad form. Most of the time, amateur gym-goers, like myself, would rather do a 40 pound bicep curl wrong than do a 25 pound bicep curl right. That's the nature of being a man that isn't on a principled path.
Same thing with Subban here...he's rushing through this drill because he's actually not that great at it. Not that he's a bad skater, that's not what's being said...but the technique, and therefore the scalability and longevity of the skill is weak.
The folks that know me here know that there are certain goalies and players that I don't care for because I don't like how they go about their business. And to some it's, "ah, who cares...he stopped the puck, that's his job, take it at face value..." but here's why I don't do that.
Subban went from Norris finalist to liability in, what, 2? 3 seasons? in his late 20's...the circumstances changed and he couldn't keep up. Because within technique comes adaptability. It allows you to be good anywhere. That's why Martin Brodeur could play through three distinctly different eras and still be great. It wasn't because of Stevens, it was with Stevens. It was with Stevens, because it wasn't because of Paul Martin.
Anywho, before I get too far off the track...Subban in the clip above (ya know, 19 paragraphs ago when I introduced it) is putting in so much work for so little outcome, relatively speaking. The strides aren't powerful because the technique is bad. The weight placement (and he's playing at 6'0", 210 or so I think) is on the heel and on the middle of the blade. It's not on the toe, the ankle flexion isn't there, the upper body is fighting against the lower body movement because he's not able to get off of his "center line" to create these explosive movements. From shoulder to toe, it's so much work -- extra work, extra work takes a toll...it comes at a cost.
If you're leaning off your center line, if you're making shoulder/stick-led turns, if you're driving through your toes and you have ankle flexion (don't tape your ankles kids), you don't have to make so many strides...you don't have to work so hard.
Back to the game: So when you pivot and turn with your attacker, you're used to being a better athlete and having more pop to your stride, more explosion. But the second he fell out of his athletic prime...no pop. So his brain goes, "how the hell am I still all the way back here?" and then it's what you mentioned - hanging on to guys, trailing behind, water-skiing.
And just like that, he's out of a job...
