When Hamilton Bulldogs coach Guy Boucher is trying to decide who he's going to put on the ice in a shootout situation, he has one overriding consideration. And, perhaps surprisingly, it's not who is the best shooter, or skater or who can deke the best. It's attitude.

"Most of the players glue their ass to the bench and won't even make eye contact with me. That's because they just don't want to be out there in that situation," says Boucher. "You want to have players out there who want to be out there."

And that explains why P.K. Subban and Shawn Belle, both defenceman, have figured prominently in Bulldogs shootout wins recently. Both players are two-for-three in shootouts since Boucher started using them. Subban, in fact, scored the winner with a barely describable move Saturday in the Dogs' 3-2 victory.

"I want to be out there with the puck on my stick and the game on the line," says Subban. "It doesn't matter that I'm a defenceman. At the end of the day, we're all hockey players. And besides some of the best guys in shootouts in the NHL are defencemen."

Subban says he knew he would be good in the breakaway situation but didn't ask the coach to put him in there even though early in the year the Dogs were losing in shootouts.

What Subban didn't know was that he had a champion in Bulldogs assistant coach Martin Raymond.

"Marty kept telling me to try Subban and I kept saying 'No, he'd be too fancy,' " said Boucher. "I should have listened to him earlier. If I had, we might have won a couple of those games we lost."

While Subban had been reluctant to sing "Put me in coach" to Boucher, Belle had no such reservation.

The difference was that he had a pedigree in shootouts despite being a defenceman. In previous seasons with other teams, he was 10 for 12.

"I went to him and said 'Give me a shot at it. If I miss, you'll never have to put me in again,' " said Belle. That was in a game in Chicago in late January and Belle scored the winner in the shootout.

"I think one of the reasons that defencemen are good at shootouts is that we don't get a lot of breakaways and, because of that, the goaltenders don't know what we're going to do."

The Bulldogs have won their past two games in shootouts to stretch their winning streak to eight games, just one shy of their franchise record. They could tie that record with a victory tonight at home against the Toronto Marlies.

The Dogs have called up forward Maxime Lacroix from Cincinnati of the ECHL because of injuries to both Max Pacioretty (shoulder, two weeks) and Greg Stewart (back, day-to-day).

The Hershey Bears have become the first team in the AHL to clinch a playoff berth. The Bulldogs, in all likelihood, will be the second.

The Dogs' magic number to clinch a spot in the post-season is five. Any combination of points gained by the Bulldogs or lost by the Lake Erie Monsters totalling five guarantees Hamilton a spot in the playoffs.

gMcKay@thespec.com

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