Subban Snubbed: Columbus We Have A Problem

Nick Foligno, Justin Faulk, Mark Giordano, Erik Johnson, Brent Burns, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Patrik Elias. These guys are all headed to Columbus for the 2015 all-star game…

…and they are all going without P.K. Subban.

In what universe or context are they or many of the others invited more of an all-star than P.K. Subban? Being snubbed in favor of comparable afterthoughts is simply unacceptable on the part of league and ownership selection of the weekend’s participants. This is the very same bunch that decided that players such as these were more deserving than Pavel Datsyuk of all people or that Roberto Luongo was a more deserving selection than Henrik Lundqvist or Jonathan Quick.

How in the world these selections could be made or justified is astounding. These people are not only doing this as a paid, full time job but they continue to make decisions such as these without being deemed some kind of mental liability. It cannot be documented enough that P.K. Subban was born, built and bred for a scenario like this. It’s one thing to be handed misinterpreted and undeserved reputations from ignorant fans, it’s another to get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield from the referees and another once again to leave the 2013 Norris Trophy winner and highest paid defenceman in the league out of its very own showcase of what is supposed to be the most prime talent it has to offer.

However, this problem extends far beyond that of just one weekend. This is exactly what separates the National Hockey League from major sports leagues that have drawn greater profits.

While football, baseball and basketball continue to build their entities around their franchise players it is only a claim that hockey does so. What hockey continues to do in every apparent case is showcase the ones that they identify as their ultimate team player. Hockey’s “stars” are oftentimes boring by many comparisons and continue to fit this ideology that “hockey culture” dictates the game and how a team rises and falls. That is completely bogus. All that this has done is kept things safe and sound, much like sitting on a two goal lead late in the game; the leading party will win but not in the most spectacular fashion possible.

The real problem is that in situations –much like this one– hockey has failed to showcase the kind of superstars that it had never attracted before because they never allowed their entities to be classified in such a way while football, baseball and basketball are long since ahead of the curve. It can all be summarized in one simple word.

Gunslingers.

The fans pay their money to show up and watch their team express their identity and utilize exactly that in hopes of attaining victory. The most pronounced expression of exactly that comes from a small handful of guys or even just one in particular. These guys are the ones that can break a game wide open because they have the ability to take over the game as soon as they can create their opening. These are the talents that throw everything aside because they have long since calculated exactly what it takes to get the job done; they have done it before and they will do it again.

Furthermore, unlike the more profitable leagues in North America, the N.H.L. continues to stifle individuality and creativity as well as anything else that might set a particular someone apart and lead to profitable endeavors for all. Unity amongst teammates is a tremendous thing and should not be forgotten but this is a league that has opted to showcase a significantly bland, boring product in many regards around the season as well as during a recreational break for the cream of the crop to showcase the abilities that set them apart from those not selected to partake.

P.K. Subban does many things that even some of the guys that are within some realm of his level or another either are unable to do or simply choose not to because they lack confidence in either their ability to do so or their willingness to put said abilities on display. Maybe they are the ones that bought the most stock into the bogus narrative that they have been sold over the course of their lives. It’s a pathetic mindset from a small minded collection of suits that are more interested in keeping major league levels of hockey in Florida, Carolina and other essentially non-existent markets than they are in doing what is truly best and legitimately profitable not only for the game but for themselves as well. These people might see that if they could remove their suspiciously intent stares from the part of the map where Las Vegas would happen to be located.

This problem is not just one that brings conflict to P.K. Subban but it is one that stares him most directly in his multi-million dollar face; a personality that fans can either identify with or aspire to one day be. Profitability in sports comes from the ability to capture imaginations and to showcase seemingly ordinary people doing extraordinary things. The fans (that all important source of income for any and all things sports related) have never once shown up saying “I hope our generic captain says and does whatever is deemed acceptable and can provide a bland excuse in case our team loses tonight.” The fans show up to basketball games to see Tim Duncan pull down a rebound and dunk the ball or to see Steph Curry be an offensive magician just like they go to football games to see Peyton Manning complete passes or Richard Sherman intercept those passes and return them for touchdowns or why they go to baseball games to see Yoenis Cespedes hit home runs or Cole Hamels throw strikeouts.

Maybe the eyes of those in the horrendous markets would be caught if this league and this game were not only allowed to produce a player like P.K. Subban but also to stop hindering him and to let him shine by playing his natural game; a message applicable to his coach and the entire league alike. Omitting Subban from a weekend’s worth of festivities may or may not seem like a semi-trivial protest that will be forgotten by the time he is hopefully included next year but it is a microcosm of the biggest problem in the National Hockey League in their failure to truly allow Subban to be hockey’s first real gunslinger.

The growth of this league and all that is within its confines has taken a long road to a short solution. It is time to stop buying into the crap that has been enforced by those long since irrelevant to the game and start making real progress. The first step can only be taken by one man but he has to be given the opportunity to take it.

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