P.K. Subban, Ron MacLean and hockey's culture wars

The keening for P.K. Subban can still be heard across the Island of Montreal, even now, almost 36 hours after The Trade.

Montreal hockey fans are struggling through the various stages of grief at the departureof the beloved defenceman.

• P.K. Subban trade is a knife to the heart of Habs fans

But the city's angst maybe heightened by the sense that Subban wasn't simply traded to Nashville for another defenceman,Shea Weberhe was a casualty of the ongoing culture war in the NHL.

The notion of a culture war is popular among American historians for describing clashes between progressive and conservative intellectuals. It isa "war for the soul of America," to borrow the title of a recent book.

Hockey's culture war is no different:It, too, is a battle between progressive and conservative forces.

It, too, is for the soul of the game.

It seems appropriate, on Canada Day,to take stock of the recent battles in this war that will decide the future ofournational pastime.

• Why P.K. Subban became one of Montreal's most beloved adopted sons

Subban vs.Therrien

In hockey's culture wars, Subban represents team progress. He is urban, the son of immigrant parents and black all demographic categories underrepresented in the world of hockey.

• P.K. Subban trade hits Montreal's black community hard

But more than the census categories that Subban checks off, his style of play is so outofstepwith what's been prized in the so-called dead-puck era.

Subban plays the game with creativity. Along with the likes of Erik Karlsson, hehas helped redefine the traditional role of the NHL defenceman.

• Erik Karlsson reaches several exclusive NHL marks

Dynamic, involved in the offence, with explosive speed andstickhandling skills that rival those of the most deft centreman:the stay-at-home defenceman, so prized in days of yore, Subbanis not.

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien is unquestionably on team conservative.

Therrien is known for his defence-oriented system. He discourages his players from taking risks. And he infuriates the advanced-stats crowd for coaching decisions that defy the logic embedded intheir numbers.

Instead of deploying players by virtue of what they contribute to a team's Corsi rating, Therrien prizes those traditional, less quantitativequalities of "grit" and "character."

The Canadiens were long the pioneers of progressive hockey, with the likes of Maurice Richard, JeanBeliveau and GuyLafleur.

The Habs didn't just winthey won with style.

In trading Subban, they appear to have moved squarely into the conservative camp.

Of skinny suits and dad jokes

The Subban-Weber trade is not the only front on which hockey's culture war is being waged.

Its fault lines surfaced most recently when George Stroumboulopoulos, him of the skinny suit, was replaced by Ron MacLean, master of the dadjoke, as host of Hockey Night in Canada.

Reaction to the move servedas a Rorschachtest for affiliations in the culture war.

• Ron MacLean: Why Hockey Night in Canada's comeback kid can't fix everything

Those applauding MacLean's return likely describe themselves as "hard-core" hockey fansand resented the attempt to give hockey a hip-looking frontman.

Well-known liberal sports columnist Keith Olbermann, on the other hand,has spent recent days on Twitter alternating between withering critiques of Donald Trump and the decision to fire Stroumboulopoulos.

Cheri Bradish,a professor of sports marketing at Toronto'sRyerson University who also does some work with Rogers and Sportsnet, described the controversy over the HNIC host spot as reflective of hockey's"identity crisis in this country."

If hockey is in a state of crisis, the question is whether its future lies in a return to its "roots,"epitomized by the toothless, lunch-pail grinders lauded by MacLean's sidekick, Don Cherry.

Or does hockeyneedto branch outand do more to reflect the country's multicultural mosaic?

More than a game

Regardless of how it's played, hockey is still justa game.

The outcome of its culture war will not determine access to abortion, or the scope of free speech, or any of the other weighty issues meted out in the actual cultural war south of the border.

But that doesn't mean the issues at stake in hockey's culture war aren't important.

Ultimately, what we're talking about is whether the image of the national game should reflect the diversity of the country.

We're wondering if individuality and creativity can be reconciled within a team, within a community.

Today seems as good a day as any to ask these questions. The soul of the country might just dependon it.