In a clip from ESPN sports talkshow Get Up that went viral last week, former National Hockey League player PK Subban weighed in on the differences between the culture in the NHL and NBA. Usually, comparing the two is a game of numbers: revenue, viewers, salaries, that kind of thing. But over the past 10 days, passion has emerged as a differentiator. “You can step on to an NBA floor and go through the motions,” Subban said on ESPN. “You can’t do that in hockey – you can’t. Like, the culture of our sport, you have to play it with passion. You have to be willing to fight. You have to be willing to leave it on the ice. That’s what fans are investing in.”
That investment has paid off most recently with the 4 Nations Face-off tournament, which wrapped up on Thursday night in Boston. The thrilling final between Canada and the US was a rematch of last Saturday’s marquee round-robin clash, a contest marked by three fights in the opening nine seconds. The rest of the game was pretty good, too, ending with a US win. On Thursday, the tables turned. It was Canada that scored first – again – and last. Canada won the game narrowly 3-2, after the US left Connor McDavid, the best player on the planet, open in the slot in sudden-death overtime. He made no mistake.
Yet, at the same time, hockey is one of Canada’s most effective tools of soft power. It would be overstating it to say that the x-factor Subban was talking about – that thing that most agree after watching the 4 Nations Face-off seems to be missing from other North American sports cultures – is Canadians (after all, there are Canadian teams in the NBA, MLB and MLS). But it would not be wrong to suggest that what all those other leagues might lack is Canadian-ness. The tenacity and drive to compete against all odds – to literally fight when called to. This thing that hockey has and others don’t could only have come from up here, somewhere along this northern territory. Trump can try to co-opt hockey into his skewed vision of America, but the reality is that no matter where you’re from, when you step on to the ice, something about you will always be Canadian.
I watched the game and the back and forth between the commentators was ... tense. After the win though, Subban having had enough, "...and I'm sorry your country lost" was epic.